Fingering with tuplets, two voices?

[Ander]

Hi everyone – Like most of you, I imagine, I prefer to place fingering above or below notes, rather than beside them, where they compete for space with the notes.

However, I often run into this kind of thing, in two-voice keyboard music with tuplets:



The tuplet's fingering can't go above its beam, as it'd conflict with the tuplet number... And since I must put those numbers adjacent to their noteheads, wouldn't it seem inconsistent to put the other numbers above and below their notes, in the same bar?

Thanks for your thoughts. (And yes, I did catch that "1" that had to be moved back over to its note, after I took the screenshot. )

[John Ruggero]

Welcome to the forum, Ander! I see that you've been busy.

As you said, most of us think that over or under the notes is best. That's what produces a consistent look. Fingering is placed beside a note less frequently and only when necessary or more convenient. No one objects to this lack of consistency because the exception was made logically. When piano fingering is placed beside a note, it is usually placed in front of the note. It is placed after a note only as a last resort.

Coordinating fingering with tuplet numbers and other markings often requires finesse. Another consideration is to reduce the fingering to the minimum possible that still provides necessary information. Your example might just be to make a point, but in actual usage, the 5 in the LH would be unnecessary, as would be the 1 under the G. Reduction in the amount of fingering can also avoid coordination issues.

I would finger the RH differently. 2 on the D, 5 on the G and then interchanging to 2 while holding the note. The pedal would hold the lower G. Then the 3 and possibly even the 4 fingerings might be omitted as obvious. If the lower G must be held by the finger, then the interchange could be to 3 or 4 and the D# played by 2.