Blues scale finger positions piano pdf

There are 12 major scales by sound and 15 major scales by sight. Major pentatonic scales are especially common in traditional folk music, country and gospel. A pentatonic scale is only five notes, so a special fingering isnt needed unless you want to play it up and down the piano, which isnt practical anyways due to the skip of a. Pentatonic scales are killer scales to play over blues and over iivv changes. How to form the blues scale on piano piano scales duration. There are both pentatonic major and minor the minor is slightly more often used. For instance, in the c blues scale the notes are c. To turn this scale into a blues scale, all we have to do is add the note on the 6th fret on the 5th string. It may be fun to play both hands together, but its more important to first of all be able to confidently play one hand at a time without effort.

My personal rule of thumb is start with the pinkie or start with the 3rd finger, depending, and shift using the 2nd finger on scale degrees 3 and 4. Optional fingerings for pentatonic scales on the guitar. If you already know about the minor blues scale and would just like to know how to play it in five positions as well as the open position of c, read on. Blues scales, as the name suggests, have a bluesy sound. Fingering for all twelve major scales two octaves c has no sharps or flats. We provide downloads for common scales including major, the three minor scales natural, harmonic, and melodic, the blues scale, and others. The major blues scale is some less common than the minor blues scale, and therefore we start with minor and you will find the major by scrolling down. This pdf covers all 12 scales pretty well should give you a good idea what to use as does this site. The major blues scale is some less common than the minor blues scale, and therefore we. Are these standard piano fingerings for the blues scale.

These are just a few of the many ways of playing the blues scale. How to play blues scale on piano all keys with fingering youtube. For right hand fingering, start on the a with your thumb. Piano pentatonic blues scales overview with pictures. Piano fingerings for all major scales learn jazz standards. Pentatonic patterns are extremely common in popular music, especially the rock and blues genres. After the pentatonic minor scale and major scale, the blues scale is probably the most widelyused scale in guitar improvisation.

We also applied the concept to develop the fingerings for left hand on minor pentatonic fingerings and for both hand on the major pentatonic fingerings. Piano pentatonic scales the pentatonic scale is frequently used in lots of popular music styles. For example, lets take a look at the a minor pentatonic scale. You need to know the notes so you can grab them, at any time, with any finger. Youll want to get comfortable with the fingering as well as the sound. The pentatonic scale pentatonic scales have only five notes penta means five. Those 3 scales can be spelled in sharps or in flats.

Microsoft word majorminor blues scales boxesguitar. Clicking here and on the image below will open a pdf file of the guitar major scale chart that prints nicely. Tim wrote the well known exploring jazz piano and improvising blues piano books and has several others to his name. Bring your thumb under and continue up the scale until you finish with your third finger on the c. Rh 123 1234 123 12345 lh 54321 321 4321 321 d has two sharps in its key signature and they are f and c rh 123 1234 123 12345 lh 54321 321 4321 321 a has three sharps and they are f, c, and g. They are written differently, but they sound the same. I started with the blues scales in all keys yesterday. This fivenote scale is similar to the major scale, but with the 4th and 7th degrees removed. Major pentatonic scale the major pentatonic scale shares five notes with the major scale.

Here are pictures and notes of the major pentatonic blues scales. Bass scales chart a free printable bass guitar scales. Now go and do some finger jogging with these piano scale exercises. The secret piano blues scale the professionals dont tell you about. Every scale determines a key,that is an harmonic combunation of tones based on that scale. Theyre used to play melodies, riffs, lead guitar solos, and bass lines. The 14 most common and usable guitar scales printable and ready to use 1. They are not a hard rule, some pianists use other fingerings, but they are still recommended and presented as a great starting point. If you want to learn how to play the the blues scale on piano youve come to the right. See more ideas about piano, piano scales and piano lessons. Every three octave scale starting with a 2nd finger has the same fingering.

Watch the free video lesson, then download the printable ldf sheet music to play. Fingerings for the mixolydian bebop scale can become really tricky when playing it on more than 1 octave, on 2 octaves. So if we would play a minor pentatonic lick that ends on the root note and we try to copy this exact same lick to the major pentatonic scale we wouldnt be landing on the. Bellingham music teachers association scale and arpeggio fingering chart for piano major and minor scales and arpeggios two octaves chromatic scale. Basic fingering for piano is try to play black keys with fingers, white with fingers or thumb. Move up the scale finger by finger until you hit the e sharp with your fourth finger. Rules of piano music scale fingering classic jazz piano. What fingerings are used for the minor and major blues scales. The scales are used often for composing melodies and for improvisation. The blues scale is simply a pentatonic minor scale that has been embellished with a single, additional note.

Browse other questions tagged piano scales practice fingering blues or ask your own question. According to this rule, the scales of e flat and a flat would begin with the second finger, while the scale of b flat would begin with the third. Learn how to play the g blues scale on the piano piano lessons. Work your way up until the fourth finger hits the d flat. The tips you find here focus on how you finger the patterns. Piano scales chart printable scales fingerings exercises theory.

These make great handouts for piano teachers to use with students. As you can see, even thought the fingerings are the same for both scales, the position of the root notes are different from each scale. Scales and scale studies for the violin edition peters. Blues scale fingering techniques youtube 3 exercises to master blues piano duration. Rh 123 1234 123 12345 lh 54321 321 4321 321 g has an f sharp.

The scale is made up of the notes a, c, d, e sharp, e, g, and a. There are a total of 430 finger exercises in this book. Or, in the same way, the g blues scale with the chords g7, c7 and d7. The main scales of western music are major and minor scales. The root notes a in these examples are circled so that you can learn their locations. Piano lessons music lessons guitar lessons planner bullet journal middle school choir weekly planner template lesson planner me time piano teaching. Blues scale piano fingerings piano scales fingering, blue fingers, blues scale. Piano improvisation technique corcoran high school. As you will learn, these patterns can be transferred to all keys. Some scales have particular fingering because the placement of the black keys in the scale or key signature. Of course, just playing over the 3 basic blues chords is just scratching the surface. Probably the only really good blues scale fingering on youtubeit involves.

The blues scale is a staple of jazz musicians the world over, but i realised while teaching a student of mine the other day that i have never worked out a thorough system of fingerings for the blues scale in all the keys. Each scale is provided as a separate pdf download with finger numbers above each note. Piano fingerings for improvisation trumpet players have it so easy just three fingers to worry about. Here are the correct fingerings for all 15 major scales for the piano.

These scales are for obvious reasons perfect when playing blues on the piano. Learning a pattern for any scale is not a bad idea, but. A blues scale consists of 6 different notes, namely the root, flat 3rd, 4th, flat 5th, 5th and flat 7th of the major scale. The notes of the scale are c, e flat, f, g flat, g, b flat, and back to c. Try to practice piano music scales that share the same fingering first, and always hands separately. A suggested fingering for this blues scale is 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3 and 5. But for improvising pianists, using at least five fingers for melody and moving them into different positions poses some real challenges.

Because of this, if you search for diatonic scale fingerings, 99% of the time youll find the exact same fingerings everywhere. Lets learn the blues scales on piano and keyboard in every key. The guitar major scale is happy upbeat and useful in a variety of styles of music. On the top of page 1, the notes of the c blues scale are shown both on the keyboard and on the staff. Guitar scales printable charts of the most commonly used. Ok, so theres a bit more to brass playing than that. Here, you see some optional fingerings for a few of the pentatonic scale patterns namely, patterns one. Musicartas basic musicmaking position is piano chords made easy.

A piano chords chart is a handy tool especially when you start learning how to play chords. The exercises in this book use the major scale, pentatonic scale, blues scale, and chromatic scale. Thus the students are easily able to memorize all the scales in every key. They just ooze that minor bluesy vibe or sweet major vibe. These rules have been introduced as a guide for your pupil, and an aid to. These are the four most common scales in pop and rock music. My method for playing the blues scales on piano consisted of slowly training my ear to the. This is the flattened fifth degree of the scale, a note that is also known as the flat 5, or blues note. The minor pentatonic scale by paul tauterouff the minor pentatonic scale is one of the most commonly scales used in rock, blues, country and jazz music. Scales, arpeggios and cadences, two octaves margaret denton, piano major scales, arpeggios, and cadences, 2 octaves these scales are arranged pianistically by groups according to fingering patterns to facilitate memorization harmonic form of the minor scale is shown. Learn how to play the a blues scale on piano free video. A nice combination are the chords am7, dm7 and e7 together with the a pentatonic blues scale.

Click on this article to find out the secret piano blues scale the professionals. Adding a blue note to the regular pentatonic scale result in the pentatonic blues scale. Despite its name, the blues scale is not only used in blues music. Download our free pdf versions of each scale with fingering. Remember that for both hands, your thumbs are 1 and your pinkies are 5. Musicians practice planner daily practice log page. In the case of c pentatonic, the three chords are c7 f7 g7. This chord chart shows you the most common chords in root position. The scale studies are broken down into intervals and the exercises contain three and fourpart chords, playing. Coming back down, when your thumb gets to the g, cross your fourth finger over to hit the g flat and continue back down the scale. So the blues scale is a six tone scale that we create by adding a flatted fifth note to either a major or minor pentatonic. Starting with your right thumb, hit the c and continue up the scale until your fourth finger hits the g flat. For the fingering, start with the thumb of the right hand on the g. C, g, d, a, e 3rd finger in each hand always plays together.