L'art de toucher le clavecin

L'art de toucher le clavecin (English: The Art of Playing the Harpsichord) is a didactic treatise by the French composer François Couperin.

The treatise was written to instruct keyboard players in performance practice, particularly for Couperin's Pièces de Clavecin; Couperin, upon its publication, noted that it was "absolutely indispensable for playing my Pièces in the style most suitable to them".

[1] With the early music revival, it became one of the primary sources for the keyboard fingering system which prevailed in Europe during the Baroque era.

The 1716 edition of the work included eight simple Preludes and an original Allemande, technique exercises and instructions, fingering notes for passages in Pièces de Clavecin, and an essay about ornamentation.

The 1717 edition added a new preface and a supplement outlining fingering for the second book of Pièces de Clavecin.