Chord Fingering
Found in: Accompaniment, Curriculum, Musicality, Pedaling, Technique
Marsha L, Virginia
What about fingering for chords? Sometimes my new students want to play the basic chords with 1, 2, and 5 instead of 1, 3, and 5. I have been trying to get them to do 1, 3, and 5… But maybe it doesn’t matter.
Ian M., Indiana
Marsha, one chord that comes in fairly early in some arrangements is an add9 chord, which is played with 1235. So it makes sense for students to have a familiarity with playing the major chord shapes with 135 so that they can just drop F2 into that. I guess I wouldn’t outright forbid them to use alternate fingerings for chords, as long as it’s not creating a difficulty for something yet to come.
Marsha L, Virginia
I knew there was some reason I wanted them to play 1-3-5, but I couldn’t think of a good way to explain to them why it mattered. I rarely forbid anything, but I like to encourage to do things a certain way if there is a benefit to it. 🙂
Original discussion started April 11, 2019
