Welcome to the second part in our series on Piano Exercises. Last week we discussed The Broken Triad Exercise. This week we will cover a very unique practice exercise that might sound a little crazy but is highly effective in developing your skills as a pianist.
If you’ve ever played complex counterpoint like Bach fugues or other selections you will find yourself having to use complex fingering that’s not very intuitive. Normally you will want to find fingering that would be easy to achieve – like avoiding using your thumbs on black keys (unless on octaves and chords) – and most of the time you will have the luxury of breaking down fingering to make it as simple as possible. This is not always the case and you must prepare yourself for having to deal with more difficult passages.
One great way to practice this type of non-standard fingering is by playing all major scales using the fingering for the C major scale. In the video provided with this article I demonstrate this technique using the D-flat major scale using the fingering of the C major scale!
While this might look and feel silly it will really help you develop strength and flexibility in your hands and fingers.
Thanks again for joining me and stay tuned for the next piano exercise. Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com
One thought on “The Best Piano Exercises (Part 2) – Playing Major Scales with C Major Fingering”
Hi, Robert,
Thank you for all of the videos, which I think are great.
More exercises, please! The broken triad exercise is not only good for fingers and brain; it’s fun to play; I’ve incorporated it into my own practice and my students enjoy playing it — always a bonus. C Major scale fingering on all scales looks interesting; I’m going to try it in a few minutes.
Thanks again!