fingering (of kbd. instr.). Since the end of the 18th cent., this has been standardized on something like modern principles. Before this period there was a good deal of passing of the 3 middle fingers over one another and comparatively little use of the thumb and little finger; this was partly due to the fall of the keys being much shallower than with modern instr. The pf. killed finger-crossing, since it demanded an actual blow (properly a blow by pressure—one sufficient to throw the hammer at the strings, yet so exactly controlled as to throw it with either the greater force required by a fortissimo or the lesser required by a pianissimo).

Clementi firmly est. the modern principles of fingering: his use of the thumb was the same as ours, except that he did not use it on the black keys, as is sometimes done today. These modern principles incl. the division of a scale into 2 groups of 3 and 4 notes respectively, with the thumb as the pivot between them, the playing of arpeggio passages on the basis of the octave, some adaptation of fingering to the hand of the individual player, the planning of the fingering of a passage by working backwards from the point at which it is ultimately to arrive, and the division of such a passage into ‘physical groups’ as units, each of these being considered as a chord.

Organ fingering follows much the same principles as pf. fingering but, as the nature of the instr. generally calls for a perfect legato, more substitution of finger is required, a key often being depressed by one finger and then held by another, so freeing the first for use on another key.

See also English fingering.

fin·ger·ing / ˈfingəring/ • n. a manner or technique of using the fingers, esp. to play a musical instrument: keyboard fingering. ∎  an indication of this in a musical score.

fingering kind of knitting wool. XVII. Earliest forms fingram, -rum, -rine; poss. alt. of OF. fin grain ‘fine grain’.