How To Play Piano Scales - Hands Together

This one is for all you beginners! Playing scales hands together can be surprisingly challenging and many new learners struggle with coordinating the hands. Playing a scale with both hands at the same time requires coordination and hand independence. This is because while you are playing the same notes, you are switching your fingers at different times which often causes a bit of a hiccup in the process.

In this lesson, I talk you through some tips and tricks to make this process easier, as well as show you have to create an exercise with your scales that will help your hands to work together!

1) Master the scale hands separately first.

Can you play the scale up and down, with your eyes closed? You want to be able to do this before you attempt to put the hands together

2) Play hands together until the first finger change.

Freeze, go back and do it again. Repeat this until you can master that first thumb tuck and add one note at a time until you encounter trouble. As soon as you make a mistake, go back and work your way gradually up again, being very deliberate about each and every note.

3) Start with ascending only.

Once you’ve made it all the way up your scale, pause and celebrate this victory. You don’t have to master it descending just yet. Take the time you need to get really comfortable with the ascending scale and THEN work on the descending version.

The video will walk you through the scale exercise step by step.

Remember to smile!

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.