Guides › Piano Finger Numbers and Hand Position: A Beginner’s Guide
In beginner sheet music, you’ve probably seen small numbers above or below the notes. They aren’t notes or beats: they’re finger numbers. They tell you which finger to use, which is called fingering.
It may seem like a detail, but it’s one of the first things to get right. Good fingering makes a melody flow, keeps you from “running out of fingers” in the middle of a phrase, and keeps your hand relaxed. Here are the numbers, the right hand and body position, and exercises to start using them right away.
On the piano, every finger has a number, and it’s the same on both hands: the thumb is always 1, the pinky always 5. Because your hands are mirror images, their numbers run in opposite directions on the keyboard. When a melody goes up, the right hand plays 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… and the left hand 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Coming from guitar? Careful: on guitar, the fretting fingers are numbered starting from the index finger. On piano, the thumb counts, and it’s number 1. (Some very old British editions used “English fingering”, with the thumb marked + and the fingers 1 to 4; you won’t find it in modern music.)
Tip: A little game, away from the piano: rest your hands on a table and lift the finger whose number you say. Then ask someone to call out numbers, and do it with your eyes closed, one hand, then the other.
Hand position starts… with your body. A good setup spares you fatigue and pain, and makes everything easier. Check these points at the start of every session:
Tip: A seat that’s too low or too high forces your wrists and shoulders to compensate, and tension builds up quickly. An adjustable bench or seat is really worth the investment.
A quick test: let your hand hang loosely at your side, completely relaxed, then rest it on your knee. It naturally takes a rounded shape, as if holding a ball. That’s the rounded hand (some teachers call it a dome or a bubble), the ideal shape for playing.
Place it on the keyboard just like that. Each finger plays on its tip, with short nails; the thumb plays on its side, near the corner of the nail. Your fingers stay curved: the joint nearest the fingertip shouldn’t “collapse” inward when you press the key.
Your wrist is flexible, roughly level with the keys: neither drooping nor raised. And to make a sound, you don’t need to strike: press the key all the way down, letting the weight of your arm flow into the finger, then release just enough for the key to come back up. To play softly, press it more slowly (lesson 6).
Tip: Playing the piano should never hurt. If you feel pain or tightness in your hand, wrist or forearm, stop, shake out your hands and start again more slowly. If the pain persists, see a health professional.
For your first melodies, each finger gets its own key and stays there: that’s a hand position (or five-finger position). The very first is C position, which you set up with the right hand in lesson 13 and with the left hand in lesson 16:
Tip: Since your hand doesn’t move, you can play without looking and focus on what you hear: that’s why many methods start this way. Next come other positions, like G position, and chords: C, E and G are played with fingers 1-3-5 in the right hand and 5-3-1 in the left (the C major chord).
Each finger should be able to play on its own, without dragging its neighbors along, and as loudly as the others. You build this gently, a few minutes a day, in C position:
Tip: Finger 4 is the hardest to lift on its own: it shares tendons with its neighbors. That’s normal, and it gets better with a little practice every day. Above all, don’t force it.
Five fingers for five notes is perfect for starting. But many melodies, and every scale, go further. There are three solutions, and the fingering written in the music tells you which one to use:
Tip: Choose a fingering once and for all. If you play a passage sometimes with finger 2 and sometimes with finger 3, your fingers can’t memorize it. Pencil it into the music, and stick with it.
When you teach yourself piano, nobody points out these little habits. Glance at your hands now and then, or record yourself:
Tip: Finger numbers are covered in Pianamo’s lesson 3, one of the first six lessons that open without an account. The method is free, with no subscription: a great way to build these good habits from the start.