Choosing the best fingering for a piece is one of the most important skills to develop when you’re learning the harp. 99% of the mistakes I see people make are the result of the fingering not being secure enough, so it’s a really vital thing to focus on when learning a tune.
When you look at a piece of harp sheet music, sometimes you will find fingering suggested by an editor or the composer. If you consult a different arrangement of the same work, often we discover the fingering is different. What does this tell us? There is no standardisation of fingering, no matter whether it is from the composer, an editor, or a teacher. The only correct fingering is the one that works for your hand. Fingering in any score is a suggestion only!
We all have different sizes of hands, and different relative finger strengths, so there is no ‘one size fits all’ fingering.
Having said that, it is vital to decide on a fingering and stick to it. Once a fingering has been chosen, practising always with that fingering means that after a while the series of finger movements will become automated and engrained in our muscle memory – we will not have to think about which finger goes where because when we master a new motor skill, we go from active effort (thinking and concentrating) to automatic ability.
If we haven’t taken the trouble to organise a good fingering or we practise with different fingerings each time, we make life so much more difficult for ourselves. Practice makes permanent, so whatever we engrave on our motor cortex is going to stick. This is why it is very difficult to correct embedded errors later – and this includes sloppy fingering.
One of the most common problems I see is students practice hands separately, and the fingering is great, and then when they put a piece hands together the fingering falls apart! This means that your muscle memory hasn’t kicked in enough yet, so keep it hands separate for longer! It’s human nature to want to rush ahead and get something together, but trust me – the more you consolidate one hand at a time, the better the final result will be!
Suggestions for choosing fingering
The following are some suggestions for choosing and embedding fingering:
Fingering in any score is a suggestion only. If it doesn’t work for you, try a different option (or ask for help e.g. in the harp chat facebook group).
When deciding a fingering you need to look at what comes before and after a note. Which direction have you come from, and where are you going?
99% of the time, we want to use the thumb on the highest note of a run. One way, therefore, to start fingering music, is to write in a 1 on the top note of each run.
It is vital to consider the eventual tempo, as well as the dynamic level, articulation, phrasing, shaping, timing and tone quality when working out a fingering (as much as is possible at the start). What works at a slow tempo may be very different at a high tempo!
For stretches of a fourth an under, we generally use fingers 1+2, for a fifth and sixth we use fingers 1+3, and for a seventh, octave and higher we use fingers 1+4.
If you have more than 4 notes in one direction: think about where to cross (or slide!). Choose the place that makes sense with the phrasing of the tune and balance number of cross overs/unders with which finger feels easiest for you to cross over/under.
Related to that, crosses will ALWAYS be the most risky places in a tune, so try and keep them to a minimum, and avoid crossing where there is a gap between notes - try and only cross on adjacent strings.
Check if a note pattern is repeated later in the piece. If so, try to make the two fingerings the same.
Avoid staying too long in one fixed position. Frequent changes in hand position keep the hand mobile, and thus free of tension.
Setting in advance and linking notes is important, but when you have a long note, come off the strings. This will help relieve tension and give a fuller sound.
Fingering that feels fine when playing each hand alone might not work so well when playing hands together. Try to organise the fingering with both hands together (after which you can practise hands separately).
As you start embedding the fingering during the process of practising, you might find you want to change some of it. Allow a small window of time to do this before settling on your final fingering.
Commit to the fingering you have chosen and it will soon reach the automatic stage.
If you’re struggling with a passage or keep making a mistake, the chances are that it’s fingering related, so stop and really look at if you’ve chosen the best option, or if something else might work better!