MUSIC ADV ............Piano scales

[notanidea]

Our DD has been doing the scales for grade 2 piano (I am not musical have no idea regarding these things)I have managed to work out that you have to end on certain fingers.In fairness she does practice them regularly but the piano teacher says that her notes are right but fingering wrong .Other than telling her to practice and asking her whether she has done it correctly (Which she thinks she is doing right)I am unable to help her out. Is there anyway I can help her out ?She is getting frustated as she is only 8 and thinks that she is not getting anywhere. Thanks in advance .

I use to play Piano and if I remember right the sequence is looking at your right hand - 123,12345 - 1 = thumb 2=first finger and so on. on left hand it will be from little finger 54321,321 - 1 = thumb and 5 = little finger. you'll either be moving the middle finger over to next to your thumb - left hand or your thumb under to next to your middle finger - right hand.

Then reverse it to play the scale back down again.

Hope this will help

paranoidmother has got the right fingering for most scales, but it does vary as the accidentals start creeping in - for F major (which your daughter will probably have for Grade 2) the R hand has to do 1234,123 as otherwise you'll be trying to put a thumb on the B flat. The minors can get even more interesting, especially if she's learning melodics as then the fingering can be different going up and coming down (depending on the key).

I'd talk to your DD's teacher and ask her to be more explicit on which scales have the problem and exactly where it is. She should also be able to give you (or your daughter) some suggestions on how to remember what the fingerings should be and how to get them right without turning it into a big battle.

Has your DD got a book with the different scales and their fingerings? I don't know whether that would help or hinder her in general (might be worth asking her teacher) but it would at least give you and your DD a definitive reference while she's practicing.

can the teacher explain it to you and you write them down: LH 1,3,.... RH ... or whatever it is for each scale she is learning?

I ask dd's violin teacher to explain it to me so I am sure I understand it and I note it down, then at least I can help a bit if dd gets stuck

Agree with tangle, maybe get a book that would help too, at least it might help you know what she should be doing

I just googled on amazon and this book came up: "piano grade 2 improve your scales!"

Something like that might help

sounds like a good idea ZZZen I realised that I hadn't played the piano for over 10 years. Slightly out of practice.

My piano teacher used to write out the letter names of the notes of the scale with the finger numbers underneath. I still have my notebook full of scales and fingering after 30 years and I use the same system with my pupils.

Thank you. I had also posted in one of the other thread and there is a website with the same as you describe it I have dowmloaded and am going to give it to DD.Thank you everyone.

agree with shellingpeas

stillenacht - it's so simple, cheap and effective!