Posted by Leland on March 09, 2004 at 23:54:51:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Playing trebble cleff posted by C(G) on March 09, 2004 at 12:03:32:
The way I see it, "learning fingerings" is merely a step towards reading the music directly. The bonus for me was that I could reasonably play the music and hear the pitches more easily, which (hopefully) helped reinforce the dot-to-button relationship that I was learning.
Pianists occasionally have fingerings anyway, even printed that way from the publisher. Of course, with ten fingers (or twenty, as I felt like I had) and 88 keys, it helps to have the suggestion now & then for the proper finger setup to start a passage.
I think that learning fingerings and learning to read the dots are kinda the same thing, and they kinda aren't. When it all clicks for me, I'm no longer doing either one -- I'm "reading sounds", in a sense. My piano training was recent enough that I remember moments where the dots on the page went right through me and out the keyboard's speakers without me having to figure out what key to press with which finger.
Then, because I get distracted and go, "...whoa, that was cool..", in the next bar I screw up the flow and have to go, "pinky on C, ring... no, middle finger on E.... crud..."