5 Finger Repetition Exercise For Both Hands

This finger exercise for the beginning piano student strengthens and increases mobility of all the fingers, promotes finger independency,
relaxes inactive fingers.

This video shows a technique exercise for all fingers executed with both hands simultaneously.

What is this exercise for?

This is a great warm-up exercise that will

  • strengthen and increase mobility of all the fingers,
  • promote finger independency,
  • relax inactive fingers.

Practice Tip:

This exercise is most effective when each finger stays in contact with its respective key at all time. The goal is to learn to keep the non-playing fingers inactive. This does not mean, that they must be completely still. They may wiggle a little bit along side the active finger, and that’s ok, as long as the fingertip rests on the key.

5 Finger Exercise 1

This video shows a simple 5 finger exercise (one hand at a time)

C Major Scale

The C Major Scale

The C Major scale – a seven note scale – is also called the “white keys” scale. Many consider it the easiest scale because it does not involve any of the black keys. I will dispute this theory in an other article. Regardless, the C major scale is the first scale most beginning piano students learn.

The major scale consists of the seven pitches. After the seventh pitch the notes repeat in the octave.

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There are several challenges when playing the scale. One of it is that we have only 5 fingers. This means we have to use the same fingers several times over. This involves resetting the hand’s position as we move up and down the keyboard. To do this smoothly we use a technique commonly known as “under thump”. This technique takes extensive use of the thump, which can cause problems when not used in the correct manner.

Please note that the rotation of the wrist has been greatly exaggerated in the video for demonstration purposes, as sou can see when I play the scale at a faster pace.

Beginner Piano Warm Up Exercises

Here is a nice finger warm-up exercise that can be done with one hand or both hands simultaneously, as demonstrated in the video tutorial.

A few tips on how to do those exercises:

  • Practice slowly (much slower than I played it on the video!) and focuse on playing each note with the same strength. It’s not about speed, but precision instead!
  • Repeat each exercise from the video a few times in different tempi, before moving on to the next one.
  • Lift the active finger up a little before pressing the key down, while keeping the other fingers close to the keyboard. (Remember that this is an exercise! We don’t necessarily play like this. But by lifting the fingers from the key they gain strength and control.
  • Play each exercise by applying different dynamics (soft, medium, load). When playing soft, keep the active finger in contact with the key, meaning don’t lift the finger up before pressing the key.

Watch the video

5 Mistakes Beginning Piano Students Make

See also Learning Objectives from Week 1 + 2

5 Mistakes Beginning Piano Students Make

Mistake 1: Lifting several fingers when pressing one key

Playing the piano is all about playing economically Continue reading “5 Mistakes Beginning Piano Students Make”