Major scale fingerings explained on the piano -- Playground Sessions transcript

I want to share with you a little bit of how I organize teaching major scales. These are just one octave major scales, and this might be something you want to use at home in your practice. Or, if you're a piano teacher, this might be something that you could share with your own students as a concise way to organize major scale practice. I usually teach major scales in three groups. There are 12 total, 12 scales, and you can group them into three.

The first group is what I would call 'standard fingering.' These might be ones that you already know. We include C major, G, D, A, and E. Those first five scales, they all use the same pattern. And right hand, let's just walk through it with C major. One, two, three, thumb under, and up to the top of the scale, back to your thumb, cross, three, two, one. One more time. Thumb under after the third note, back to the thumb, cross, three, two, one.

That's a fingering that we might keep coming back to. Like I said, it's kind of the standard one. Left hand does the same thing, sort of in a mirror image. So I'm starting with five, walk up to the thumb, cross three, and on the way back down thumb after three. I'm not going to get into all the technique details right now. We're just kind of walking through these in a overview way. Left hand one more time. Up to your thumb, cross three, back down, thumb, and end up with finger five.

So right hand and left hand... Challenge here is that the thumbs cross at different times. Start that as slowly as you need to, and apply the same pattern of fingering to G major, D major, A major, E major. As long as you know which sharps to apply, you'll be fine. We're working on one octave scales today. Maybe a different day I can show you two octaves. But let's keep it to one octave for right now. The second group that I like to get into is B major, F sharp, C sharp.

Those three belong in a group together because the rule for fingering here is look for the groups of black keys. Groups of two, groups of three. And remember this rule: if it's a group of two black keys, I'm gonna use--peace--twos and threes. And if it's a group of three--two, three, four. Okay. Starting with B major. Let's set that up. We're starting with B and then right away, group of two black keys. Now look where my hands are.

I have to begin left hand with finger four to make the rule work. Group of two. Thumbs always on white keys. That's easy. Group of three. What do you need? There's the top of the scale. Group of three. Black keys. Thumbs on white keys. Group of two. And you've got it. So, notice my right hand is actually falling into standard, you know, scale fingering, which we've already learned, but I'm grouping it this way so that you can get into these harder ones also.

One more time. B major. Start with four in the left. Here we go. Group of two black keys. Thumbs on the white keys. Back to the group of three. Here's your thumbs. Believe it or not, that's one of the easiest scales to play. I know teachers who start there rather than C major. The thumbs are happening at the same time, the groups are easy to find. So let's use that to help us with F sharp major. We're beginning with a group of three black keys, so think about it.

Which fingers touch that group? Twos, threes, and fours. Same with both hands. Thumbs are going to play white keys. Here's B, E sharp--everybody misses E sharp. Use your ear. Does it sound right? One more time. Group of three. B natural, E sharp. That's a white key sharp. And the same fingering rule, looking for groups of black keys, is going to apply to C sharp. Hey, by the way, this can be called 'C sharp major' or 'D flat major.' Same thing.

You can write it with sharps or flats. But for now, let's just look for the right keys. We've got two black keys. Thumbs on white keys. Group of three. It doesn't really matter which finger you end with, if we're going one octave. You can just play finger two and then turn back. If we're going to continue more octaves, you'll want to plan ahead for that. But as long as you're turning around, it really doesn't matter.

There are exceptions to the rule. So, group of two. Thumbs together. Thumbs on white keys. Pretty easy, right? So we've covered group one, standard fingering; group two, which is black key groups, thumbs on white keys. Group three, a lot of people think this one's the most confusing, but I'll try to help you. This includes B flat, E flat, and A flat, and sort of F major, you know, and I'll explain that in a minute. B flat, E flat, A flat follow this rule: right hand, four on B flat and nothing else.

That's the rule. If you can add that into what you're doing, you'll see what I mean. Let's play only right hand for a minute, starting with a B flat major scale. Now, you know how I just said four on B flat and nothing else? Well, I'm just about to give you the exception to that rule. As I'm starting the scale, it doesn't matter. If I wanted to really do it, I could start with four and cross under. But that's not necessary.

So I'm just going to do a quick two, thumb. Now what's my rule? Four on B flat and nothing else. So can I play four here? No, because it's not a B flat. I need to cross under, and there's finger four. So it works. It works. One, two, three, thumb under, and we walk back down. Which finger should I cross over, three or four? Is it a B flat? No. Okay, so I can't use finger four there. So, you see what I mean? It's a strange rule, but it does answer the questions that you need it to.

Moving just for a minute to the next scale, E flat major. Start with two, cross under, there's my four on B flat, and there's the top of the scale. What should I cross over? It's a B flat. Okay. And we can do the same exact rule on A flat major. Here we go. Thumb under. Should I use finger four? No, because it's not a B flat. Should I cross four? Okay. So here's the rule. Four on B flat and nothing else, and then you've got problems solved.

Another way to look at those scales is you're using groups of one, two, three and one, two, three, four--alternating those groups. And when--like I said, when we're into more octaves, which we'll do another day, you'll see those groups alternating and it'll become muscle memory. Left hand, simple for those three. It's it's easier to understand. You always begin with three and you always cross over four. Three, two, one, four, three, two, one.

Just say that out loud, write it down. Three, two, one, four, three, two, one. Did you notice at the top of the scale I didn't worry about it too much? I'm about to turn back around. It's fine. Four, three, two, one. If I was going to continue, it would matter. If I'm turning back, it doesn't really matter. Now the challenge here, most people say, it's hard to put both hands together. So take your time finding out where it's a three and where it's a four.

The problem is that they don't match in both hands. You won't have threes at the same time or fours at the same time. So there's a little bit of that coordination feeling. Left hand, like I said--three, two, one, four, three, two, one. That applies to E flat, and A flat also. Last scale, I promise, is F major, and this one's easy. It belongs with the final group because there's our rule, Four on B flat. But it's a lot like our first group, with standard.

Left hand, crossing three, thumb under. That matches, you know, C major and all the rest. When we put those together, thumbs line up. So this one, it's good to find that, but it's also bad because you end up with a loud clunk. Be careful. So, you're gonna smoothly get through that thumb. And up to F, thumbs together, cross four, and there you go. F major. So, one last time. we have our first group--C, G, D, A, and E.

They all match with a standard scale fingering. We have our middle group that's kind of easy, in my opinion--B, F sharp, C sharp. We're finding black key groups and playing them the same way each time. The third group includes the flat keys--B flat, E flat, A flat, and sort of F. And those include that rule, four on B flat and nothing else. Left hand is three, two, one, four, three, two, one. Alternating up the scale.

So I hope that clears up a little bit of how we organize teaching these and practicing these. Your choice--start with the easy ones, start with the hard ones. But I would encourage you to memorize all 12 and have those in your fingers.