A Closer Look at Major and Minor Scale Finger Patterns for Piano

A Closer Look at Major and Minor Scale Finger Patterns for the Piano by Dolly L Paul _MA

 

Piano finger patterns used in major and minor scales are patterns that have been chosen because of their contribution to optimal playing. While playing scales, the hand needs to flow as smoothly and effortlessly as possible. 

 

The ideal pattern for any scale is, what I call, standard fingering. This pattern allows the player to use adjacent fingers, one through five, in a continuous flow with only one turn after the third finger of each hand in the span of an octave. We know this pattern as the 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5 finger pattern ascending in the right hand, and the 5-4-3-2-1-3-2-1 pattern ascending in the left hand. However, when black keys need to be accessed, the flow of this pattern may not be optimal. Therefore, we must use alternate finger patterns for some piano scales. 

 

One of the rules we want to consider, when playing a scale, is to avoid playing a black key with the thumb. Using the thumb on a black key alters the weight and balance as the hand plays through adjacent keys. This does not support fluid scale passage playing.

 

A second rule we want to consider is using the same finger pattern in the minor key scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic) as we have used in that key’s relative major key. However, again we must keep in mind that a thumb does play on a black key, and this is the area where many novice players struggle with patterns.

 

The last, or third, finger pattern consideration comes into play when we have scales that contain many black keys. When the area of the keyboard where two black keys are positioned between C-D-E, the flow of the pattern favors fingers two and three for the black keys on both hands. And the area of the keyboard where three black keys are grouped together between notes F-G-A-B, favors fingers two, three, and four on the black keys. 

 

Scales that use standard fingering in both hands are:

 

            C major and its relative a minor forms 

            G major and its relative e minor forms

            D major

            A major

            E major

            c minor forms

            g minor forms

            d minor forms

 

b minor, D major’s relative minor key, uses standard fingering in the right hand, but must shift the left-hand fingering to the pattern 4-3-2-1-4-3-2-1 in all forms (harmonic, melodic, and natural.)

 

f# minor, A major’s relative minor key, offers a confusing finger pattern. Logically the left hand would follow the same finger pattern as the A major scale. This would allow us to use the same pattern for all three forms of the minor scale in the left hand 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3. Instead, the third rule is used: L.H. 4-3-2-1-3-2-1-4 all f# minor forms.

 

In the right hand of the f# minor scales, the fingering that would follow the A major pattern looks logical for the natural and harmonic forms and that fingering is used in those forms. However, in the f# melodic pattern ascending in the right hand, we would end up with a thumb on D#. To remedy this the fingering is altered from traditional patterns and the fourth finger is substituted to play the D# on the ascension of the scale with the thumb playing the E#. Then the third finger plays the top F# and the original pattern used in the natural and harmonic forms (which aligns with A major) returns on the descending scale pattern.

R.H. 3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3 harmonic and natural R.H. 3-4-1-2-3-4-1-3 melodic ascending 

 

c# minor, E major’s relative key, follows the same trail as F# minor. 

L.H. 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3 for all C# minor forms (this follows the E major finger pattern)

R.H. 3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3 harmonic and natural R.H. 3-4-1-2-3-4-1-3 melodic ascending

 

B major uses standard fingering for the right hand. The left-hand pattern for B major must shift to 4-3-2-1-4-3-2-1 to avoid a thumb on a black key. (You may notice that B major and b minor keys use the same finger patterns in both hands. These keys are not relative to one another, they are parallel to one another.)

 

The g# minor right-hand pattern follows B major fingering for all forms starting on G#, 3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3. The left-hand pattern for the harmonic form and the ascending melodic form is 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3 which differs from B major’s pattern. The natural pattern aligns with the B major finger pattern. Melodic ascending, natural descending:   L.H. 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3  

 

Gb major follows the third rule for both hands (the key of F# is enharmonic to Gb)

R.H. 2-3-4-1-2-3-1-2    L.H. 4-3-2-1-3-2-1-4

 

eb minor, Gb major’s relative key, follows Gb major’s pattern in the right and the left hands:

R.H. 3-1-2-3-4-1-2-3   L.H. 2-1-4-3-2-1-3-2  

 

Db major also follows the third rule in its scale finger pattern.

R.H. 2-3-1-2-3-4-1-2    L.H. 4-3-2-1-3-2-1-4

 

bb minor, Db major’s relative key, follow Db major’s finger pattern in all its minor forms starting on the Bb note:

R.H. 4-1-2-3-1-2-3-4    L.H.  2-1-3-2-1-4-3-2

 

Ab Major follows the third rule in the fingering pattern of the right hand. However, in the left hand the fingering pattern is shifted which offers more flow to the left-hand pattern. 

R.H.  3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3    L.H. 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3

 

f minor, Ab major’s relative key, uses the right-hand Ab scale pattern for all three minor forms: R.H. 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4. The left hand of f minor uses the standard finger pattern for all three forms.

 

Eb major uses an unfamiliar pattern in the right 3-1-2-3-4-1-2-3 and the left 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3. The bright spot with this scale pattern is when played in contrary motion (hands together) the finger patterns are symmetrical.

 

Bb major is another unfamiliar finger pattern in both hands. The right-hand finger pattern is 4-1-2-3-1-2-3-4. The left-hand finger pattern 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3. For some students it helps to remember that when the hands play in parallel motion, the R.H. finger 3 is on the note Bb, your left-hand finger 4 will be on Bb as well. Likewise, when your L.H. finger 4 is on Eb your R.H. finger 3 will be on Eb. Focusing on the finger 3-4 combinations can help you remember the finger patterns for this scale.

 

F major uses the standard finger pattern in the left hand. In the right hand the pattern shifts to 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4 to avoid using a thumb on the scale tone Bb. (Although unrelated, some like to compare F major’s finger patterns to the B major patterns because they are opposites. In B major the right hand has standard fingering, and the left hand uses the 4-3-2-1-4-3-2-1.) 

 

All Rights Reserved by Dolly Paul and Low Country Studios, Ltd. Co. (c) June 2022

 

 

 

 

Incorporating Theory at All Levels Provides for Lifelong Playing

As a child I remember a classroom music teacher telling us that the musician's work was studying, practicing, performing, and sharing music. I heard that statement again in my undergraduate and graduate music education. The first part of that statement, studying, is the reason I have always made written music theory assignments a part of my students' lessons. Reading about music, thinking about what you just read, and understanding that element of music enough to be able to write it down, takes the application of music (playing on the instrument) to a higher level. 

I love the "aha moments" when students make the connection between what they have learned in a theory assignment to what they are playing on their instrument. It always leads to them being a better and more confident player.

I was surprised when I met private music instructors who did not include music theory, technic, and/or scales in their students' music lessons. And they were just as surprised that I chose to include these elements. 

The oddest parent to teacher experience I have ever had was with a child who came to me from a teacher who had moved on to another field. The parent was very upset that I gave homework to her daughter. She did not understand why the daughter had to do written work and practice on an instrument between lessons. The woman was well educated - but could not comprehend the need to do anything outside of the private music lesson time. She withdrew from my studio and found another teacher that would serve her request. The daughter was not challenged in any way, mentally or emotionally, and was a teenager who had been with the previous private music teacher for a number of years. Sadly, I found that students who had worked with this teacher played everything through rote learning: they could not read music at any level. Many had no knowledge of the key names on the instrument. It really blew my mind that parents had accepted this.

The revelation for me was the fact that there are teachers who charge more than the average fee for private lessons, yet don't provide a full music education...and people accept that. I discovered later on that this approach has actually become a standard method of teaching commercially. Because this method never gives the student reading skills, in order to play even the simplest music score on their instrument would require complete dependence on that teacher showing them how to play by rote. Then, unless the student had an above average memory, they would never be able to play this song again after moving on to a new piece. I see this as a cruel marketing angle - it is not giving a person a music education - and I was shocked to learn it is very common.

When we are young we learn how to spell words, the function of words in a sentence, and how to begin a sentence with a capitalized word and end a sentence with a period, etc. If we did not learn how to read and write, would our conversations be as rich? If we did not know how to put thoughts down on paper, what would life be like? Music is a language, and learning how to use that language from a written function in addition to a kinetic and applied function makes it a full rich skill and language that any private student should be able to access beyond their years of education and training.

An education in music theory needs to start at the first lesson. It can be approached simply and in small bites for the young or challenged learner. And it will allow the student to play independently years after ending their lessons, which is the hope for every student that comes to this studio.