Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I’ve made so many videos about scales, arpeggios, and exercises. But here’s one for you that I’ve never shared, and I think you’re going to enjoy it. The subject today is about practicing your scales in contrary motion. One of the biggest challenges when you’re playing scales is making sure your two hands are landing squarely together. When playing with both hands, it’s hard to hear the differentiation of each hand separately. Maybe one hand is louder than the other, or there could be unevenness.
When you play your scales in contrary motion, you hear everything clearly.
I learned all major and minor scales this way in conservatory. It’s a great way to practice scales! You play your scales with both hands going up. Then, once you get to the two-octave point, you come back down with your left hand while your right hand continues up. Then both hands come down two octaves at which point they go in opposite directions again. Then they come back together and when they reach the middle of the keyboard they go down again. You can watch the video to see how this is done.
Keep in mind that you should always practice your scales with a metronome.
There’s never a good reason to practice scales without a metronome. You want to measure your work and strive for evenness. When you are practicing scales, it isn’t music; it’s strictly technique. Finger work is all about the evenness—the evenness of the attacks, the evenness of the releases, and the evenness of the volume. By playing your scales in contrary motion, you can hear things more clearly. Try this with your scales! Let me know how it works for you here in the comments on LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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8 thoughts on “Practicing Your Scales in Contrary Motion”
I agree — for beginners contrary is easier to keep track of which fingers play when, and helps later on when switching to parallel.
To make the transition to parallel I have them play two or three notes in one hand for every one in the other. For example C major scale, the RH would play a dotted half note while the LH plays 3 quarter notes (using correct scalee fingers on each note)
RH: C D E F G A etc.
LH: C C C D D D E E E F F F G G G A A A etc.
Switch — LH plays dotted half notes and RH plays 3 quarter notes:
RH: C C C D D D E E E F F F G G G A A A etc.
LH: C D E F G A etc.
Then a half note in the RH and two quarter notes in the LH :
RH: C D E F G A etc.
LH: C C D D E E F F G G A A etc.
Switch — LH plays half notes and RH plays 2 quarter notes:
RH: C C D D E E F F G G A A etc.
LH: C D E F G A etc.
That’s an interesting technique.
It seems to help solidify which fingers play together when playing in parallel motion; playing multiple notes in both hands together also helps — i.e.
RH: C C C D D D E E E F F F G G G A A A etc.
LH: C C C D D D E E E F F F G G G A A A etc.
RH: C C D D E E F F G G A A etc.
LH: C C D D E E F F G G A A etc.
I’ve put together a “cat-and-mouse” way to practice scales and arpeggios where one hand “chases” the other, then they switch — as follows (using C major as an example)
Scales: start in 10ths — LH 5th finger on C, RH 3rd on E – play parallel up 4 octaves — the RH reaches its C first and turns around to begin descending while the LH continues up 2 notes to reach its C; then the LH turns around to descend — now the hands are playing in 6ths descending; at the bottom the RH again reaches its C first and turns around to begin ascending while the LH continues descending 2 more notes, then turns around to begin ascending — now playing in 10ths again.
Then switch around starting in 6ths — LH 3rd finger on E, RH thumb on C — same thing only now the LH reaches its top C and turns around to begin descending while the RH continues up for 2 more notes, then turns around and begins descending — now playing in 10ths.
For triad arpeggios it’s similar — starting with the LH 5th finger on C, RH 2nd on E, playing ascending parallel in “approximate 10ths” – the RH reaches its top C first and turns around to begin descending while the LH continues up to its C , then turns around to begin descending — now in “approximate 6ths” ; at the bottom the RH reaches its C first and turns around to begin ascending while the LH continues down to its C, then turns around and begins ascending, now in “approximate 10ths” again. It can also be switched to start in 6ths with the LH 4th on E and the RH thumb on C — ascending in “approximate 6ths” the LH reaches its top C first and turns around to begin descending while the RH continues up to its top C; the RH turns around and begins descending now in “approximate 10ths”; at the bottom the LH reaches its C first, turns around and begins to ascend while the RH continues down to its C, turns around and begins to ascend now back in “approximate 6ths”.
By “approximate 10ths” or “approximate 6ths” for teh arpeggios I mean that at most points the hands are playing in 6ths or 10ths, but with the arpeggios sometimes there are 5ths / 11ths, etc.
Just reading this is exhausting. I applaud you for your diligent practice!
LOL! I know — it’s harder to describe in words than it is to play — but it does bring a bit of refreshing and new life to scales and arpeggios — smoothes them out a bit and almost sounds musical — Chopin-esque. Basically it’s just starting on the 3rd in one hand and the keynote in the other, using traditional fingering, and after so many octaves turning around when the keynote is reached in either hand. I’ll try to put up a video on my channel sometime. I appreciate your struggle to decipher it all!
Scales can be fun! And I find that for real beginners, practicing in contrary motion is easier. The tough scales are played in 3rd, starting with C for the left hand and E for the right one. It gets worse when starting with G for the left hand and C for the right one! And of course, the equivalent arpeggios! In all the keys!
Many scales are actually easier in contrary motion because of “mirror fingering”. This is when the thumbs play at the same time. A good example of this is C major. When playing in parallel motion, the thumbs of the two hands play at different times. But when playing in contrary motion, they play at the same time!