Piano Fingering for Efficiency: The Long and Short of It

                                                                                                                                                                      

My student complained of difficulty with a left-hand leap. There was indeed a leap from an octave to a first-inversion triad. On examination, though, we discovered that the difficulty was not so much the leap, but rather the choice of fingering.

    Because of his smallish hand, my student opted to place the fifth finger of his left hand on F-sharp and his third finger on A, making the chord feel smaller. This in and of itself is not necessarily inefficient, though it does feel a bit cramped. In the context of a leap, though, trying to land with the longer finger (3) in between those two black

mountains can be problematic. In addition, the shorter finger (5) when played on a short key (black), pulls the hand in toward the fallboard, an extra movement. I suggested playing the chord with 4-2 instead of 5-3. This puts two longer fingers of similar lengths on one black key and one white key, a more comfortable position. The second finger on a white key will be slightly curved in order to avoid going in among the black keys.  Using 3-2-1 on the chord can feel even better in a larger hand.  These fingerings also avoid the movement in the direction of "in." (BTW This is not too large a span for his hand.)

    With this adjustment of the fingering, the leap becomes a lateral movement and not a diagonal. I feel the fifth-finger D propel me to the chord rotationally. (See discussions of rotation apropos of leaps elsewhere in these pages.)