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!

Lesson 1: Sitting at the Piano

Right now, what I'm expecting of you is that you own a piano or keyboard. (What's the difference?)

Sit in front of it. Don't do anything yet. Just sit. Take a couple deep breaths, and just stare straight ahead. Rest your hands on the keys. Just put them anywhere. Don't care about hand position or posture or any of those things yet. Just sit and take it all in. Breathe in, breathe out. Good.

Now. Sit up straight. Don't sit so straight that your back hurts, but at the same time, make sure that you're not hunched over. Your neck shouldn't be arched and your shoulders should be relaxed. Take some more breaths, and just get used to it. Your eye level should hit right about where your music sheets would be, if you have any. If your seat has you sitting too high for that, or too low, consider getting a different chair.

Reach your hands out in front of you. Your tips should be touching the music stand thing. Adjust the placement of your chair until your fingertips are doing the thing. Don't worry if you think you're wrong. Correct posture takes time, and nobody gets it right on the first try. Also, as a beginner pianist, it's not terribly important yet, so you're fine for a while until you get to harder music. If you're truly concerned about your posture, you can look up some images on Google and see what you're doing wrong.

Okay, now the hard part. Hand position. We're going to put your hands into position for a C Major Scale. You don't need to know what that is, yet, but you will eventually. If you already know, great.

Find the white key in the middle of the keyboard that looks like the one highlighted in the picture below. Put your right thumb (or 1) on it. This key is called Middle C. Put the rest of your right hand fingers on the four keys following to the right of it. All your fingers should be on only white keys right now.

Now, for the left hand. Count down eight keys, starting with the highlighted key as 1. You should have counted to a key that looks pretty much identical in location to Middle C. You just counted down an octave. Put your left pinky (or 5) on the key. Place all the rest of your left hand fingers on the keys following to the right of it. All your fingers should be on only white keys right now. Check below to see if you got it right!

Very good. Now for the hard part. Curve your fingers. This is the part that I still have trouble with, to this day. It's the absolute worst. But it's a necessary component of good piano playing. It's almost impossible to play piano without curving your fingers. So that's why it's very important to start with curving your fingers at the very start of your piano training. Make it a habit. Just do it.

How do you curve your fingers? I wish I could say it's easy. And it is. Sort of. But it's just something that needs to happen all the time, and that you can't just forget about. You need to concentrate on it forever until it becomes a habit, and even afterwards, you need to check up on it from time to time to make sure you've still got it. So let's get started!

Take your hands off the piano, and find something like a baseball. Or just pretend that you have one in your hand. Hold it (or 'hold' it, if you don't actually have one). Notice how your fingers curve around to hold it. That's the position you're going to want when you play.

Put your hands back on the piano, same position as before. You can check back up at the pictures to make sure you've still got it right. This time, curve your fingers. Your palms should definitely not be resting on the edge of the keyboard. They should be up in the air. Not way up, but up. The back of your hand should make a straight line with your fore arm. It doesn't have to be perfect right now. Again, correct hand positioning takes time and practice.

Now, time for the third and final positioning challenge of the lesson - feet positioning! If you have a keyboard, and no pedal attachment (yes, you can buy those, and I definitely urge you to do so eventually), you can just skip this part. As for those of you with pedals, it's time. Leggo. Put your right foot on the rightmost pedal. Your heel should rest on the floor. Don't press the pedal down. Just let your foot rest on it. And there you go. You're done. It wasn't that hard, was it?

There you have it. Posture, hand position, and pedals. You can try these things out over and over, if you want, as they are very important. But if you're ready for some actual piano playing - check out Lesson 2: Playing Your First Scale.