In this lesson, I’m going to teach you how to practice piano scales in a way that won’t put you to sleep.
Practicing your scales is an essential part of learning how to play piano. But playing scales over and over, up and down, can get very boring very fast! Traditional scale practice can kill your motivation, which makes you practice less, which isn’t great for technique and progress!
Which is why we love coming up with ways to make piano scale practice more interesting. In this lesson, we’ll share three big tips on how to best practice your scales on the piano.
Table of Contents:
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But why practice scales anyway? There are several reasons (and it’s not just to play fast!):
Scales improve technique. Practicing scales up and down and hands together will improve your finger dexterity and hand independence.
Scales teach you theory. Scales, chords, and keys are closely related. By practicing scales, you also practice recognizing keys and chords.
Scales help you read music faster. Music is made up of patterns and scales are a common pattern. Being familiar with scales will help you recognize more patterns in sheet music.
Keeping tempo is an important part of practicing scales. Metronomes are a popular tool for this, but many people find the sound of a metronome monotonous, boring, or even annoying!
So consider using a backing track instead. Backing tracks contain real music, not just a beep. Your practice session will feel more like a song and less like an exercise.
You can download free backing tracks online. Or use this one we’ve created for our video lesson:
A fun way to challenge yourself and keep things interesting is to practice scales using different articulations. Try these:
This is one of our favorite tips. By pairing your scale with a chord progression in your other hand, you’ll not only end up with an exercise that sounds musical, but you’ll also practice your chord progressions in every key.
In our video lesson, we use a I-vi-IV-V progression. Here’s what that looks like in every major key, along with scales in every key:
| Key | Chord Progression | Scale |
| C | C-Am-F-G | C-D-E-F-G-A-B |
| D♭ | D♭-B♭m-G♭-A♭ | D♭-E♭-F-G♭-A♭-B♭-C |
| D | D-Bm-G-A | D-E-F#-G-A-B-C# |
| E♭ | E♭-Cm-A♭-B♭ | E♭-F-G-A♭-B♭-C-D |
| E | E-C#m-A-B | E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D# |
| F | F-Dm-B♭-C | F-G-A-B♭-C-D-E |
| F# | F#-D#m-B-C# | F#-G#-A#-B-C#-D#-E# |
| G | G-Em-C-D | G-A-B-C-D-E-F# |
| A♭ | A♭-Fm-D♭-E♭ | A♭-B♭-C-D♭-E♭-F-G |
| A | A-F#m-D-E | A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G# |
| B♭ | B♭-Gm-E♭-F | B♭-C-D-E♭-F-G-A |
| B | B-G#m-E-F# | B-C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A# |
> Piano Scales: Types & How to Apply Them
Stick with it and you’ll get there. Happy practicing!
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Lisa Witt has been teaching piano for more than 20 years and in that time has helped hundreds of students learn to play the songs they love. Lisa received classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music, but she has since embraced popular music and playing by ear in order to accompany herself and others. Learn more about Lisa.
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