color-piano-popI remember trying to learn scales hands together. Four in one hand then 3 in the other my teacher said. F is like C except there is a 4 on Bb. B doesn’t use 5 in the right hand. Aarghhh! I was not good at scales. I learned them but never got any kind of real fluency—the kind where your fingers just do it.

As I started my teaching career, I found that some students just got scales and for others, like for me, scales were a battle. As hard as I tried to help them, I was once forced to tell a student that if she didn’t work harder on her fingerings, she would need to get her fingers surgically untangled at the hospital.

Then, one day, I met N. Jane Tan at a workshop and everything changed. She taught hands together scale fingerings by groups of fingers. It was a revelation. The beauty of it is that the groupings are the same no matter the direction (ascending or descending). Another plus is that students don’t need to look at the book at all once they figure each scale out. It’s about keyboard geography and a coordinated feel. Over the years, the concept of grouped fingerings has helped both myself and many, many students to stop fighting and make peace with their scales.

This week on @pianoaddictblog, we started an #askdrgailpno for questions relating to piano and piano teaching. It was a high school student’s idea and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it long ago. She said she wished she could take me with her into the practice room. I said, “Well, you kind of can…” Never underestimate the magic of Twitter.

The first question was from an adult student who wanted to know about major and minor scale fingerings. After I answered, Ajay tweeted:

I felt a blog post coming on.

Here is a chart I made for all the major scales. Please note, that on many scales, there are slight modifications for ease of crossings at the beginnings as well as at the turn arounds. Once you start looking for and feeling these types of grouped finger patterns, you can find them for yourself in the minor forms of the scale that don’t follow the majors as well as for jazz scales.  For some scales, there are multiple ways to think of the groupings. It’s up to you to find what works best for your particular brain and fingers.

I also recommend having a good scale book with scales written in at least 2 octaves so the link between octaves and turnarounds are clear. Just fill in the fingerings for every note (usually just important fingers are written in by the editor) and mark the groups. You only have to write in the fingerings on the ascending half since going down is exactly the same. I like to use erasable colored pencils but you can use regular pencil and rectangles and ovals.  I would avoid permanent pens or highlighters in case you decide to think of the groupings differently in the future.

 #1 Keys C, G, D, A, E Major plus all minor forms Four plays only next to tonic/key-note. Threes together twice in middle of scale separated by 1-2 pairs.

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#2 Keys Gb/F#, Db/C#, B, F Major Some (like Chopin) advocate beginning with these scales because the 2-3-4s play on the 3 black keys and the 2-3s play on the 2 black keys (except for F). Fingers are grouped 2-3-4 & 2-3 separated by thumbs (1) together. Minor forms keep fingering or not depending on configuration of black keys.

For example: Gb/F# Major: (2-3 on groups of 2 black keys / 2-3-4 on groups of 3 black keys / 1 on white keys)

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#3 Keys: Bb, Eb  Major 1-2 & 3-4 finger groups separated by 3s together. Minor forms keep fingering or not depending on configuration of black keys.

For example: Eb Major

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#4 Rogue Key: Ab Major (there’s always one) Very similar to #1 keys. Threes together twice in middle of scale separated by 1-2 pairs. Four does not play next to Tonic/Key-note. Natural & Harmonic minors keep fingering. Melodic follows rule for #2 Keys.

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(*Note #3 & 4 Another way to think of these keys is that the RH follows the Group 2 rule and the LH puts 4 in the wrong place.)

I guess all this makes me a piano nerd as well as an addict doesn’t it? You can still ask questions and discuss on Twitter by using the following: @pianoaddictblog #askdrgailpno

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