3 Powerful Ways To Your Piano Scales Practice

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thank you for watching! Get in touch with us so that we can help you liberate your piano playing and ask for the Free Resources Pack: www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com/contact/

[@Learn_Listen_Love]

Hello Tom. You’re amazing at teaching . Nice shades

[@retrokeyed]

Big thanks for these super helpful tips! They come at just the right moment as I navigate my way back to playing the piano after a 20+ year hiatus, and I'm documenting this journey on my new channel. Your insights are a game-changer in mastering the scales that are often avoided to be practiced! 🎹✨

[@jhmcgyver1]

Thank you for all of your hard work on these videos. These are the best piano instructions videos online. I get so much out of each one. I watch them over and over to get the most out of each one. Thank you again.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Many thanks for your kind words, great to hear these videos are helping!

[@11kwright]

This level of teaching from this teacher is spot on brilliant. I understood all of it and it was insightful. Recently I’ve been doing my scales from C to C# going down and then up via each semi tones. However looking at his hands has made me realise how easy it is to literally step (not jump) to the next scale semi up in tow. Also, learning the harmonic (3 and 6 flattened) and natural (3, 6 and 7 flattened) minor scales. I knew about the relative minor and that you can use it with its respective other key as in C and A keys. However, his further explanation and illustration on how to use it and when they tend to be used was indeed hugely helpful. I’ve never incorporated the minor scales because it appeared so overwhelming and now due to his tuition I will be doing all three minor scales because it makes complete sense and is totally feasible and no longer overwhelming. He’s right, it’s all about the tutor, they may be great pianist but can they teach is the question. So many great pianist on KZbin teaching that can’t like mDecks. They go way to fast and they don’t take their fingers making it plain when illustrating for the eye to grasp what they are (trying) teaching. I will be looking more from this teacher/tutor from The London Contemporary School of Piano. Thank you to this tutor.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thankyou @11kwright Welcome to our world! Many kindred sprirts here.

[@ezraschwartz5201]

Really helpful insights and tips; the ‘Super Scale’ and fingering suggestions are wonderful tools. Thank you!

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

You're very welcome!

[@allisonbarter2330]

Wonderful lesson, advice and explanation. Being a girl who ticks the learnt four scales and the rest will come later (or not) box it's inspired me to start targeting all of the major scales. Huge thanks.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

That's great - and yes by using your ear and just 5 notes and 5 fingers, you can more swiftly learn all 12 keys and then expand out from there!

[@thomasewart-c9g]

Darn. Wish I had seen this video six months ago. I worked out most of these ideas myself, except for playing all the scales in chromatic order. THANKS AGAIN!

[@kimkelly3948]

I am new to piano and have been struggling to remember all of my scales. One lesson and I've got it! Thank you very much, now just have to practice, practice, practice! 😊

[@abbymcfaul315]

Absolutely super lesson….thank you Tom! Cool lesson. Cool shades. Awesome content and crystal clear! 😎

[@jaapkerkvliet2143]

That´s a super tip about the thumb on C and F only. I practiced it just now and it feels so much more comfortable than all those weird fingering suggestions out there. Thanks a lot Tom! And yes, nice shades 🙂

[@garybranigan1928]

Straight to the point and practical

[@jeannetteantry1086]

I have wanted to see if I could play all the major scales at one sitting. After watching this video, I was able to play all of them with both hands fluently for one octave. I know many of them well now and can play most of them for four octaves. But playing them in this method is so satisfying and I feel that all my practice is actually worth my time. I can see some of these patterns, this will help me to see all the patterns, so I won't need to look in the books while I am playing them. There are so many piano instructors on KZbin. I have my favorites and you have become one of them. I really appreciate insight that will make it easier for me to do the work of learning music and understanding hard parts like scales and chords. My 67-year-old brain makes things take twice as long to grasp the concepts and even the usual learning tools I would use don't work for music. Everything helps. Thanks for all your hard work and great efforts. You have a very natural and wonderful gift of teaching.

[@dolinlangnepo9385]

This is a new technique I come to know today, great 👍 thanks for your generous support 🙏

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

My pleasure 😊

[@claudiocoppini4881]

This is the single most helpful video I watched about scales practice, and I watched tons since I started learning piano a while ago! THANK YOU!!

[@yahmartay]

You are awesome! Thank you for these insights, so incredibly useful.

[@munsonHOF]

Another great video. Love your advice to have a goal to be able to do all the scales like you demonstrated. Good goal and seems like a great practice routine.

[@jaishriram2020]

Awesome !!!❤❤❤ Thank you very much

[@stalepalemale]

Thank you Tom, this is a game changer! Working toward my ABRSM Grade 1 was just repition of a couple of major scales across 2 octaves and C major in both hands for 1 octave but without understanding how to make other scales. Watching this I went away and quickly found I could tackle other scales and importantly based on the tone/semitone could immediately hear when I was right or wrong, even as a novice. Amazing stuff.

[@dandelionsleeves5183]

I love the concept of the 'super scale'. It seems such an obvious thing to do - now that you've shown and described it! I assumed the best order in which to learn all the scales was using the circle of 5ths - and maybe it is, from one point of view - but maybe not so much in terms of actually practicing them. Thank you for this. My project for the next few weeks will be to learn your super scale. And then extend it to 2 octaves. And then 3. :) Excellent.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Superscale 2024 anyone?!

[@ElenaBorgese]

You are a great teacher!!!! Thank you! 0:49

[@richardblocher599]

Tom, thank you for showing us this method of scales. You just made it better for me. I really appreciate your kindness. The scales for me were slow, and not understanding the proper fingering. Now, I believe it will be better knowing the semi-tones, and full tones. Rick B.

[@wowKitch]

Super scale... right... You just filled my entire Easter holiday, lol .... thank you very much

[@rainsilversplash4376]

Just starting piano, and this looks like a very intelligent way to learn the scales Thank you very much

[@LADYKNICKOLE1]

thank you, I appreciate the tips!!

[@TheSLK1973]

Hi.....I am currently practicing along to your video.....thank you so much for simplifying the process, it all clicked!....

[@bjb0808]

Thank you! So helpful AND interesting! 💕

[@rafftheambient9332]

Always my favorite teacher wow God bless

[@davidconnors4908]

I've learned all majors and minors and never noticed the c and f rule. Amazed I have missed that to date. The added benefit is it pretty easily and quickly disambiguates starting on 2 or 3 on black keys which is something I mess up from time to 👍👍

[@stanleymhone5713]

Great lesson, thank you sir

[@gurupadmasambawa5626]

Fantastic concept, It opened my eyes, thank you Tom

[@HURDYGURDYBLUES-wk8rj]

Thanks very clear

[@violetatio3224]

Thank you very much. I you made it easy .

[@humblemai2211]

😂😂 great teacher always

[@marthaworc7873]

Thanks!

[@hodkinsn]

Thanks

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thankyou very much appreciated. Reach out to me at [e-mail], we have a little treat to say thank you for your support.

[@LordisLove367]

Very good info ✅ Thanks for sharing 🤩

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Pleasure!

[@micaelams1]

Amazing teacher

[@charlottegodbolt5138]

Nice. I’m just wondering why for the LH you don’t start them in contrary motion (ie descending) then you can link them from thumb to 2, rather than doing that awkward jump from the 4th onto the 5th St the turn around (?) Just a thought..

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Yes that's a very good way to practice the left hand. The only thing to consider is that pieces of music rise and fall - they don't just descend so you want to be prepared for both directions. The left hand in general is often more awkward for students because they are right handed. For instance does a descending right hand feel as awkward as a rising left hand. If not, it's because your right hand is much stronger. A normal inbalance for the right hander, which is most of us.

[@BillyRubinIII]

So it is recommended to learn scales by transposition?

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Learning scales - is transposition...

[@BillyRubinIII]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Cool concept, makes sense!

[@BruceEEvans1]

I have been playing piano for over 68 years and I never realized the thumb always goes on the C and F.

[@robertsomebody3442]

What about the melodic minor ?😊

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

and the blues minor, and natural minor, and the Dorian mode - the list goes on and then everyone gets confused. These scales are all related to each other and are just variations of themselves. That's what this is about.

[@joerghaas08]

i love your videos and lessons but they way this video was cut with a lot of cuts is unusual and very disturbing

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Sorry about that! Yes it was a bit over edited, we will pass that feedback on.

[@humblemai2211]

😅😅😅 love you much

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thankyou!

[@thomasewart-c9g]

Sorry Tom, but I disagree with your description. Major scale, using the distance between the notes yields, tone tone semitone tone tone tone semitone.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

What precisely did I say that you disagree with? Was it one of the three scale techniques displayed in this video? Tones and semitones are discussed at the beginning of the video. Was it a specific fact that you disagreed with or something subjective/emotional. It's very important when we learn piano that we find methods that bring us improvement to our playing, but it doesn't necessarily change the "facts" on how scales are built, or the "facts" on how they evolved. Though I appreciate the subjective aspects are very important in music as well as the objective ones. One of our responsibilities as qualified educators is to help you become more specific with your way of learning, so a good exercise for you to undertake is to define how you see a scale and use that as your first template for practice. Then the next step is finding other ways to approach scales, i.e. through shape, muscle memory, key signature, circle of 5th or modes to build a deeper understanding of what is behind the music, not just tones and semitones but a musical language.

[@thomasewart-c9g]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano The sequence of tones and semitones describing the major scale. The video said tone tone tone, but if you look at the intervals, they are tone, tone, then semitone. The first note C is a scale tone, yes, but not an interval.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Ah, I catch your drift, but this is not the context nor what I meant, sure, I'm going over these intervals again and again. But, I am counting the notes in the scale not the intervals! If it's not clear at that point in the video, let me explain it here, what I am saying is that there are 8 notes in the major scale (including the 8ve) and the 3/4 and 7/8 are the semitones in the major scale. That's the key information here (if you pardon the pun). Me? I'm all about spinning the records of music theory, Now, for those of you who've got a knack for counting those hypothetical chickens and want to become more musical... How about moonwalking over to www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com? Flip those chicken counts into sweet, sweet melodies. You'll thank me later!

[@hodkinsn]

Thanks

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thankyou very much appreciated. Reach out to me at [e-mail], we have a little treat to say thank you for your support.