Minor scales are mysterious and beautiful, but they can be a headache to play if you’re fuzzy on the details. Get crystal-clear on minor scale concepts in this lesson with Benjamin Laude, Head of Piano at tonebase. He reveals the simple logic behind minor scales, showing how to find the relative minor of any major key, when to use natural, harmonic, and melodic forms of minor, and a nuanced discussion of using the thumb mainly on white keys.

Notably, Laude’s lesson always highlights the historical and theoretical basis for each observation: from the history of thumb use in piano playing, to the construction of minor scales, to the various most-well known and remarkable piano works in each minor key. You’re sure to come away from this lesson a more informed and holistic musician.

Want to play smoother and more expressive scales? Join tonebase Head of Piano Benjamin Laude as he lays out the traditional scale fingerings for major keys, showing what relates them to one another — both physically, mentally, and aurally. By understanding scales and scale fingerings in these three dimensions, you’ll be a more mindful and capable pianist.

Scales can be daunting when you are first learning them, but Seymour Bernstein breaks them down into their common elements. Every major scale has the same building blocks: two four-note "tetrachords" spaced by two whole-steps and a half-step. Another whole step is positioned between the two tetrachords so that the pattern of steps is defined as WWH W WWH – where W stands for "Whole Step" and H stand for "Half Step." Armed with this knowledge, you can build any major scale on the keyboard. To practice them, you must understand the two basic finger groupings that comprise a 7-note scale: 123 and 1234. These groupings even work on black-key scales, although you will need to begin in the middle of a grouping. Finally, Bernstein introduces the pivotal concept of rotation in choreographing scales and shows how to apply it seamlessly to these fingering groupings to increase fluidity and ease of execution.

In this lesson, American pianist Jeffrey Biegel presents on primer on scale practice.

Scales should be seamless, as if sung, and yet on the piano they must be played by individual fingers striking discrete keys. Biegel demonstrates how the whole body must be called upon to create smooth lines, from the legs up through the torso and arm and into the fingers, which should crawl like spiders around the keyboard. Biegel asks you to imagine the keyboard as a canvas, and paint broad brush strokes with the arm. He ends with a recommendation for developing a reliable scale practice routine.

Scale fingering can be daunting: with 24 major and minor scales to worry about (plus the different forms of minor), it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the different fingerings. Never fear: Juliana Han is here! In this 5-lesson series, Han eliminates the need for rote memorization and guesswork in scale fingering, instead sharing key principles that underpin standard scale fingerings.

In Lesson 2 of the Major and Minor Scales series, “Chopin” Scales, Juliana Han starts with the seemingly exotic keys of B, F♯, and C♯. Chopin also taught these keys first: they illustrate the key principle of "clumping," where the long fingers rest easily on black keys.

In lesson 7 of The Pillars of Piano Technique, Penelope Roskell demonstrates technical exercises that will help you play scales as you would want to play them in pieces of music: fluently, with ease, and with a beautiful sound. The exercises help to develop a light arm, solidify fingering positions, and work out the thumb for both ascending and descending scales. Roskell also shares her own original insights on ergonomic alternatives to standard scale fingerings.

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