FINGER OLYMPICS FOR THE PIANO
I’m a firm believer that kids need to experience fingering, the art of using the fingers as a group, in the abstract before they use it on a given song.
Children vary wildly, and although one six year-old may use his fingers as a group easily, another may need a lot of help. This is almost always due to the stage of development of the corpus callosum, the group of ganglia that link the two brain hemispheres.
Thus, if a child is at an earlier stage of brain development, even simple motions such as making the five fingers play, one at a time, in a row, seem almost unattainable at first.
If you say, “let‘s work on fingering,” you might get resistance. If you say, “let’s play FINGER OLYMPICS,” you’ll get a curious, enthusiastic contestant.
LEVEL ONE
Your first attempt should be to create games that involve the first three fingers of the right hand, thumb, index and middle finger.
Like the child’s game CAT’S CRADLE or any other childhood dexterity display, the child should play a game that organizes the first three fingers, as a place to start.
Try 1 2 3, 1 2 3 (piano by number) until the child has taken enough time to get their brain around this basic move.
Then move the three numbers to any three consecutive white keys, as long as they use the first three fingers in order.
Try going down: 3 2 1, 3 2 1. Then move that shape (three descending keys with the appropriate fingers) around the piano.
LEVEL TWO
Try playing four ascending keys in a row:
1234, 2345, 3456, etc.
Then try four descending keys, 4321, etc.
LEVEL THREE
Younger kids may not get this easily.
Turn the thumb under after the third finger:
123,456. (Yes, it's the beginnings of a piano scale, but don't tell them!)
This one takes some patience, and if you see that it is becoming a chore, stop and do something easier. This is a game, not a task. You are trying to stretch their minds just a little bit, not conquer fingering in a single day.
If you take the time to have the child experiment with fingering in the abstract sense, without reference to sheet music symbols or a specific song, you will notice a far faster start when you do actually get to fingering.
Kids love to wiggle their fingers, and there’s no reason a piano can’t be a grand finger wiggling machine.
By John Aschenbrenner Copyright 2010 Walden Pond Press All Rights Reserved
