Piano Scales (Introduction)

Piano scales lay the foundation for a pianist’s keyboard skills and understanding of music. Mastering the music scales on the piano will not only help you know your keyboard, it will also provide you a knowledge base for learning piano music and even composing your own music.

Many piano teachers avoid teaching the scales because they are concerned their students will get bored. I have not found this to be true. Most piano students enjoy playing the scales and chords and related exercises. For the practicing piano player, the scales keep the fingers and the mind on the keys. As you learn and master the 12 major scales, and the 36 minor scales (natural minors, melodic minors, harmonic minors -3x12-) you will find pleasure in playing them all, or just focusing on one or two and doing "in depth" exercises. A piano player could easily spend several hours just exploring the possibilities with the scales. Piano scales help the pianist develop fingering awareness, keyboard familiarity and confidence, technique, understanding of music composition including melodic concepts and harmony, and just an overall comfort and mastery of the piano. This all has a huge effect upon the piano player's abilities to read music, to learn and memorize music, and to compose music. Without a high level of scale proficiency, you will struggle to achieve high level piano skills.