teaching scales

[sybre]

I specialize in teaching intermediate-advanced level students and recently i've had a whole lot of beginning students who are doing classical piano exams (ABRSM). I have the responsibility of teaching them scales and I find it a pain to teach. I normally take this kind of thing for granted that fingering can be memorized but for students between 6-8 years old i find that very hard to teach. Their fingering is constantly in a mess no matter how much i tell them to just remember which notes to 'turn' to their thumbs..use 123-1234(5) pattern..look at the scale book fingering while practicing..(which they don't do!) and so on..but it's still a very slow process. Can anyone give me more suggestions on how to teach scales from scratch to young ones? Thanks.

[pianoannie]

Are they trying to play HS or HT? (and if HT, I'll assume parallel rather than contrary motion).
For HS if they can't remember when to bring the thumb under, have them just play RH 1 2 3 1 and stop.  Have them say the numbers as they play, and instruct them to do this numerous times each day at home. (for LH you can have them do 5 4 3 2 1 3, or 1 3 2 1 starting on dominant and finishing the scale).
For HS, have you pointed out that 3's of both hands play together? (for scales C G D A E, which are the first 5 that I teach as we study the Circle of Fifths).
So far I've been assuming that they are playing one octave only.  If it's more than that, and they are having trouble remembering when to cross to 3 and when to cross to 4, that can be very difficult for a lot of students.  It just takes a lot of slow and careful HS practice, and I always have them tell me which is the one and only note that 4 will play (ie in a C scale, RH 4 will only play B and LH4 will only play D).

[bernhard]

You will need three things:

1.      Cart loads of patience.
2.      Another big truck of patience.
3.      More patience.

I blame the modern educational theories that disguise every learning experience as a game, and that blame the teacher if a student is not giggling all the way to their University diploma. (Oh dear! I am starting to sound like lallasvenson!   )

Yes, scale fingering is not natural. One must train it until it becomes natural. Children of this age group in our society do not have the resources to cope with this task by themselves. Telling them what to do is useless. Unless you use a system like mine (short lessons everyday) you will have to have a serious talk with the parents/carers and make sure they spend a few minutes everyday at the piano making sure the child does as s/he is told. Otherwise you may as well forget it.

The secret is to break down the task in very small steps – so small that success is guaranteed. Then stick with that step until the child can do it perfectly. This is the point where you need patience. You see, you have an aim, you know where you are going. But the child does not and does not care. For this age group their concentration (if any) is only in the task at hand. So it is up to you to break the task in steps and make sure that the steps will add to the final result you want. Do not tell them what is the final aim or how close or how far they are from it. Instead be sly. Consider each step as the final aim and work as if it was. This is the theory. In practice I break down the learning of scales as follows (remember, consider each step as a final aim and don’t mention that they add up to something bigger):

I usually start with B major because it is the most comfortable for the fingers. I also use a non-orthodox fingering that is based on B major fingering (I have described it elsewhere in this forum), but you can start with C major if you prefer. The sequence below is the one I use for B major.

1.      Press the two black notes together with fingers 23 all over the keyboard. This has several other side advantages: it teaches keyboard geography, it develops skip accuracy, it teaches to displace the hand in order to position the fingers, so that the fingers are moved by the arm movement and not the other way around, it teaches to find the groups of black notes by touch. I just spend a few minutes doing this all over the keyboard with separate hands. This is important: we will be sticking to separate hands for a very long time (again you need patience). I guarantee that in a coupel of days the child will be able to do this very well. Make sure they only use fingers 23. Stick with this step for as long as it takes. Remember this is your final goal. When they can do it really well, ask them to do it with eyes shut (this is essential training for sight-reading later on so you are not wasting time at all – you are building the foundation for allsorts of skills with this very simple step). If you want to make it fun you can invent all sorts of games (look in the practice spot website for some excellent ideas). If you want to add musicality, improvise an accompaniment as the student skips from two black keys to two black keys (whatever you play will sound good as long as it is black keys). Make the student vary the rhythm of the skips. You get the idea.

2.      Now repeat the same thing, but this time, play the groups of three black keys with fingers 234 – we are still working on separate hands. Use all the resources you used for the two black key groups. Again tow or three practice sessions should be enough to master this.

3.      Now put 1 and 2 together: the student will be playing the 2 black keys with fingers 23 and the 2 black keys with fingers 234, each hand in turn. See how fast and accurately they can manage it. Make sure they are using the correct fingering (this is the stage where they will confuse stuff and start using the thumb or little finger if they run out of fingers.) Do not move from this step until it is perfect. When it is, this fingering pattern will have become natural and deeply ingrained, so whatever time you spend at this stage will be time very well spent. We are still working on separate hands. Again use all the resources you used in the previous steps to make the task interesting.

4.      You are now going to introduce the thumbs. Show how the thumbs can actually help locate the black notes by touch if they are doing this with closed eyes. This is important because it forces the child to bring the hand well into the black key area, while normally their thumbs and little fingers tend to hand outside the keyboard. So you are not just teaching scale patterns, but also good hand and finger position without ever mentioning it. So again, with hands separate, they should play (RH) the thumb on the B, then fingers23 together on C#D# (as a chord), then thumb on E and fingers 234 (as a chord) on F#G#A#. Cover the whole keyboard alternating the thumb alone on the white leys and fingers 23 and 234 together on the black keys. As before use all resources you can think of to make this interesting and do not think of it as a step towards some future goal that you want to get over as soon as possible, but instead act as if that was the ultimate goal. Do not forget to do the left hand as well.

5.      As you can see each step prepares for the next, and each step replaces the previous one. So when you are in step 4 you will not need to do steps 1-2-3 anymore because step 4 include and presumes facility in steps 1- 2- 3. Now on step 5 you will break down the chords and play the groups of 2 and 3 black notes separately. At this stage, the hand movement to position the fingers (either with passing the thumb under or over) will be so natural an ingrained that they sound be able to ripple through the keyboard a four octaves b major scale (hands separate) easily and effortlessly. They will probably be as amazed as you that they actually do it. You see, the key here is to spend enough time in the first steps and not to move forward until they are perfect. Anytime you spend on steps 1 – 2- 3- 4 will be amply rewarded on the future steps. At this point you want to check evenness of sound (both tone and rhythm), since fingering and movement should be correct by now. From that step on you will probably be able to use whatever methodology you use with more advance students.

6.      You now must work on hands together. This is 37 times more difficult than hands separate, so you will need patience here again. I have described what I do from this point onwards on this thread:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1079372061

7.      For the unorthodox fingering I use, see this thread:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=stud;action=display;num=1080296644

8. In parallel to all that you will need to explain what a scael actually is (from the Italian "scala" = ladder) and how music is nothing but scale notes in a different order. I usually tell them straightaway about tones and semitones and how to count them, and how a major scale is a pattern of tones and semitones. And by the way, I only teach minor scales once they know all the twelve major scales. And I explain how they come about. I do not really care what the syllabus for each grade says. My students when they take their first grade (which is usually grade 3) already know all the major and all the minor scales.

I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.