Hello, fellow pianists!
We’d like to dedicate this week’s email to talk a little bit about musical scales and the somewhat unorthodox way we take about teaching them.
Musical scales are an organized sequence of keys.
For example, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C+.
This scale started with the C note and goes up following a defined sequence of intervals until the return to the C note again, one octave above.
You can build scales with different starting keys: You can begin with C, as above, or with any other key, black or white. Unfortunately, each scale has a different sequence – some, like C major above, use only white keys, while other scales use various combinations of black and white keys.
This seems to be confusing, and it is! And note that we just spoke here about major scales. Minor scales are another story, no less complicated. There are also more types of scales: Blues, Brazilian, Arabic and more... The scale sets the mood of the music and provides a familiar ambiance.
Click here to listen to the C major scale: http://bit.ly/37dznOJ
Click here to listen to the C minor scale: http://bit.ly/37dyRjQ
When you start learning the piano the traditional way, your piano teacher will make sure that you will learn the essential scales and learn by repetition how to play them. There is a whole set of arduous exercises, where a lot of students just give up and abort… Now, don’t get us wrong – scales are enormously important, and learning them carries great benefits, but the big question is when to learn then. We simply reversed the order: First, we teach you basic playing, and only when you get sufficiently fluent, and start enjoying playing, we will show you how the scales are formed. There is a logic behind the complexities, but it has to be taught carefully, and only when you are ready. One place when scales are absolutely essential is if and when you decide to write your own PENTA scripts (and we will help you do that). So we dedicated a whole section of our free PENTA Pro course for this issue (section 4). Remember that the piano is a beautiful instrument, which can provide you hours of pleasure. Just take the dive, and we will help you play in no time! Have a wonderful week, and keep practicing! The Piano Esperanto team
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