- Jack Mitchell Smith
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
Even if they’re not your first notes, it’s worth taking some time every now and then to take a step back and remember how to play properly using your hand.
Many beginners start by ‘stabbing’ the keys or ‘punching’ them - like buttons - rather than trusting in the natural weight of their fingers and wrists. This is a normal fault of beginners, but one that often goes untreated and becomes habitual. Needless to say, when more movement is required of the fingers and / or hands, it becomes more of a struggle for the performer as they may have promoted stiffness or tension - neither of which should be present.
So let’s sit ourselves at the piano.
Make sure you are sitting directly in front of Middle C (read here if you can’t remember where that is) and make sure both feet are flat on the floor if possible.
Now let’s get to playing our first notes on piano.
Take finger 1 of the right hand (the thumb - read here for a refresher of finger numbers) and lay it on middle C.
Now, lay each finger on the next white note up:
C = 1
D = 2
E = 3
F = 4
G = 5
We’re almost ready!
But first, we need to check on something very important:
Hand Position
Take a look at these pictures and decide for yourself which is correct:
The correct answer is Picture 2!
In Picture 1, our flat fingers would be weak and unable to press consistently. We want to encourage our fingertips to be gracing the keys, which is far more doable in Picture 2.
If you are struggling with the shape, just imagine yourself holding a tennis ball and transfer that down onto the keys. A fun one for the younger learner is to pretend to be a predator and shape your hands into claws! Be careful though! We want to avoid tension, so once they have the shape ensure they relax it out without losing the curve.
Another key difference in Picture 2 is that the wrist is above the keyboard. This is extremely important as it much more easily promotes the curvature of the hand, but also allows the fingers to ‘fall’ much more freely!
Compare the difference from above:
In Picture 1, the fingers are of uneven length. By curving the fingers - as in Picture 2 - we can create a more even length, which means that the ‘status’ of each finger is of similar strength. This means that there will be much less strain in working between notes - white or black - as we play.
Playing Your First Notes On Piano
Now let’s play!
Starting from finger 1 (the thumb), play C 3 times.
Don’t stab. Don’t press hard. Allow the key to do more of the work than you!
Now work up the fingers like this.
When you have done this, play each note in succession, starting with C:
C - D - E - F - G
And then work back down:
F - E - D - C.
Each note should sound roughly even in its dynamic (volume) because you should be playing each note with more or less the same velocity. This should be fairly easy to achieve thanks to the curving of the fingers equalising their strengths.
Now let’s do the same in the left hand!
Do this an octave lower, but remember now our fingers are in reverse!
So lay finger 5 on the C, finger 4 on the D etc.
And repeat.
If you wish, you can try doing it hands together as well.
As an interesting point, it’s worth noting that the left hand is often the weaker hand. For this reason, it often gets neglected. Try to remember to not only do exercises in the left hand - but also to double up what you do. For example, if you did the above exercise four times in the right hand, do it eight times in the left hand to keep it agile and strong!
Well done - keep practising this until you feel you have mastered the touch of the piano!
Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Congleton, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.
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