BUILDING BLOCK NO. 5: UNDERSTANDING OF BASIC FINGERING PRINCIPLES
Personally, I think it is easier to teach fingering to students who have never played the piano before. It is usually the self-taught players and those who quit after a year or two of childhood lessons who have the hardest time breaking their old habits. Because they don't apply basic fingering principles, these students' performances of reading-oriented piano requirements are often weaker than those of the total beginners.
Fingering becomes more of an issue when the repertoire and reading examples starts to move out of five finger positions. At this stage I remind the class of two important principles usually adhered to by publishers of educational piano music:
As each new fingering issue occurs in the text I discuss its implications and make sure students circle important finger numbers on their music. I also have them write in the name of the fingering principle being used so they will begin developing a vocabulary with which to discuss elements of a piano score.
The "Stop Routine"
A teaching strategy I use in dealing with fingering and topography issues as well as certain practice steps is something I call the "stop routine." If a new repertoire piece or reading example has something that needs special attention, I tell the class that we will be doing the stop routine as we read through it, which means "pay attention or you'll miss something." (In a lab situation its sometimes hard to prevent the quicker students from ignoring you because they assume everything is easy, but I try to establish early on that when it comes to the stop routine, I expect everyone in the class to listen carefully and follow my instructions.)
Basically, the stop routine goes something like this: after any necessary preparatory steps, we begin to play. When we arrive at the spot right before the "complication" I say "Stop." The students freeze in position while we discuss what's happening in the score and what they will have to do. I give them a moment to explore the fingering issue and find the next note and then I'll say something like, "OK, have we all got finger 2 on that B-flat?" If enough heads nod, I'll give a "Ready, Go" and we continue playing. We will repeat this process for each issue that comes up as we work our way through the music. Sometimes I'll tell the students to play a shift or a crossover 5 or 10 times while we are in "stop mode" so they will remember it when practicing on their own.
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