Friday, September 18, 2009

Scales for Piano, D Major, A Major, A minor.

D major and A Major are played with identical fingering to C and G major, which I talked about earlier.

The Key of D major starts on the note "D", which is the white note in between any pairing of two plack keys on the piano. The notes in D major are: D- E- F #-G- A- B- C # -D. The right hand plays up the keys with the fingering 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4-5, and descends in reverse; 5-4-3-2-1,3-2-1. The Left hand ascends 5-4-3-2-1-, 3-2-1 and decends 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4-5.

( If you're just checking in now, a detailed explanation of how a major scale is built and what the fingering numbers mean is in the earlier posts. )

The key of A Major has three sharps, and they are F #, C # and G #. The A major scale starts on A and it's notes are A-B-C #-D-E-F #-G #-A. The fingering pattern for the left and the right hand are the same as above.

Try both of those, and then try A minor to hear how the sound of a major scale and a minor scale are different. If you can play a C scale, you can automatically play and A minor scale- you just might not have known it. Play only the white keys from A to the next A. ( A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A) The fingering for this scale is the same as the other scales we've gone through, so it should seem very natural. You'll notice that the A minor scale has a different kind of feeling than the other scales. The reason for that is that the pattern of half steps and whole steps in the scale is different than the pattern used for a major scale. I'll be getting into that more later.

If you're following along with a piano or keyboard and don't already know these scales, play around with them with your hands seperately, and then try playing them with both hands together.

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