Piano finger numbers

The same numbers in both hands

The thumbs are both 1, so the numbers run in opposite directions on the keyboard: up from the thumb in the right hand, down from it in the left. A run going up in the right hand is 1 2 3; the same notes in the left hand are 3 2 1. Saying the numbers aloud with your hands on the keys is the quickest way to learn them.

A five-finger position puts one finger over each of five keys next to each other. These are the first ones most beginners learn, and the ones the worksheet uses:

Where the numbers go on the page

On a piano score the right hand's numbers usually sit over its staff and the left hand's under its own, so each stays close to its hand's notes. Of the 7,294 numbers on the right hand's staff in the library, 7,037 (96 %) are printed above it; of the 4,077 on the left hand's, 3,356 (82 %) are below it, the rest between the staves.

The bars below are engraved from library pieces as their editions print them; the numbers each one is about are pencilled blue.

A chord gets a number for each of its notes, stacked in the same order as the notes, so the top number is the top note's finger. Not every note is numbered: an edition prints a number where the hand has to move or the choice isn't obvious, and in between the fingers follow on from the last number, one key each.

Moving the hand: thumb under and finger over

Five fingers cover five keys. To go further without a jump, the thumb tucks under the hand to the next key, and on the way back a finger crosses over the thumb. Scales are played this way, and editions print the numbers where it happens.

Changing finger on a held key

Two numbers joined on one note, such as 4–5, mean play the key with the first finger, then swap to the second while holding it down, so the hand is ready for what comes next without a break in the sound. It belongs to slow, joined-up playing, and it is the rarest of these in the library: 5 pieces print it.

Staying in one position

Much easy music keeps a hand in one five-finger position for a whole phrase. The edition then only needs a number or two: once one finger is on its key, the others are over theirs.

Whose fingering is it?

The numbers in the library are the ones in each score's source: the editor's or the arranger's choice, printed as they gave it. Clefsight doesn't change or check them. They are a good way that worked for someone, not the only one: hands differ, and a teacher may change a number to fit yours. Clefsight hears which key you play, not which finger, so a different fingering is never marked wrong.

Pieces with fingering printed

The 118 library pieces that print finger numbers, by level and easiest first, with how many numbers each prints. Every piece prints in any of its versions from its page, the numbers with it.