Comments for Fingering- Moonlight Sonata

Fingering- Moonlight Sonata
by: Ido from www.piano-play-it.com

Hi Betsy,

You have some very good questions here,

As for the first question-
"Why the sheet music will say B sharp? Why doesn't it just say C?" ,
read the page about double sharp sign and you will understand the logic behind this.

Did you read it?

Good, let's go on?

Here, in the "Moonlight Sonata" the scale is C# minor.
The notes of this scale are:
C# D# E F# G# A B C#

Beethoven used the note B# instead of C, because he wanted to indicate the melodic movement from two different notes in the scale which are: B#, and C#.
It is unusual to use the same name for 2 different notes so he didn?t write C and C#.

(Hey, wait a minute?
B# doesn't belong to the C# minor scale.?

Well, yes it does. It belongs to the Harmonic minor scale, or the Melodic minor scale.)

Now, for your second query - the fingering issue:

Watch carefully David's tutorial of the "Moonlight Sonata" and you will see which fingers he used for each note.

When I work on a new piece with my students, I insist on the correct fingering. Usually good fingering will suit all students, but sometimes I need to make some changes especially for my students.

I think that you are doing the right thing-writing the fingers above the notes, even if you find it very tiring.
You gain three important things by that:
1.You don't loose the legato.
2.Your playing becomes more fluent.
3.After a good practice you will stop thinking about the notes you are playing, and you'd be able to concentrate on how to play in a musical manner, with dynamic changes, sensitivity, etc.

You were saying that your hand can only stretch about an octave. In the "Moonlight Sonata" there are some places which the right hand plays a little more that an octave.

I will have to see your hands before recommending what you should do. If you are young - don't worry; your hands will get bigger. If you are an adult, practicing can make your hands more flexible so they can stretch more. But - please, don't try to use extreme methods to stretch your fingers. You may damage your hand!

To help solve your difficulty I'd like to suggest you upload yourself playing the "Moonlight Sonata" to Youtube and send us a link. We can then give you some tips that may help you.

Keep on the good work,
Ido from www.piano-play-it.com.

moonlight sonata
by: betsy

Does anyone know why the sheet music will say B sharp? Why doesn't it just say C?
I am trying to figure out how to play this song with fingering that will not sound choppy, my hand can only stretch about an octave, so I am trying different fingerings to see what will work. I basically have to go through and write the fingers above the notes to keep a steady tempo. Otherwise, I have to pause to figure out what I'm doing. When you hear it, it sounds fairly simple. However, this song is very complex. Does anyone know if there is sheet music online with finger suggestions? Thanks for reading.

Check my Moonlight Tutorial
by: David from www.piano-play-it.com

Hi,

I added the moonlight tutorial recently so I think that by checking it you could really learn the correct fingerings for this piece.

It's in here... I hope it helps...

Click here to view the Moonlight Sonata Tutorial with a free piano sheet music.

Fingerings in Moonlight Sonata
by: David from www.piano-play-it.com

Hey Justin, Could you at least mention the bar numbers? Then I can point out how to play that bar?

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