Right hand on C

Fingers are numbered 1 to 5 from the thumb. Put finger 1 on middle C and each finger gets its own key.

Why fingers have numbers

Piano music often prints small numbers above the notes. They tell you which finger to use, and they are called fingering. Good fingering lets your hand move as little as possible, so passages that look hard turn out to be comfortable. Both hands use the same numbers, counted from the thumb outward. That means the right thumb and the left thumb are both 1, even though they point in opposite directions on the keyboard.

Sitting at the piano

Sit on the front half of the bench, facing middle C, with your feet flat on the floor. Adjust the height or the distance until your forearms are roughly level with the keys and your elbows hang loosely a little in front of your body. If you are too close, your elbows get squeezed against your sides; too far away, and you have to reach. Relax your shoulders. Tension in the arm travels down into the fingers and makes even notes uneven.

C position

In C position the right thumb rests on middle C and the other four fingers fall on D, E, F and G, one white key each. Curve your fingers as if holding a small ball and play with the fingertips. Keep the wrist level with the keys, not drooping below them or arched high above. Each finger stays above its key, so you never need to look for the next note in this position. Many first pieces stay inside these five notes for exactly that reason.

Press each key straight down and let it come back up before you play it again. A key that is held down keeps its string sounding; once you let go, a felt damper falls onto the string and the sound stops. Try playing C and then lifting slowly: you will hear the note last exactly as long as your finger stays down.

Up and down

The first exercise walks up from C to G and back down, one finger at a time: 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1. Listen first, then play along. Keep a steady speed, even if it is slow.

Practise slowly enough that every note is right. Speed comes from repeating something correctly many times, not from rushing. If one finger is weaker than the others (the fourth finger usually is), play the warm-up a few extra times and listen for whether every note comes out equally loud.

Skipping keys

The second exercise skips every other key: C, E, G, then back. Fingers 1, 3 and 5 play, while 2 and 4 stay hovering above their keys. These three notes together make the C major chord, which you will hear in countless pieces.