Fingering and chords

[Incognito21]

I was reading T-Block's thread on chords, and the fingering part got my attention; I lack dexterity in my right hand so doing a chord using 1-3-5 is almost impossible to have it right on the first try for me. I was wondering if these are the only way we should play them

[berbie]

I learned to play on my own, so I don't play chords exactly like the books say they should be played.  By the time I read about the proper way, I had already started playing them in what I considered was the most comfortable configuration for me. There's probably good reason why they suggest certain fingering in tutorials.  The advantages of proper fingering would likely aid your progress on the bottom line if you hang in there.  But in answer to your question, some use fingering that's comfortable for them. You even see it on instructional videos by various artists. However, that procedure can be good, or very bad.  It's hard to change after you start one way we all know.

[T-Block]

I was reading T-Block's thread on chords, and the fingering part got my attention; I lack dexterity in my right hand so doing a chord using 1-3-5 is almost impossible to have it right on the first try for me. I was wondering if these are the only way we should play them

Hi there, I'm glad you viewed the music theory posts here on this site. To answer your question, you don't have to use those fingerings if you don't want to. I put them there as a guide to help a beginner learn to use all 5 fingers. I've run across a lot of musicians who tend to use the same 3 fingers for every chord and it seemed to hinder their speed of chording.

My fingering suggestions allows you to move from any chord to any chord. It's pretty much summed up like this:

- If the last note is a white note, play it with your pinky

- If the last note is a black note, play it with your 4th finger

Following those two guidelines will give you that "spider crawling" technique you may have seen or heard about. But ultimately, whatever fingering you choose to use is fine.

[Incognito21]

Thanks to both of you !

[organbeast1291]

i am fairly new to piano and found that on the organ you play a lot different then on the piano but i can't seem to move pass basic chords and would like some help

[lordluvr]

i am fairly new to piano and found that on the organ you play a lot different then on the piano but i can't seem to move pass basic chords and would like some help

Specifically, what type of help are you looking for?