When playing the piano, are you required to play a certain fingering?

Question

When you play the violin, you are taught to use the first finger for this note, the second finger for this note. Do you need to use certain fingers for certain notes on the piano?

Answer 1

According to strict classical technique, yes. But generally speaking the further away from classical piano the more flexible the rule becomes. For example, one of the strictest rules in classical piano is to NEVER play a black note with a thumb. But in jazz and rock music you can often see musicians using thumbs on black notes; it is often a good way to tell if a pianist (or keyboard player) had classical training. But certainly for classical piano notes should be played with particular fingers. These are mostly dictated by the fingering used to play scales. The general rules for any pianist (any genre) are: no thumbs on black keys, and fingering according to the scales (keys) present in that piece. For playing chords a whole new issue arises; the size of the players hands! Some can stretch further and therefore can play individual notes within a chord with different fingers to those with smaller hands. This is of course considered ok in most genres including classical. One interesting technique which occurs (and is acceptable) in all genres is to play two adjacent notes with one finger, usually the thumb.

Answer 2

Not certain fingers for certain notes, but recommended fingers for particular notes in a given phrase. This, to keep the legato characteristic and because, with only five fingers per hand, one needs to tuck and/or substitute fingers, in order to achieve smooth phrasing.

Answer 3

In any given piece of music, there is an ideal fingering pattern to use, so that you can move your hand smoothly up and down the keyboard.

Answer 4

Yes.

Answer 5

yes and no........when you are a beginner they will tell you the basics.......and eventually when you become more expert you will get accustomed to how the numbers go.....
there are 88 keys remember?......got spread them all out!!
:)