I want to give you a couple quick tips about practicing piano scales so you can get the most bang out of your buck.
You should practice all your scales at least 1x each day. If you don’t know all of them, get a copy of these training videos and I’ll teach them to you.
Get ready to practice
Grab a metronome (or put a metronome app on your phone) and set the temp at 120bpm. Play one note per click and keep it slow and steady. When you can do all the scales without mistakes, you can go faster.
If you’re new at scales, do it hands separately. For more established players, start hands together!
The order is magical
Use your Circle of Fifths handout, and start at the top (key of C) and play that first. Then move clockwise to G and play that. Then continue clockwise all the way through the sharps, doing them in the order listed on your Circle of Fifths.
Then go back to the top, start at F and move counter-clockwise through the flat keys. Always practice your scales in the order of the Circle of Fifths. Because there is an inherent pattern there (C has no sharps, G has one, D has two, etc), your brain is better able to memorize and categorize the information.
Piano Scales Hack – visualization
When playing scales, always check to see how many sharps or flats are in that scale BEFORE playing it. Put your hands on the keys and visually make a note of where the sharps/flats are for the scale.
If you’re an auditory learner, it helps to say this step out loud. “This is the key of A and there are three sharps, F, C + G.” Then when you play the scale, you’re not hen-pecking or playing by ear. The goal is to play it correctly the first time.
And remember, go SLOW and STEADY!! With piano scales the rule of thumb is ALWAYS quality over speed. Trust me. I promise you’ll thank me later. 🙂
Drill of the Week! 🎶
This week’s DOTW is a Hanon Exercise
CLICK HERE to view the demonstration
Use this demonstration to learn the exercise then practice it 5x every day this week.If you’re a brand new player, start off practicing hands separately. Practice along with this demonstration as soon as you can play it the same speed.
As soon as you can, use both hands!
Weekly Challenge 💪🏻
Using today’s piano scales hack, see if you can play every scale you know in order, without ANY mistakes. How’d you do? Then comment below or head over to our Community Group and post a video of you playing as many as you can!
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