Piano Video Lesson: What Is the Most Important Finger in Piano Playing?

You're watching LivingPianos.com and I'm Robert Estrin with what is the most important finger for playing the piano.

Of course all of your fingers are important and they each play a vital role. Imagine playing the piano with less than 10 fingers, it would be really hard. It's hard enough with all 10 fingers. But there's one finger that really is pivotal for playing the piano.

Not only that, but it is arguably the most important finger that you have for everything and that is the thumb. Now why are the thumbs so important? Well, being able to grasp objects naturally, the thumb because it's opposing the other fingers is incredibly important and it's in no small part how civilization developed because of being able to utilize tools and the control the thumb gives you. Now in piano playing there are actually three aspects that make the thumb really vitally important.

Number one, the thumb is your strongest finger. It absolutely is. You've got some strength, the third finger is pretty darn strong but not like the thumb because the thumb instead of having three bones it only has two bones and it has its own unique set of tendons and muscles that is unique in the hand. So how does this impact piano playing? Well, in a number of ways. First of all when playing scales or any kind of passages, arpeggios, up and down the piano, because the thumb has the flexibility of being able to oppose the other fingers, you can use the thumb to cross.

It can go under the hand, so make crossing over.

So that is one aspect for scales as well.

Imagine trying to do scales without the thumb.

It's really hard because crossing over fingers without using the thumb is awkward. You can bend your hand and... which by the way sometimes you have to do that when you have counterpoint, when you have a note down here and other notes that are being played on top, if the thumb is already engaged playing a note, it's necessary so you know how difficult that can be.

The other aspect of the thumb aside from the way it opposes the other fingers to facilitate crossing to be able to play up and down the piano with scales, arpeggios and other types of broken chords and patterns is the fact that when you're playing octaves and other larger intervals, of course it would be, unless you have very large hands, you probably can't play an octave with your other fingers, but even if you had yet another finger much like your other fingers instead of unique finger that the thumb is, just imagine trying to get the control and the power. The thumb, it's the magic of the arch because you can get the power of the arch of the whole hand with the thumb and if you take a look at what happens when you're playing octaves...

it's that power of the arch that gives the control with playing octaves as well as chords.

Being able to get the balance that you want, you have the rocking of the hand from the left side of the hand to the right side of the hand, you can get a certain amount of that with your other fingers, but because the thumb is a unique musculature, it enables you to really get the control. So when you're playing octaves, for example, you can get the balance you want by how much you have the weight of the hand on the right side or the left side because of the power of this arch, that's what enables rapid, powerful octaves. That would be impossible even if you did have another finger.

So that's really the power of the thumb. The fact that it's your strongest finger, the fact that because it's opposable, you can cross it and easily get fluidity in scales or peggios and other passages that go up and down the keyboard.

And lastly, the power of the arch for octaves and chords, giving you control and speed because of the power of the thumb and the fact that the power of the arch gives you that control in octave work.

I'm interested in all your comments here at livingpianos.com, your online piano store with lots of videos. You know, if you haven't subscribed yet, this is a great time to do so. This thumbs up, ring the bell and you'll get notifications of future videos. Lots of really interesting videos coming your way. Thanks again. I'm Robert Estrin. This is livingpianos.com.

Thanks for watching.

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