Piano Scales Are Puzzles: Let's Tackle Them Together

[@DennisLees]

Amazing instructional content! Great work.

[@lawanidavid-y2s]

This is by far the best channel for piano tutorials. Thanks a lot sir.

[@BillHilton]

You’re welcome - thanks for the kind words!

[@denveringram2304]

F# harmonic is tricky, but once you learn the beginning fingers and where finger 4 plays, it falls into place. I find B harmonic minor to be one of the most challenging scales because the black keys it utilizes are far apart. Scales with a lot of black keys are actually easier for me. It’s the scales with a near even mix of white and black keys that I find the most challenging.

[@DaveJeffery]

Another vote for B harmonic minor from me - it's a tricky one.

[@RuecianGray]

The description you gave about how scales feel more comfortable going up, but less comfortable going down made me think that perhaps the reasoning is because most humans are right-handed. And so the reason it feels like pushing/pulling is mostly based on our referencing the right hand as the dominant hand. The right hand is "pushing" when going up a scale, but "pulling" when coming down the scale. Which made me wonder, if left handed piano players perhaps feel the opposite about this. And that made me wonder that perhaps a good way to do some casual training even when you are away from the piano is to start doing more tasks with your non-dominant hand. If you are right handed, start performing daily tasks with your left hand instead of your right hand as much as you can to help bring you into a more ambidextrous balance. Use your non-dominant hand to unscrew lids. Use your non-dominant hand to pick up your cup. Perhaps even attempting eating with your spoon/fork with your non-dominant hand one meal a day. If you can get more comfortable with your Non-Dominant hand leading, it should make these types of uncomfortabilities begin to dissolve on a piano.

[@pip5461]

Thanks for the tips... I'll try to follow your technique. I learned the guitar as a child and have no problem with the chords, without thinking, but the piano leaves me so frustrated...

[@nolanross6870]

Amazing video. I am learning scales right now but it seems like every time I search up 12 major scales, I find different ones, one website had a Db major as one of the 12, another one didn’t and had Bb major. Every website seems to have the first 7 but then a different set of 5 in terms of the flats or sharps.

[@melkarr]

I can see it sounds different, harmonic, than natural and minor, but what is the nature of it? Is there every single harmonic/natural/minor scale for every major note scale? Thanks and congratulations for such amazing videos full of passion for training

[@BillHilton]

Thanks, and you're welcome! Yes, there's a harmonic, a natural and a melodic minor scale for every note. The natural minor scale has the same notes of the relative major scale, but in a different order (e.g., C major is C D E F G A B C while it's relative minor, A minor, is A B C D E F G A). The harmonic minor sharpens the seventh note of the natural minor scale. It basically does that to create a satisfying leading tone (i.e., the note a semitone/half-step below the tonic) and, additionally, to create a naturally occuring major V chord (hence "harmonic" minor) which offers a strong resolve to the tonic than a minor v chord. The melodic minor sharpens the sixth and the seventh on the way up ("ascending melodic minor) while on the way down it naturalises them and is identical to the natural minor ("descending melodic minor"). The melodic minor is often used to build a set of minor key chords that don't feature too many augmented chords - it's a bit technical. Most people learning the piano will, at least for the first few years, learn the major scales and harmonic minors. Does that help?

[@melkarr]

Thanks for such quick answer@@BillHilton

[@Tokcheege]

Hi, Would you upload a video tutorial series about explanation musical phrasing in piano?

[@mattkaspar2031]

My Rubik cube, 2 x 2 x 2, still unsolved. An aside, those child car seats do require an engineering degree and provide complete cardio aerobic workout. Its the flats in key signature that for me are the obstinate scales - the 3 and 4 fingers do not cooperate. Sharps fairly uniform treatment with thumbs, n'est-ce pas. Thanks Bill.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Merci Bill. I'll be tackling your books soon...

[@MartiA1973]

Weirdly fascinating, thank you.

[@knives6683]

"Health warning, scales can be addictive". Agree to disagree? :) I hate broccoli but i have it anyway because i know it's good for me. I have the same relationship with scales.

[@Theknight-ri1js]

You really are an awesome teacher ❤, I have a question I know it's weird, but would I be able to learn piano on a phone app because I can't really afford buying one now, but I'm still obsessed with learning

[@andrewstillwell1191]

I'd much rather play scales than that rubix cube, that thing drives me nuts 😜

[@philippabertacco7919]

I'm still battling to master C major with both hands 😂

[@BillHilton]

Keep battling, Philippa - it always comes eventually!