To use first 3 fingers or work on strengthening fourth and fifth.

[jdam01]

Hi all,

I am working on learning La migliavacca. In the second part, I noticed that many players don't play this part with the third on C# and fourth on E. Is it best to learn it using your whole hand or fourth and fifth?

 

[Ric46]

Walter, if you don't know him, is very famous in Italy among LISCIO enthusiasts and is considered one of the best accordionists in his genre. As for your question, I am sorry but I cannot answer it

 

[murathan]

Especially 5th finger is anatomically weak. Generally we avoid 5 if possible on speedy moves. You probably cant avoid 5 in this piece. So it doesnt matter. What matters is not to change your fingering after you learned the song. Because that may cause mistakes while you play, especially to an audience.

 

[colinm]

Start using the 4th and 5th , then they will get stronger.

 

[JeffJetton]

To me, those are two separate questions.

1) Should you play that particular piece using just your first three fingers? Maybe. I'm not familiar enough with that one to say, but if it works for you, go for it. It's certainly a valid approach (I believe jazz pianist Art Tatum would only use those fingers for a lot of his blisteringly-fast runs, for example.)

2) Should you strengthen your 4th and 5th fingers? Yes. Regardless of what you do in this piece, having reliable agility in those fingers is just useful overall if you don't have it already. Hanon exercises are a common way to work on this (although they have their detractors too, so YMMV). While they were originally for piano, there are many accordion adaptations by various people you can find. Or just play the right-hand parts of the original version, adjusting here and there to suit the range of your instrument.

 

[JerryPH]

1. If you have 5 healthy fingers, you should have 5 fingers available, that means in exercises use and force all fingers to be approximately equal in speed and strength. 5 is inherently slower, I used to make it a point to work 4th and 5th fingers harder so that they are as close to each other as possible.

2. The song and it's fingering will decide if you need to use a specific finger for that instance.