Understanding Piano Scales

For many parents, piano lessons are synonymous with early music education. There is a certain association between learning to play piano and becoming a musician; this is sort of a tradition in Western culture, but the reality of music education is that children should be free to choose the instruments they want to fall in love with. The fact is, you can play just about any instrument and combine it with music education; it does not matter whether it is a guitar, piano, recorder, ukulele, violin, cello, flute, or even a software-only synthesizer.

Children will pick up on the piano faster when they have already assimilated certain elements of music theory. If you think that music theory is an academic endeavor conducive to formal music learning, you are correct. Music is filled with abstract concepts that can be represented through music theory and notation; on the surface, this may not seem to be a field of study suitable for early learning, but it happens to be the focus of the Prodigies curriculum.

Here's an easy sequence to describe why steering children towards piano is an ideal goal as they progress through the various Prodigies programs:

• Children start by recognizing and identifying notes as they listen. This is a cognitive process.
• The human voice is an instrument, and it is often the first that children use. In case of a voice disability, hand signs or the Prodigies Desk Bells can be used; the latter are based on the chromatic method of music theory education. To this effect, the Prodigies Bells mobile app can also be used.
• Prodigies is all about learning and absorbing music theory through fun activities. The chromatic Desk Bells are fun to play, and they enable students to put their learned concepts into practice. The color-coded notes provide a nice transition to the piano and other keyboard instruments.
• At this point, music educators often recommend the recorder, xylophone, or ukulele as instruments suitable for early music education, but there is a great argument in favor of jumping straight to the piano, and it is related to playing music scales.

How Music Scales Enable Melody and Harmony

Organizing notes form the basis of music scales. The order is dictated by pitch, which can go up or down. Scales are all about tonality; they help musicians stay on key, and they also enable composition by presenting melodious notes that can be played in harmony. The solfege system, for example, is a representation of a major scale.

In the most simplistic form, the notes of a scale are arranged in a straight line (a "ladder"). They can be arranged in any order, and the "starting point" is arbitrary. They can be arranged from the bottom of the scale upwards or from the top downwards; in other words, they can ascend or descend. For example, the notes of the major scale rise from the bottom. This scale rises by a perfect fifth (two steps) each step. The notes fall by a perfect fourth (three steps) each step.

When you play piano scales, they sound good; they sound like music, and you feel as if you can follow along, write your own lyrics to sing, and even guess what should come next.

Learning to Play Piano Through Scale Practice

Serious musicians and singers never give up on solfege. In the late 1980s, when the legendary Les Miserables musical made its Broadway debut, some of the cast members used to solfege for an hour before rehearsal or performance. When you listen to masterful musicians who have a keen understanding of key signatures, you can bet that they solfege almost religiously.

Practicing piano scales is essentially doing solfege on the keyboard. This is something that students and masters never stop doing. The piano is an easy instrument to learn if you already have a grasp on music theory; in order to master the piano, however, constant practice of scales is required.

There is a tendency to play scales only for exercise, but that is just not the case. Instead, a skilled pianist uses a scale for everything. This is because not just the rhythm of scales, but also the melodic lines of musical pieces, are based on scales. You need constant practice of scales in order to master the piano. Once you master scales, the piano will feel like an extension of your musical mind.

The First Piano Scales You Should Learn

When you sit down at the piano, music theory is laid out before you. You can see the 12 major scales, and once you start playing them, you will be able to see and feel 36 minor scales. This is why it makes sense to have previously learned music theory before taking piano lessons. Without a doubt, major scales should be learned first because they demystify key signatures. The Prodigies Desk Bells are designed with the C Major scale in mind, so this is the one that piano beginners should learn first.

There is a recommended order of play for the major scales:

• C Major
• A Major
• G Major
• E Major
• D Major
• F Major
• B Flat Major
• E Flat Major
• A Minor
• B Minor
• G Minor
• D Minor

Learning to play each of these scales is crucial to making the most of your piano practice time. These scales can be learned in any order, though we tend to recommend that the major scales be learned first because learning them in this order will help you to get better at reading sheet music and begin to develop proper fingerings.

Piano Scale Playing Techniques

Even if you are left-handed, you want to start playing the C Major scale with your right hand. The established method is to place the thumb on the middle C so that it can feel natural to play D and E with the contiguous fingers. F is also played with the thumb, but you need to roll it under so that G, A, and B can be played naturally before coming to an end on C, which is played with the pinky.

Once you come to the end of the scale, you can play it in reverse with the same right hand. Doing this over and over will help you not only with fingering but also with muscle memory. With piano scales, it is better to play them repeatedly to get the best sound-to-finger synergy and the right muscle memory out of them.

Piano scale practice also involves putting both hands to work; to this effect, you will want to play C Major with an hour left after you have reversed it with your right hand a couple of times. This alternating method is great for developing the finger-to-key coordination you need to improve your piano performance. Focus only on the playing hand; the opposite should rest easy on your lap, but it should also be ready to play after the final reversal.

Once you are able to smoothly alternate your C Major playing, the next step would be to play the entire scale with both hands at the same time. This is going to feel awkward right after a series of one-handed exercises; for this reason, it is fine to slow down the tempo in order to get the fingering right. If you have gotten used to playing the scale in reverse, it should be easier for you to put both hands on the keys.

After getting comfortable with C Major, many students jump on G Major, but it actually makes more sense to follow the aforementioned order, which would make A Major next. The reason G Major is often chosen is that it sounds good when it is alternated with C Major, and the fingering is essentially the same. Practice your scales slowly, one hand at a time, before putting both hands together. That way you can be sure that you’ve mastered the proper fingering for each hand.

There is no shame in taking your time when practicing piano scales. If you feel better taking things slow, be sure to do so on each hand. Make sure you are reversing the scale perfectly before increasing the tempo; only then you will be ready to play with both hands. Spend about 10 minutes with each hand before switching, and stay with a learning pace of about a scale per week.