Help for a learner pianist

[parrot of doom]

I'm self-teaching myself the piano, I've been at it for a year now and I'm improving all the time. Its just a hobby, so right now I can't be bothered with lessons.

I've been playing Fur Elise, and although I know the entire score, I struggle on one part - towards the end there is an upwards scale, the left hand plays a low A, the right hand then moves up through A, C, E, A C EdcbA C E etc, all the way up to top E, before tinkling right back down to start the familiar melody. Left hand is playing an A major chord at regular intervals.

I can play this bit reasonably ok, although not at normal speed.

My question is, can anybody help me with my fingering as I'm going up that scale? I tend to trip over myself going upwards only. Lets say my right thumb is 1, and little finger is 5?

[mr_tony]

Good work so far mate - however I would recommend getting a book of scales and practicing them hard. It's all about fingering - and the fingering you use for scales is that which one would usually use in any given piece - as such it you know your scales you find that your hand magically ends up in the right place and you don't 'run out' of fingers'...

Having said that after one year to play that section two handed from the original score (rather than some dodgy learner book) is a real feat of hard work so well done!

[parrot of doom]

Thanks, things are slowly falling into place, my 2 hands are slowly learning to separate themselves from eachother's actions - for instance, I never could play separate melodies with each hand, but thats gradually becoming easier with time and practice.

I know I should do scales and lessons etc, but I'm impatient My reading skills are getting better, I can't read fluently, but I find that I can more easily 'guess' the note I see on the page with time. I used to write down the notes to play when I started, now I don't need to do that as I can more easily visualise what to play albeit very very slowly.

[love machine]

Fingering is the crux of the whole instrument, particularly if you plan to play classical.

[shadowninja]

135135432135135432135135432 works for me (was that too many octaves?)

the decent is more fun assuming you want to end up on the right finger and not getting in a jumble.