How to Use Fingertips

👉Start here – How Fingertips works in practice

 

Using Fingertips Paths

If you’re new to Fingertips, the best place to begin is with a Path.

Paths guide you step by step through real musical journeys, introducing one chord at a time and showing how it sounds in familiar songs. Each step builds naturally on the last, allowing you to learn by listening, playing, and repeating at your own pace.

You don’t need to understand theory to use a Path. Simply follow the steps, listen carefully, and move forward when you feel ready.

Once you’re comfortable, the chord library is there for reference and exploration — but Paths are designed to help you start playing music straight away.

 

 

The best way to use Fingertips, outside of our Paths, is to start with a song you want to play, rather than trying to work through the site in order. Learn the individual chords you need for that song, take time to practise them comfortably, then move on to the next song and the next set of chords as you go.

When learning a song, try finding a lyric-and-chord sheet online for music you already love. If you come across a chord you don’t recognise, you can quickly look it up in Fingertips, understand its shape and sound, and then return straight to the song. Over time, you’ll begin to notice repeating patterns, familiar hand shapes, and the building blocks that most music is made from.

Because of copyright, Fingertips cannot include every modern song. You’ll see some public-domain songs used as examples, but the same approach works just as well for pop, rock, folk, gospel, blues, and even jazz. Chords are the common language underneath all of it.

 

Fingertips is designed to be a reference you return to, not a course you work through from beginning to end. There is no required order, no expectation to “complete” anything, and no right or wrong place to start.

You can dip in, compare chords, explore unfamiliar sounds, or simply remind yourself of shapes you already know. Use Fingertips in whatever way supports your playing at the moment you sit down at the keyboard.

 

 

Understanding the chord pages

Each chord page follows the same layout, so once you understand one, you understand them all.

The main chord box combines two elements:

 

• A hand photograph, showing how the chord is naturally played at the keyboard
  
  

• A diagram, showing exactly which notes are used and which fingers are involved
  
  

The photograph emphasises hand shape, spacing, and how the hand naturally uses the keyboard, because this is how chords are most often felt and remembered in practice. You will notice that the hand often reaches between the black notes to use the white notes underneath, rather than staying only at the front edges of the keys.

This is intentional. Good hand position makes use of the full depth of the keyboard, and the photographs are there to show how chords are comfortably played, not just where the notes appear on the surface.

The diagram exists to remove any ambiguity, clearly showing which notes and fingers are involved. Together, the photograph and diagram show both how a chord feels to play and what it contains.

Together, these two views give both a musical and a practical understanding of each chord.

*The fingerings shown are clear reference shapes. Many chords can also be played using simpler or closer fingerings — especially for beginners — and alternative fingerings are encouraged.

 

 

Fingertips is organised with intention

For the earlier part of Fingertips, chords are presented in two complementary ways.

In the Chord Chapters, chords are introduced roughly in order of usefulness — starting with the most commonly encountered and widely used chord types, before gradually introducing less familiar or more specialised ones. This helps new users encounter practical, familiar sounds first, while still allowing more experienced players to explore freely.

The Chord Library, by contrast, groups the same chords by colour family, making it easier to browse, compare, and reference related chord types without following a set order.

Chords are grouped into colour families, which indicate their musical function:

• Yellow — Major chords

• Blue — Minor chords

• Orange — Dominant chords

• Purple — Suspended chords

• Green — Colour chords

• Red — Extended chords

These colours are not levels or difficulty markers. They are visual guides, helping you recognise related chord families at a glance and move between them more intuitively.

 

 

The supporting elements on each page

In addition to the main chord box, the chord pages include supporting elements that rotate page to page. These include:

 

• Fingertips Tips
  
  

• Chord progressions
  
  

• Song examples
  
  

• Audio examples

Even if you are a beginner, and might not visit the extended chords too often, there are still some useful tips and chord progressions that are suitable for any level.

 

 

Fingering and hand position

Fingerings shown in Fingertips are guidelines, not rules.

In real music, fingering often changes depending on:

 

• What comes before a chord
  
  

• What comes after it
  
  

• Tempo, style, or personal comfort
  
  

You may sometimes see fingerings that differ from what you normally use, or from what you were originally taught. This is normal. Pianists frequently adjust fingering to prepare for upcoming notes, to smooth transitions, or to suit their own hands.

Alternative fingerings are not “cheats” — they are part of fluent playing. Fingertips reflects that reality.

 

Notes, naming, and symbols

Some chords can be written in more than one way. For example, C♯ Major and D♭ Major are the same sounding chord, just written with different note names.

In Fingertips, both names are shown together so you can recognise the chord no matter which version you encounter elsewhere. This helps bridge the gap between different books, songs, and musical contexts.

You may also occasionally see simplified spellings where they make musical sense in practice. Fingertips prioritises clarity and usability over strict theoretical formality.

If you are not familiar with some of the symbols or terms yet, don’t worry. They are included as reference points, not lessons, and familiarity will develop naturally over time.

 

 

Middle C and visual reference points

You will notice that Middle C appears on every chord diagram in Fingertips.

Middle C is one of the first reference points taught in almost all beginner piano lessons. Learning where Middle C sits on the keyboard is a fundamental step for pianists, because it provides a clear sense of orientation and range.

In Fingertips, Middle C serves the same purpose. It acts as a consistent visual anchor, helping you quickly understand where a chord sits in relation to the keyboard as a whole.

The diagrams are the authoritative reference for note location. The hand photographs, meanwhile, focus on showing how the chord is comfortably and musically played. Between the two, you always have both orientation and shape.

 

 

Using Fingertips effectively

There is no single correct way to use Fingertips, but a few approaches tend to work well:

 

• Compare similar chords and listen for subtle differences
  
  

• Apply chords to songs you already know
  
  

• Experiment with progressions rather than isolated shapes
  
  

• Revisit the same chord on different days and notice what stands out
  
  

• When learning to play a song, listen lots to a recording of it where possible, and try to copy                         

Above all, trust your ear. Fingertips is designed to support musical intuition, not replace it.

Use it as often or as lightly as you need. Skip freely. Return often. Let familiarity grow naturally through use.