Last Updated on September 12, 2021 by Rebecca
5-finger, fixed-position methods seem to be all the rage these days when it comes to teaching and learning piano. And I'm just not a fan!
I'll be honest. When I first started teaching piano, I thought 5-finger position methods were great.
Students just plop their hands into position on the piano, and then all the notes they need are right under their fingers. Since they get loads of reinforcement to help them really master those notes, students are able to get really confident with those notes, without having to stress about anything else, like moving their hands around, or dealing with extra notes.
It seems like such a simple and effective teaching and learning strategy!
But let's fast-forward a few years.
In 2019, I started working to prepare for some advanced piano examinations with the Royal Conservatory of Music, so I could upgrade my skills and become a better teacher for my students (and for my online audience!).
It didn't take me long to realize I had issues with my technique. My hands were too small to do the things I needed them to do, and I was experiencing a lot of pain while playing.
(Which isn't surprising, given that as a teenager I was “too cool” to learn how to finesse my technique. I quite simply didn't care back then, and now that mistake was coming back to haunt me!)
So I started taking piano lessons myself, with a teacher who has even more training and experience than I do. It didn't take long for me to learn some really significant tweaks to improve my technique, and also to learn the pedagogy behind these tweaks so I could pass the same benefits along to my students.
And I want to pass these benefits along to you too!
In a nutshell, what I learned is that 5-finger position methods are definitely not all they're cracked up to be.
With some modifications to incorporate better technique (the way we move our bodies when we play), 5-finger position methods can still be useful tools in helping students learn piano. But without these modifications, 5-finger position methods lead to a lot of serious problems for beginning piano learners.
Which makes them very problematic for independent learners who are using them without the guidance of a teacher.
I do still use 5-finger methods with my young students because I haven't found an alternative that I'm happy with, but I'm much more careful to modify how I use them.
Now, let's dive into the reasons I've learned not to love 5-finger fixed positions in my piano teaching.
1. Fixed-position learning breeds anxiety.
I remember being really puzzled the first few months after I joined some Facebook piano groups.
I kept seeing people asking “Where do I put my hands?” and I was so confused. What do you mean where do you put your hands? You put your hands where the notes are!
I slowly realized these people thought there was a “correct” position where you were supposed to keep your hands at all times. Which was just so weird to me. I was so surprised to discover people were thinking this way.
Eventually, I realized this mindset was created (or at least encouraged) by 5-finger, fixed-position methods.
An unfortunate side-effect of fixed position methods is that beginners end up believing that every piece of music has a particular “place” where you're supposed to put your hands.
And that's just not how “real” music works!
But more on that farther down this post, in item #3. Right now I want to talk about something much worse.
Because these beginner methods teach learners to simply place their fingers in a designated place and use only those notes (or very nearby notes)…learners get stuck.
Imagine it… you spend months (maybe even a year or more?) working through a few method books. You start to play more and more difficult pieces. But you never have to move your hands around the keys, you always just play the keys that are under your fingers.
Now all of a sudden you try to learn a piece of music that does require you to leave your fixed position and move your hands around the keyboard.
How are you going to feel?
Maybe you feel uncomfortable, because this is something you've never done before.
Maybe you feel nervous, and this nervousness manifests as physical tension in your muscles, which leads to pain while playing.
Maybe you start to feel inadequate because you thought you were pretty good at piano, but now all of a sudden you can't seem to play a piece that seems relatively simple, just because you've never learned how to move your hands out of position before.
Whatever the case, you end up hitting a wall. And it can feel like after all your hard work, you're suddenly right back at square one.
Clueless and discouraged.
All of this sounds really unpleasant, if you ask me.
And the thing is, it's an easily avoidable issue! If you start from day one in an approach to learning that doesn't allow you to get stuck in any fixed position in the first place, then you'll never have to deal with this struggle at all!
2. 5-finger positions encourage poor technique.
Confession: I used to be really scared of big jumps on the piano.
As recently as 2019, I was watching a video of a pianist playing some stride piano (where the left hand has large leaps bigger than an octave), and I thought to myself, “Oh man, that looks so hard!”
And my problem was my technique!
This used to be my technique for big leaps:
- Stretch my fingers as wide as possible to make the leap smaller.
- Get super tense and anxious (not on purpose!).
- Whip my hand sideways in a horizontal motion as quickly as humanly possible and pray to God my finger lands in the right place for the next note.
Needless to say, this was terrible technique. No wonder I thought big leaps were hard!
First of all, stretching your fingers as wide as possible is a terrible idea!
Try it right now. Stretch your fingers as wide as you can and hold this position for about 10 seconds. You'll instantly feel tension in your hands, and as you mentally scan your muscles over the next several seconds, you'll notice tension in your wrists, forearms, upper arms, shoulders, and maybe even your neck and jaw.
How long could you hold this position before it became downright painful?
Now imagine trying to play piano like this! Doesn't that just sound like a nightmare?
Secondly, add extra tension just from being mentally anxious about the leap.
And thirdly (as if things aren't bad enough already), the whole strategy of whipping your hand across the keys in a flat horizontal line is actually a terrible strategy that doesn't allow for very good accuracy, and it definitely doesn't enable you to control the quality of the sound you'll produce when you land on your next note.
Clearly, my whole strategy for big leaps was terribly misguided and I was just setting myself up for failure.
Now, I'm really not quite sure when, where, or how I developed this strategy for big leaps. But here's what I do know:
- My first method book, way back when I was just 6 years old, was a 5-finger position book.
- Young children's hands are so small, they have to stretch their fingers wide just to be able to reach 5 adjacent keys on the piano. This encourages the “stretch your fingers to reach notes” mentality (which remember, is bad because it causes tension).
- 5-finger position methods gradually add “nearby” notes in addition to the 5 notes under your fingers. This encourages the “reach with your fingers” mentality (also bad, because it leads to tension).
- 5-finger positions often incorporate awkward fingering patterns, simply for the purpose of avoiding re-positioning your hands. This encourages awkward ways of playing.
- 5-finger position methods don't expose beginners to large leaps. This robs students of the opportunity to learn how to play large leaps properly.
- 5-finger position methods don't emphasize effective non-legato technique. This prevents students from developing the much healthier habits of releasing tension and arching up and over to get to distant notes.
- Now that I've learned effective non-legato and how to teach it to my students, I play big leaps much more effectively, accurately, and confidently, without any fear, tension, or anxiety.
As you can see, there is just so much potential for 5-finger position methods to lead you down a path to poor technique.
As an adult learner, your hands are probably big enough to reach 5 adjacent piano keys without stretching, but all the other issues listed above are as relevant for adult learners as they are for young learners!
3. Music written in 5-finger positions is unnatural.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, “real” music doesn't fit into a nice, tidy, little box that fits perfectly under 5 fingers.
The piano has 88 keys for a reason! Music is meant to flow freely around as many keys as it wants.
Yes, it's true that you can create a lot of music within simple 5-finger positions. But if you restrict yourself to only music that can be created using simple 5-finger positions, you're really limiting yourself as a musician.
Not only will you run into the issues mentioned earlier in this article (limited technical abilities, penchant toward awkward fingering patterns, feelings of anxiety and inadequacy), but you'll also limit your musical ear.
As you learn to play piano music, you ear is also developing a sense for what types of sounds can be created in music. Your ear starts to learn typical ways that musical lines are shaped.
And if you only ever play 5-finger position music, your ear will only learn to understand musical sounds, harmonies, and melodic shapes that happen to fit into a 5-finger position.
You might be surprised how much this matters! As musicians, our ears guide us a lot more than you might realize.
With familiar pieces, our auditory skills helps us instinctively understand which direction and how far to move to find our next note.
And our auditory skills help us with unfamiliar pieces as well! As we develop our auditory skills, we learn to anticipate which direction a piece of music is likely to move, when phrases are likely to close, how the musical story is likely to unfold, etc. And we even develop the ability to hear a piece of music in our heads just from looking at the sheet music.
The only way to develop your auditory skills is to play music. A lot. So if you don't want your auditory skills to be limited to a tiny range of notes, you need to play more than a tiny range of notes.
There is a better way!
When I developed my piano teaching book for adult learners (Learn to Read Your Own Music Book 1) I wanted to make sure I created a book that would help you develop a strong foundation for all your future piano learning.
I wanted to make sure I avoided all the above-mentioned pitfalls of 5-finger learning.
So I designed Learn to Read Your Own Music Books 1 with a focus on effective non-legato, and without anything that would encourage stretching or reaching with your fingers.
I also used an intervallic approach centered around a combination of just 3 guide notes and 3 intervals. Believe it or not, this actually allows you to explore the full range of the grand staff, without having to memorize each individual note. Which means you get more freedom to explore, all with less overwhelm!
Related Posts:
- Learn to Read Music: How the Music Staff Works
- Rhythm for Beginners: 8 Basic Rhythms You Must Master in 4/4 Time
- Time Signatures and Meter: A Beginner's Guide
- Learn to Read Music: Introduction to Guide Notes Level 1