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Lesson 1.1: Basic Principles of the Piano / Fingering and hand position

Now that you know the basic notes on the piano, the next most important thing to learn is the fingering and hand position for the piano.  The nice thing about playing the piano very early on is that you can technically play by fingering.  It's kind of like coloring by number.  It works for a time, but you are limited when you want to play some more difficult music.  For now, it's a good place to begin.  Hold up your hands and front of your face and mentally count your thumbs as 1, index fingers as 2, middle fingers as 3, ring fingers as 4 and pinkies as 5.  Look at the diagram below to see this visually. 

Now when you put your hand on the piano, visualize this:

That's right, a baby chicken. 

Now think of holding that baby chicken, and you should curve your hand in a relaxed manner with your wrist level with the piano keys.  Make your hand too flat, and you would crush the baby chicken.  Keep your hand and wrist raised too high and the chicken would fall on the floor.  Put your right hand on a flat surface and it may look something like this:





If it looks something like this, you are ready to move on to the next lesson in which you will learn your first song!