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First Piano Warm-ups/ Finger Exercise

ByVictoria

First piano finger exercises

Before we start, RH means right hand. LH means left hand. Your fingers are numbered starting at the thumb. So, thumb is 1, index finger is 2, middle finger is 3 and so on. There is an accompanying video for this to be found here.

First 4 are suitable for many children, the later ones might be more challenging for them.

You need to know where all the white notes on the piano are to do these warm-ups. Hopefully they are useful if you’re just starting to learn to play piano, or if you have a little who is, or perhaps teachers may want to use these with beginners if you don’t already. Do let me know if you have any more really simple ones to add to the list too!

  1. Five finger exercises: Put your RH thumb on middle C, play all your fingers in turn on the white keys going up to G and back again. Keep it smooth but release the key you have just played as you move to the next one. LH does the same going down from middle C to the F below. You can do this exercise in different positions of course. Get someone to shout a random note to start on perhaps.
  2. See-saw exercise: Keep your hand in a five-finger position still. Lets use RH thumb on middle C again to start with and you will play two notes in a see-saw action, nice and even: C, D, C, D, C (Fingers 1 and 2). Then the next pair: D, E, D, E, D (fingers 2 and 3) etc. LH does the same thing but starts with C and B, then B and A etc.
  3. Intervals exercise: Again let’s use a 5-finger middle C position. But this can be done with different starting notes. You begin with C alone, then C and D together (finger 1 and 2) then C and E, C and F, C and G. So, you have gradually increased the interval (gap) between the two notes you are playing. Now decrease it again: C and F, C and E, C and D, then finish with C alone again. LH can do a mirror image again.
  4. Broken chords: Lets use a C chord which is a C, E and G played together. But as we are playing broken chords, we split them up and play C, E, G, E and repeat several times. If we did this with a G chord we would play G, B, D, B.  When playing them with RH use fingers 1, 3, 5, 3. With LH use 5, 3, 1, 3.
  5. C major scale: The first scale to learn is usually C. It is all the notes from one C to the next C up. This is called one octave. Because we don’t have enough fingers for that we use the following pattern for RH, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 4 5 then reverse this to come back down. When the thumb is used for the second time on the F it goes under the hand. On the way back down, the middle finger comes over the hand when it plays the E.  LH can do a mirror image starting on middle C and going down then back up.
  6. Arpeggios: Similar to broken chords, but extending the hand more. Using a C chord again, a one octave arpeggio is C, E, G then the C an octave above, then back down through G, E and C  – use RH fingers 1, 2, 3, 5 3, 2, 1.  LH uses fingers 5, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 5. Try arpeggios on G and F chords and any others you know.
  7. Consecutive thirds: Use that familiar C position again. RH first: Play C and E simultaneously with finger 1 and 3, then D and F with 2 and 4, then E and G with 3 and 5. LH mirror it from middle C.  

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