One-octave Scale: C Major

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.

Today we are graduating from using tetrachords to play scales.

From now on, we'll be playing an entire one octave scale with just a single hand,

which requires using a more advanced fingering.

Now, you might be asking, why do we need to know scales Mr. Hoffman? Well,

As you begin to learn more and more advanced repertoire you'll start seeing scales all over the place.

Scales are everywhere in Sonatinas like this.

Or look at all these scales in this famous Mozart sonata.

And in really advanced repertoire like this Chopin Ballade.

Watch this pianist play a four octave G minor scale hands together.

Wow! Pretty amazing, huh?

And that could be you someday, my friend.

To be able to master the most awesome music, you'll want to become a real master of playing scales.

So let's come to the piano to get started.

We know from our tetrachords that you can build a one octave major scale with two major tetrachords,

and we would play that with four fingers in one hand, four fingers in the other hand.

Well, today we want to learn a more advanced way for scales where you can play all eight notes

with just one hand.

Problem is we don't have eight fingers obviously, so we're going to have to use a more advanced fingering technique

and break these into groups.

When we play with a single hand instead of two groups of four, we're going to do a group of five

and a group of three because we do have five fingers. Let me show you how we'll do this.

Today let's use the left hand first.

So I'm placing my left hand in the C major pentascale.

So we're covering up these five notes C D E F G, and then to continue on up these three remaining notes

as my thumb plays G, my other fingers are going to glide across,

placing my finger 3 on A for LA TI DO.

So you see how I did that?

I'm thinking of a group of five right down here: C D E F

G, and as I play G, I glide my finger 3 across to A. A B C,

and as I'm doing that, all my other fingers come along too, and then my thumb slides over to play the top C.

Group of five, plus a group of three allows me to play the whole scale with just one hand.

See how I did that?

Now, one tip about this glide:

Try to make it as subtle as possible. Sometimes I see students going and their fingers come flying over in a huge arc.

Think of just gliding across. Keep your fingers close to the keys and make it as subtle as possible.

Smaller motions will eventually allow you to play that nice and fast.

But for today we're taking it slow and steady to master the motion, okay?

Now, will you try that with me?

Place your left hand in the C major pentascale.

Here's my middle C, so I'm on bass C.

And let's go one note at a time starting with finger 5. Go.

C D E F G, now glide across finger 3 on A, continue, A B C.

Great, now press pause and try that a few times on your own until you're really comfortable with that gliding motion.

Remember to make it as smooth as you can just like you're ice skating on those keys.

Press pause to try going up that one octave scale with your left hand, then press play when you're ready to go on.

Okay, now let's try coming down the octave scale with the left hand.

We're going to think in the same groupings. Remember, we had a group of five, then a group of three.

So, to come down we're gonna use those same groups but backwards. A group of three, then a group of five.

So to come down, I'm starting with my left hand finger 1 on middle C. I'm going to go C, step down,

step down, and as I'm playing this B and A, my thumb, my finger 1 is sneaking under.

It's gliding across and through, and this is another reason it's really important to keep a curved shape

in your fingers because it kind of creates this arch way

for your thumb to get under. If I'm playing like this with flat fingers, my thumb is going to crash.

So you need a nice little bridge. Finger 1 2 3, and as I'm playing those notes, I'm shifting my hand. Kind of gliding my thumb under,

and I help that happen by kind of turning my hand a little bit,

and my thumb gets under to G, and then all the other fingers glide across,

and I finish with this group of five.

So again coming down I have this group of three

and then a group of five. So I go 1 2 3, thumb sneaks under, and we come all the way down.
Just like when we glide it over, the thumb co ...