Knowing how to choose the most efficient fingering is crucial to any organist. This skill is important because it makes a big difference both in practicing and performing. If you know how to play with good fingering, you will feel much more confident and your performance might sound effortless and efficient. In addition, the right fingering helps you to avoid mistakes and allows playing with precision and clarity. In this article, I will give you 3 tips which will help you to choose the most efficient fingering for Romantic and modern organ music.
Since the normal touch for Romantic and modern music is legato, every fingering technique is geared towards achieving the perfect legato. Differently from the piano where the legato can be achieved also by the means of the right pedal, the legato techniques that are used in organ playing are based on the fingering only.
1. Finger Crossing. This technique is primarily used for single voice passages. It helps to achieve legato where you play just a single voice in one hand. The most common manifestation of finger crossings is thumb-under technique. Here you put the thumb under other fingers in order to change positions and move upwards or downwards. You can also use finger crossing by putting the longer finger over the shorter one or the shorter finger under the longer one.
2. Scale Fingerings. Probably the easiest way to play the single voice episodes in organ music is by choosing fingerings which are based on scales. This also involves chromatic scales. Here the most important rule is to avoid using the thumb on the sharp keys because it gives unnecessary strain to the hand.
However, in real music we often have to play with the thumb on the sharp keys (especially in music with many accidentals). A very useful exercise not only for finger dexterity and independence but also for fingering patterns is practicing scales in all major and minor keys. This can be done either on the piano or the organ. If you practice scales regularly, with time these fingerings will become second nature to you and many places in your organ compositions which earlier appeared problematic because of the fingering will be straightforward enough.
3. Position Fingerings. When you write in fingerings, think about the position. How to play the most number of notes without leaving your current position? Put a thumb under only when is necessary to change position.
Try to write in your fingering in the organ pieces that you are playing, at least in the most difficult passages. This will help you to avoid accidental fingerings and play with precision and accuracy.
By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide "How to Master Any Organ Composition" http://www.organduo.lt/organ-tutorial.html in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
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