Why Piano Fingering Is Personal: Hand Size Changes Everything
The fingering in the book was written for someone else's hand. Here is why it has to be personal.
Open two editions of the same piece and the fingering will often disagree. That is not sloppiness — it is because there is no single correct fingering. It depends on your hand, your tempo, what you played before the bar, and what you are practising for. The biggest variable, and the one editions can never know, is the size of *your* hand.
Reach decides everything
Fingering is a chain of small physical choices, and every one of them starts with how far your hand can comfortably span:
So a fingering optimised for a 9th-reaching hand can be actively wrong for someone who comfortably reaches a 6th — even though both are playing the notes correctly.
Why the printed fingering often fights you
Editorial fingering is usually set by an editor with a large, trained hand, aiming at a concert tempo. If your hand is smaller, or you are learning the piece slowly, the "official" fingering can be the *hardest* option for you. That is why re-pencilling fingering is such a common — and tedious — part of learning a piece.
Personalised fingering, without the pencil
This is exactly why the Piano Fingering Generator asks your hand size first. Choose from XXS to XXL, and the suggestions change accordingly:
Change your mind and re-suggest at a different size, and the whole piece re-fingers in a second. Then you adjust any note by hand — because the physical part a computer can do, but judging what *feels* right stays with you.
How to find your size
Sit at the piano, relax your hand, and see the widest interval you can play cleanly between thumb and little finger without tension:
Pick that size in the tool and the fingering starts from *your* reach, not a stranger's.
Related
Get a fingering that fits your hand with the free Piano Fingering Generator.
Ready to start playing?
Put it into practice with thousands of color-coded, slow-down-able songs, free in your browser.