Yikes, am definitely not going to change the fingering I've settled on! I tried playing with the thumb like you said, just got all twisted up and caused a traffic jam!

Now I am going to just try to let it settle into my fingers, not try to play especially fast, just play it for a week maybe before even trying to go anywhere with it.

By the way, has anyone ever made a point of not looking at their hands while playing?

I notice that if I'm trying to do something where I can't quite see, I actually often get better results if I close my eyes than if I try to look. (the is regarding non-piano stuff, but I thought it might apply)

I usually don't make an effort either to look or not look at my hands (preferring to do what comes naturally, which is often looking up at the music, down at the keys, and up again). With this section, I'm trying to make sure I don't look at my fingers as they are landing. I look where they are headed, and then either look back at the score or at my left hand or something. Maybe this will help to development tactile relationship with this section.

My piano teacher is traveling, so I have two weeks, am hoping to wrap this piece up and move on!

Thanks again everyone!

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
By the way, has anyone ever made a point of not looking at their hands while playing?

The opposite--I have to make a point of looking at my hands. Too much sight-reading. There are sections of music where I have had to train myself to look down and watch my hand land in the right spot. Then I have to train myself to find the spot in the music again after I've looked down. It's actually quite helpful to watch yourself sometimes!

i find 'spider crawling' from chord to notes to chords best teaches my hands the exact size of the interval i am 'jumping'.

Yep, I just can't do it quickly, and this song moves fast and doesn't need to be legato--so I'd be willing to be a little clunky and lift my hand rather than crawling. But that's just me and my not-so-hot technique.