Piano Fingering For Beginner Jazz Standards

General Discussion
1

Hi,
It would be very helpful to have the finger numbers (fingering) indicated on the lead sheets. This is one of the things that beginners struggle with.

Thanks!
Frederick

2

Hi @frederick-campbell :wave:

Welcome to the PianoGroove community and thanks for this suggestion.

We don’t include the fingering on lead sheets, but we can add the fingering to some of our beginner PDF notation documents which I think would be useful for you.

Coincidentally, I have just finished notating some beginner PDF files - a handful are attached below - and I think it would be better to add the fingerings to these documents:

These PDFs have been added to the lessons in our “Lead Sheet Fundamentals Learning Path”. There are 27 of these beginner PDFs in total which cover the 9 jazz standards included in this learning path.

Each PDF covers an 8-bar section of the tune (A Section, B Section, etc…) to make them laser focused and easy-to-follow.

Please let me know what you think to adding the fingering to these documents.

Lead Sheets & Fingerings

On a related note, I don’t think I have ever seen a jazz lead sheet with fingerings.

This is because the fingering can change depending on how we play the melody (especially when adding ornamentations and embellishments) and perhaps more importantly, the type of chord voicings we play will often change the fingerings of the melody notes.

For this reason I wouldn’t recommend adding fingering numbers to a lead sheet, as the lead sheet layout is designed to be minimal in information so that it can be freely interpreted.

However, I do appreciate that it would be helpful to have the fingerings on the beginner documents above which cover 3-note spread voicings. We currently have these PDFs for the following tunes:

  • Moon River
  • Autumn Leaves
  • Fly Me To The Moon
  • My Foolish Heart
  • Misty
  • In A Sentimental Mood
  • Over The Rainbow
  • Tenderly
  • Body & Soul

Just to confirm, do you only want the right hand melody fingering? Or also the 2-handed fingering for the 3-note voicings section? I think we should do both.

For the triad and 7th chord sections I don’t think fingering is necessary as we would never use these root position voicings in performance - they are just included for education purposes to help students visualise the foundations of the harmony.

Cheers,
Hayden

3

Hi Hayden,
Thanks a lot for updating the lead sheets! Let’s try 2 or 3 lead sheets with the fingerings and see if it helps. Both hands.

Cheers,
Frederick

1 Like
4

Hi, I am completely in favor of adding the fingering to ALL the ones you listed. I am right now musing over the fingering for Moon River beginner lesson!

Thanks!

5

Hey @frederick-campbell and @nivaldofernandes

Rodger that - thanks for the feedback.

I will add the fingerings to these documents and re-upload them in this thread for your feedback.

To confirm, we will only do this for the 2-handed notation of spread voicings such as the below example for Moon River. I have added the fingerings in red:

Moon River - A Section with Fingerings
Moon River - A Section with Fingerings1678Ă—1094 71.1 KB

Please confirm you are both happy with this style of fingerings and I will do this for all 27 PDF files in the Lead Sheet Fundamentals Learning Path.

Cheers,
Hayden

6

Wonderful, Hayden. I am more than happy…this is a great reference for us beginners. I really appreciate your dedication!

7

Hi Hayden,

Yes, this would be of great help. Please add to all 27 PDF files.

Greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Frederick