Lesson 2: Playing Your First Scale

It's time. Actual playing time.

It's time to play your first scale. But what even is a scale, and how do you... play it? A scale constitutes of eight notes up the keyboard and eight notes down the keyboard. There are many different scales - separated into two main categories, major and minor - but right now you'll be playing the C Major scale.

Go back to the hand position that Lesson 1 had you at. It is below if you need a quick refresher.

Now, take your left hand off the piano. We're going to start off with single hand scales, because those are easier than playing both hands together. Press your right thumb down. Like that sound? Pick it back up. See how the sound stopped? Press your thumb down again, but this time press down on the right pedal at the same time. Pick up your thumb, and keep the pedal down. Notice how the note keeps ringing? That's what that pedal does. Now, don't pay any more attention to the pedals. Take your foot completely off. It's not important right now.

Press your thumb down again, for the third time. Lift it. Press your index finger down. Lift it. Press your middle finger down. Lift it. Guess what comes next? No, not the ring finger. This is where it gets tricky. Cross your thumb under your hand so that it lands where your ring finger was. Press down, and then lift up. Follow suit with the rest of the hand, with no crossing over this time. Look below if you're having trouble following what I mean.

Now the cool part! Do exactly everything above, except in reverse! It's truly not that hard. Just make sure, when you're at the crossing over part, that you cross your middle finger over your hand this time. Once you have that done, you're a pro!

Okay, not really. But at least it's time for the left hand scale! I'm not going to show any picture this time, because at this point you should pretty much understand what's going on. Basically, put your left hand in it's position (first picture of the post), and play the first five fingers straight without any crossing over. Once your reach your thumb, cross your middle finger over your hand. Sound familiar? The left hand scale is a sort of warped mirror image of the right hand scale. At least, in terms of fingerings. Once you're done with that, try playing them at the same time.

Hard? Try this - the staff below. It's basically exactly what I've been telling you this whole time, except written a bit differently. And now that we've reached this point, I think that it's time to explain what notes are. You know, the basics. The first note on here is C, the next is D, followed by E, F, G, A, B, and then C once again. It cycles over and over up the scale.

You can see the cycle more clearly below.

And once you have that, you have finally played your first C Major Scale! Which is, like, really cool! Playing scales may seem very pointless at first, but as more sharps and flats are added into the key signature (we'll cover all this later) they will eventually help out with sight reading and learning harder pieces. Everything's relative.

Ha. Relative majors. I just made a pun. Sorry. Well, anyway, I know this is a lot to take in at first glance, especially over the internet and through a blog. However, you probably have it right! If you want to double check, you can either Google or YouTube some videos. Be aware, however, that the instructors in any video you find will most likely have a more flowing - or legato - sound to their scale than you currently do. Scales take practice, as does everything else on piano. Just remember that. Also, many of those videos will show two octave scales, which is not what we're doing just yet. You can jump ahead to them, if you want, but it's not advised.

Now, go! Play your scale for everyone to hear! Progress is being made!