Use a metronome or a drum loop to keep you in time, and make sure that each note is played with equal strength.

Once youвЂ™ve mastered a scale with your right hand, practice it with your left hand, then both hands together. However, itвЂ™s scientifically proven that the more you stick at it, the better the end results will be.

Fingering (Right Hand) (C): 1-2-3-4-1-2-3ДЄfter a while, it may feel as if practising scales is holding you back, especially since most new players will want to rush on ahead to play the songs that inspired them to take up the piano in the first place, rather than laboriously repeating the same sequences of notes over and over.

In this case, itвЂ™s fine to play it with your fourth finger and tuck the thumb under to play the C that follows. YouвЂ™ll find that the most effective fingering will change according to which scale youвЂ™re playing - the thumb-tuck that works so well for the fourth note in the C major scale wonвЂ™t be so easy in F major, for instance, where the fourth tone is Bb. The traditional order in which to learn major scales goes like this: ItвЂ™s a good idea to learn these in order of difficulty, which essentially translates to the number of sharps and/or flats (black notes) involved in each scale. Since there are 12 notes in an octave, it follows that there are 12 possible major scales, each based or rooted on a different note.

Interval Pattern: T-T-S-T-T-T-S / W-W-H-W-W-W-H.

When descending, the reverse is true, with the middle finger crossing over the thumb to play the sixth note. In the case of the C major scale, the first three notes are played with thumb, index and middle finger respectively, after which your thumb should pass under to play the fourth note, followed by all remaining fingers in turn. The correct fingering for a scale is important - it may sound obvious, but when playing eight notes with only four fingers and a thumb, putting the right fingers on the right keys makes things much easier to cover the whole scale from the outset. If you start on a C note anywhere on your keyboard and play all the white notes going up to the next C, youвЂ™ve just played a one-octave C major scale. The major scale, in particular the C major scale, is the most common starting point for beginners to learn and practice, largely because of the fact that itвЂ™s made up of the white notes on the keyboard, making it easy to memorise.

In the notes for each scale in this article T = tone, S = semitone, W = whole step, H = half step WeвЂ™ve included a short video clip of how each scale should look and sound, a diagram of the notes involved, each scaleвЂ™s interval pattern and a guide to the most effective fingering for each. So, listed below are the most commonly used scales that represent the best starting points for new players to use when practising, whether youвЂ™ve just purchased yourself a new beginner keyboard or a fancy digital piano. So if you start from a C note and play the set pattern of intervals for a major scale, youвЂ™ll be playing a C major scale. A scale is just a predetermined sequence of consecutive notes with a particular pattern of intervals between them, and the note that the scale starts from is known as the root note of the scale. Alternatively, the interval between the notes E and F is one semitone, or a half tone. For example, the interval between the notes C and D is two semitones, or a whole tone. When you play any two notes on a piano keyboard, there will be a difference in pitch between them known as an interval.

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