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Topic: Reference Materials: All of Plaidy's Double-6th Scale Fingerings on One Page  (Read 2706 times)

Offline maxim3

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I have been working on a few reference materials, for my own learning, but perhaps others may find them useful.

The first thing I want to share with you is a handy scheme for indicating Plaidy's fingerings for all major and (harmonic) minor double-6th scales. So get a copy of Louis Plaidy's Technical Studies for the Piano, which you can find at imslp.org – get the Schirmer edition which appears there under the title Technische Studien für das Pianofortespiel. (There are of course many different fingerings for double-6th scales, but Plaidy's are well known and widely considered to be excellent.)

Plaidy uses only 3 different combinations of fingers to play all double 6ths.
                           
Example:   Your LH plays, from low note to high,
E   C

LH fingers:
3   1   or
4   1   or
5   2

And the RH is what you would expect:   
1   3
1   4
2   5   

(See attachment "combos.jpg" for a nice illustration of the combinations.)

Notice that if the OUTER finger is 3 or 4, the INNER finger is always the thumb (1). And if the OUTER finger is 5, the INNER finger can only be the index (2).

That means it is not necessary to indicate the inner fingers, 1 and 2.

3 or 4 --> 1   
5 --> 2

So instead of writing something like this --       

C major

4 5 3 4 5 4 5 4      (RH)
1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1

c d e f g a b c
e f g a b c d e


2 1 1 2 1 2 1 2      (LH)
5 4 3 5 4 5 4 5         


We only have to write this, assuming you know, or are reading, what exact notes to play:

C major   
4 5 3 4 5 4 5 4      (RH)
5 4 3 5 4 5 4 5      (LH)

The next observation is that some of Plaidy's double-6th scales share the exact same fingerings, as you will see, which simplifies things a little. In fact, using only 15 different fingerings, you can play 24 scales.

Of course it is still necessary to learn all the notes, including sharps and flats, which go into each scale. Double 6th scales are notoriously advanced and difficult material. But at least this way you can see all the fingerings at once and keep them in view while learning. See attachment "Double 6 fingerings from Plaidy.pdf" for the complete set.