What is Fingering?
{{nosources|date=July 2010}} {{about|the musical term|its sexual use|Fingering (sexual act)}} '''Fingering''' means: choosing which [[finger]] to use for each [[note (music)|note]] when playing a [[piece]] on a [[musical instrument]]. When learning to play a piece it is important to try to find a good fingering. Once a good fingering has been found it should always be used so that the piece is always played in the same way and the fingers learn “where to go”. Sometimes [[sheet music|printed music]] has some fingering printed above the notes. This can be helpful to the player, but it is not always necessary to use the printed fingering. People’s hands are different and a fingering that is good for one player may not be good for another. ==Fingering on keyboard instruments== When playing [[keyboard instruments]] the fingers are numbered from 1 to 5 on each hand: the [[thumb]] is 1, the index finger is 2, the middle finger is 3, the ring finger is 4 and the little finger is 5. The fingers were not always numbered like that. In [[Britain]] in the [[19th century]] the thumb was shown by a cross (+) and the fingers were numbered from 1 to 4. This was known as “English fingering” while the other way (from 1 to 5) was known as “[[Continent]]al fingering”. However, from the beginning of the [[20th century]] the British used the normal 1 to 5 (Continental) fingering. Ideas about fingering have changed during the [[history]] of music. In the [[Baroque music|Baroque]] times ([[17th century|17th]] and early [[18th century|18th centuries]]) [[French people|French]] [[composer]]s writing for the [[harpsichord]] often fingered [[Scale (music)|scale]] passages 2 3 2 3 etc. so that the notes were grouped ([[slur|slurred)]] in twos. Later this idea went out of fashion. In the early 19th century [[Carl Czerny]] wrote lots of [[étude|studies]] for [[piano]] which helped to exercise all the fingers equally. This is how we learn to play the piano today. Fingering for the [[Organ (music)|organ]] is similar to fingering