Of his Les cinq doigts (The Five Fingers), Stravinsky said that he "found it rather amusing, with these very much restricted means, to try to awaken in the child a taste for melodic design in its combination with a rudimentary accompaniment." Written in the winter of 1921 for Stravinsky's youngest children, the eight pieces of Les cinq doigts take less than eight minutes to play, thus putting them well within the attention span of a very young piano student. Stravinsky designed them so that "the five fingers of the right hand, once on the keys, remain in the same position sometimes even for the whole length of the piece, while the left hand, which is accompanying the melody, executes a harmonic or contrapuntal pattern of the utmost simplicity."

The eight pieces are 1. "Andantino," 2. "Allegro," 3. "Allegretto," 4. "Larghetto," 5. "Moderato," 6. "Lento," 7. "Vivo," and 8. "Pesante." The pieces have been described as recalling either Fauré or The Firebird in the "Larghetto," or the Russian popular style or Petrushka in the "Lento." In fact, they are deliberately melodic, purposefully simple, and even regularly constructed pieces intended, as Stravinsky, said to appeal in their artlessness to children.

Forty years later, Stravinsky reordered, rearranged, and orchestrated all eight pieces for 15 players and issued them under the title Eight Instrumental Miniatures (1962).

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