Piano Major Scales (HOW TO PLAY SHARP MAJOR SCALES AND CHORDS WITHIN THEM)

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thank you for watching! Which one of all piano major scales you find the most difficult to play and why? Would love to hear from you in the comments below.

[@donatellalay3615]

Hi Tom I have just got back from my trip and I have found your message. Major scales have a relative natural minor ascending and descending they all follow and minor scales can be adjusted with harmonic, sometimes transposing a melody to chromatic and diatonic scale it may work. I am more familiar with the first seven major scales. My favourites are E major, G major and F major, but I also like A major and D major. I am less familiar with the minor scales, especially those that contains many flats and sharps, but I particularly like Eb major/C minor. It is important to keep practising all the scales, many beautiful popular melodies were created in C minor , G minor etc. Whilst I was playing Sol (G) sharp minor which contains five sharps, I found it rather difficult to get out a decent melody strictly within this scale, but surprisingly it came out better than expected. The piano has an infinite way for producing new sounds, melodies goes up and down the scales pausing at times, a good hearing is essential, (not for anyone who plays discordant notes without realising it.) Sincerely Dona

[@frostyminded]

The 7 chord exercise blew my mind! Been playing for years and never figured out how to retain that information. It makes practicing the chords and scales like a full song. Thank you!

[@georgeparreno]

simply FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

You are very welcome

[@ginger-cathousecreations4315]

I am wondering if you ever posted a video with other scales like the flats, minor scales etc.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Yes, we have a whole wide range of videos on our YT channel that cover many keys and other playing strategies as well. If you'd like a crib sheet of how to play in all of the major keys and the 7 chords of those keys, head over to our site www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com and email us and ask us for a copy of the 7 chords sheet (let our team know you've seen this video) and they will send you a copy. It's a very useful tool!

[@nbpf6275]

Thanks for the great "Piano chords and piano scales" playlist! I am a bit puzzled by the sequence in which the videos show up: the second one seems quite elementary whereas the first one starts with the words "... now that we have learned ..." and refers to later videos. In which sequence is the playlist meant to be worked through? Thanks, nbpf

[@johnfrancispinto7742]

Hello Donald. It's great to see you with your great tutorial. I hv a question regarding fingers position while playing C# diminished Chord. Hope it's the correct position of fingers. I like to correct my self while learning to play chords.

[@TechTins_Projects]

Should you do this in all inversions as well. Or for practicing scales just stick to root position chords? As a beginner. Plus my teacher has said to go round circle anti clockwise so currently I am doing Gma Emi , Cma Ami , Fma Dmi scales. But he has said nothing about playing the 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7 chords. (which I think is a brilliant way to learn scales and chord shapes at same time. Plus with a simple baseline some hand independents as well.) So he has incorporated the minor scales in my practice. Should one play the chords for the minor scales in same way. I presume that yes you would. Or do you think he is wrong and it would be better as a beginner to do the majors first and then do the minors later on? Your way of teaching fits with my way of learning perfectly. Would love to have a one to one lesson with you one day. EDIT: Just realised that the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 chords for Emi will be same for those of Gmaj so ignore my question on that above. That means I can I suppose, learn things by using both these Maj and Mi pairs at the same time. But is it wise to do things this way? Or should I do the minor scales later on.

[@donatellalay3615]

I am somewhat impressed by the accurate way you move your fingers all along the keyboard. I certainly agree that learning the musical scales is of great importance for the benefit of music. How can a good melody be composed without picking up a scale? Without learning the musical scales composing melodies gets nowhere.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Hi Donatella, glad you enjoyed the video. I often say to my students that scales are a family of notes that fit together, without knowing the "families" composing melodies and even more importantly chord structures is a mere guesswork! Feel free to have a look at some of the other videos on our channel. Do you compose your own music?

[@donatellalay3615]

Hi Tom Thank you for getting back to me. I have picked up this message just in time before I shut down my computer. I am off tonight to Albuferia in Portugal for 10 days, unfortunately I have no internet when I get there, I had to send back my mobile phone for a replacement, I have composed melodies wilth all major and minor scales, strictly within the scale in order to get the sound of them into my ears. Some of these are quite good and could make songs, I also apply lyrics. At times, when I get some inspiration I like to put down something. There could be of course accidentals within the scale to make the melody run and it is also possible to change the scale within a melody composition , but it is more difficult, it has to run in tune and if applying lyrics a phrase must be terminated before going to another scale. I believe you have great talent, it is also reflected in your face, not just an ordinary piano teacher and when I get back I would like to talk to you about a problem I have and hopefully you can help me but I need more time to explain this to you. I will be in touch when I get back. Bye bye for now.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

@@donatellalay3615 Many thanks for your kind words, you are more than welcome to speak with us anytime, our school number is on our website, www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com - happy to speak about diagnosing any problems you are having in your music, but it sounds like you are also on the right track with a few things too! Speak soon!

[@donatellalay3615]

Hi Tom I believe to have a good hearing for music or at least I have been told so, but this does not make me a good player because I am not, I have a fingering problem, my fourth and fifth finger are particularly weak, I have no problem to play the melody with my right hand, but there is a limit to how much I can do with the left. I also have long nails (not too long), but I know good pianoplayers with long nails. In the old days I was going to be thrown out for this, but nowadays there are musical programs that make you compose as long as the correct notation is entered (duration of notes etc.) The duration of notes is indeed of utmostimportance when composing as otherwise it cripples the melody. Sincerely Dona @@contemporaryschoolofpiano

[@donatellalay3615]

Hi Tom In my last reply to your message I mentioned that in order to compose melodies a good hearing is essential. Perhaps you may not agree with this if you think that Beethoven was still able to compose good music in spite of being deaf, but Beethoven is a different case and I am going to explain it. In my case for example, when I compose a melody, first I pick up a scale, I practice the scale few times up and down to refresh the sound of it into my ears, then I take out few notes very much in tune (this may take time). When the notes are found I stop there for the time being. If it is a day of inspiration following the sound of the notes that I found a melody join this sound and start singing in my head. I stick to it, I never let it go until I find in the piano the notes that match the sound in my head. Usually it does not take me long to find the matching notes with the scale that I started and this is why scales are very important, if I step out of the scale it won’t do, it is discordant and I get lost. What takes me longer is how to expand the melody, I cannot always rely on inspiration. In the case of Beethoven, by the time he started to realise of loss of hearing he was already well-established in the music sector, he acquired such an enormous amount of experience, that there was no longer any need for him to hear the sound of the notes on the piano he was able to put these automatically in the right place, after all there are just 7 notes to learn only the pitch changes. I don’t know what was the level of deafness with Beethoven, but he was not deaf from birth and music can still vibrate in the head in spite of deafness. Sincerely Dona

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

It is very true you cannot 100 percent rely on inspiration, what you are describing here is learning tools and techniques to develop your melodic ideas. Infact many composers often write too much material rather than develop the original "seeds" they came up with!

[@donatellalay3615]

Hi Tom Yes, you follow the point, what my inspiration gives me is the seed of the melody which is usually the best, but this can only be repeated twice maximum three times changing the octave of the piano, the rest is left for me to do, sometime it is easy, but notalways ,I can get stuck with it and it is not like if previously I did a different melody within the same scale I can put these two together, it does not necessarily work, it is not discordant but not in tune. Composing melodies is like reading a book it has to follow. As per your remark that many composers write too much material I certainly agree. I take Mozart as an example. Mozart no doubt had excellent musical talent (not one of my favourites) in his own style of course, everyone has a personal style, he has done outstanding pieces like the Turkish March etc.,probably one of his best work was the ‘Marriage of Figaro’ which is good but 3 hours, this is how opera becomes tedious. The beginning of the opera has a prelude which is indeed excellent and there isanother aria that catches the ear which is ‘Non Piu’ Andrai’, but apart from these two most of the opera has a repetition of too many notes and the same is with Don Giovanni, not because someone does something good it means that everything has to begood. Sincerely Dona Hi Tom @@contemporaryschoolofpiano

[@johnfrancispinto7742]

It's really confusing to play some chords with finger position 1 3 5 and ruin the momentum of practice. Thank you so much. God Bless

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Hi John, yes you need to use a mixture of fingerings, not just 135 also try 124 as a transitional fingering

[@ssnobody8775]

Is there an F major scale ?