: Piano: Ring finger goes down with pinky I'm a beginner to Piano and when I'm playing the C chord, I'm placing my thumb on C, middle finger on E, and my pinky on G. Only thing is, whenever I bring my pinky down, my ring finger

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This is a hand anatomy issue as @TomSerb described.

Read up on finger independence exercises. They are an important part of piano training.

Also, playing in C major - all white keys - is very common for beginner lessons, but sometimes it is more difficult than playing with some black keys. Try also playing other simple chords like D, A, or E major, or Cm, Gm, or Fm. With those chords you can put your finger 3 (middle finger) on the black key in the middle of the chord. You may find this fits the hand better and helps you get the feel of playing the chord without finger 4 (ring finger) pressing down the other key.

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The motion of pressing a piano key is driven by the flexor tendon on the inside of the finger. The flexor tendons for the ring and little fingers join together in the palm of the hand, which makes it harder to move these fingers independently.

But independence is certainly possible. As an exercise, place your hand on a flat surface with your fingers curled in playing position, and try lifting just your ring finger off the surface. Over time you'll get better at it.

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With all due respect to my colleagues, I'm going to try to clarify the other answers here. As they've rightly identified, you're experiencing simple anatomy -- the muscles that move those two fingers are joined.

However, seeing as this is human anatomy, you should not try to fight it. In my opinion, performing the above exercises as described, especially as a beginner, will lead to tension, which is something pianists should avoid at all costs.

Tension is caused when muscles are fighting against one another -- pulling in opposite directions. Doing the exercises above without a proper understanding will simply exacerbate this. They can definitely be a help, but the way they are worded and described above may lead to some erroneous ideas which I address below.

That being said, your problem CAN be solved -- however, in my opinion it's not a matter of finger independence, but instead a matter of position and attack.

By position, I mean that you should rest your hands on the keys so that the fingers are relaxed and naturally curled downward, pointing at the keys.

Here's a crucial point on attack: whenever a finger is not currently depressing a key, it should be comfortably relaxed. The exercises above, though not entirely wrong, may lead to the erroneous idea that when you play with your pinky, you must force your ring finger to stay up. This is not correct.

Instead, when you play with your pinky, your ring finger should be completely relaxed. So if you do the exercises above, don't try to force the other fingers not to move -- instead, focus on simply moving that one finger and completely relaxing the others. It's OK if they move together -- as long as the other is relaxed, it should not move with enough force to depress an extra key.

Also, pressing the keys should not be a fingers-only action. The above exercises also may lead to the erroneous concept that you need to "freeze" your hand and only move the finger muscles. This is also false. Allow the wrist and hand to have full range of motion when playing, but simply extend the fingers being used and relax the others.

I could go on, but hopefully this is a help.

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This is absolutely normal and a question of isolation.

You can practice this independency of fingers everywhere you are:

Hold all fingers on the table and lift each single and tip it down many times: first the pinky finger, then the 4th etc. trying to lift the finger always higher
Then tip the fingers by changing (like a triller or a tremolo454545. 34343434. 353535, 2525252, 242424 etc, the other fingers are set fixed on the table