Nathaniel School of Music

Inspire Yourself With the Major Scale: A Musical Way to Practise Piano Scales

Instead of repeating the top or bottom note, play the scale up and down in 16-note cycles, adding the seventh below the root the first time and the ninth above the octave the second time, then support it with tonic, predominant and dominant chords in the left hand.

Video lesson by Jason Zac · Beginner · 29 min

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Key points

What this lesson teaches

In this lesson Jason Zac shares how he practises scales so they feel musical rather than mechanical. It suits students who already play a scale up and down but find it stops and starts at the top and bottom. The examples use E major and Eb major, with a closing look at their harmonic minors.

The usual way of playing a scale repeats the octave or the root when you turn around, which creates a gap and breaks the flow. This drill removes that repetition and fits the scale neatly into a steady rhythm.

Cousin scales and the piano worm

Jason prefers not to start with C major, which he calls a shapeless scale because it is all white notes. Instead he pairs namesake or cousin scales, keys sharing the same letter name, such as E major and Eb major.

The patterns are mirror images of each other. Drawing these black-and-white shapes, which Jason calls the piano worm, helps you feel each key as a pattern, so you can play without stopping to think about theory. Each of the 12 keys gives you a different playing surface.

Fingering

E major (right hand): fingers 1, 2, 3 on E, F#, G#, then glide the thumb under to A and finish 1 to 5 up to E. On the way down, cross the middle finger over after the thumb.

Eb major: avoid the thumb on the first black note. Save the thumb for a white note that follows a black note, so it lands on F and again on C. Singing along with swaras, sol-fa or any syllable helps.

The scale drill

  1. Cycle 1: play up from E to the top E, then come down without repeating it, continuing past the root to the seventh below (D#). That is 16 notes. The seventh pulls naturally back to the root like a magnet.
  2. Cycle 2: play up from E past the octave to the ninth (the upper F#), then come back down to F#, ready to restart on E. Again 16 notes.

Each cycle is exactly one bar of 16th notes, or two bars of 8th notes, so it sits well in 4/4. Do the same on Eb major, adding D below and the upper F above.

Add dynamics

Think of the scale as a ladder: start soft and crescendo as you climb. Your evenness may slip at first, but that is a good challenge. Build dynamics into practice from the start rather than adding them at the end.

Left-hand chords

Play the tonic on the first ascent, the predominant on the descent, the tonic on the next ascent, the dominant on the descent, and finish on the tonic. Practise the chord changes alone first, since moving between chords is the real challenge.

Three left-hand patterns

Extend it to harmonic minor

Pair each major with its harmonic minor (flat 3 and flat 6): E harmonic minor is E F# G A B C D# E, and Eb harmonic minor is Eb F Gb Ab Bb Cb D Eb. Watch the augmented second between the sixth and seventh notes. Adjust the chords: tonic 1-b3-5, predominant 1-4-b6, and the dominant stays the same.

How to practise

Pick two or three scales for a week, for example E major, E minor, Eb major and Eb minor. Get the right-hand drill comfortable over a held tonic chord, then add the chord changes, then the patterns.

Questions about this lesson

Why not repeat the top note when playing a scale up and down?

Repeating the octave or root creates a gap that stops the flow. Continuing to the seventh below or the ninth above keeps the line moving and fits each cycle into a bar of 16th notes.

What is the fingering for Eb major in the right hand?

Do not start with the thumb on Eb. Use the thumb on white notes that follow black notes, which means F and C, with fingers 2, 3 and 4 covering the rest.

Which left-hand chords go with the E major scale drill?

Use the tonic E G# B, the predominant E A C# and the dominant D# A B. Play tonic, predominant, tonic, dominant, then end on the tonic.

How do the chords change for harmonic minor?

The tonic becomes 1-b3-5 and the predominant becomes 1-4-b6, while the dominant stays the same because harmonic minor keeps the raised seventh.

Practise it

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