Are you finding plane chromatic scales quite challenging? Are you perhaps a little confused
about the fingering or the coordination of both hands for your chromatic scales? Hi,
I'm Jazer and today I'm going to teach you an in-depth tutorial on how to play the chromatic
scales. After watching this video, you should be able to play them. I'm also going to give you a
bonus advanced level to do if you've mastered the basic chromatics. Now I have a couple of rules for
your chromatic scales. Rule Number 1 is that chromatic scales only use three fingers - one,
two, and three. So rule number one is in chromatic scales for both your hands you only use one, two,
and three. Rule number two is that black notes are always played with
your middle finger. So rule number two - black notes are always played with your
middle finger. Now I'm gonna start first with the right hand. Let's get straight
into it. So remember rule number one was that we're gonna use one, two,
and three. These three fingers for our chromatic scales. And rule number two was that black notes
are always going to be played with your middle finger. Okay for the purposes of this video,
I'm going to start first playing from this C till this C. So I'm gonna start first with number one
- three - one - three - one - two - three - one - three - one - three - one - two - and coming down.
I'm gonna show that to you again.
As you could see, most of it was actually 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. It's just when I got to this part,
I had another white note here before the black note. So an easy thing I can do here is to use
my 2. I'll show you that again 1- 3 -1- 3 - 1- 2 - 3. Or one 3s and here I have another
white note. So I used two again before I come back down or I move up if I want to. I'm now
going to do from this C all the way 'til that C over there so two octaves. And coming down...
So, give that a bit of practice now. We're gonna move on to the left hand. Left hand is pretty
similar. It's just got a couple of subtle little differences. Most of it is gonna be similar.
Remember the two rules. The first rule is that you always use one - two - three. And the second
rule is that your middle finger is always going to play the black keys. Black keys always played
with your middle finger. So I'm going to start here on C again. I'm gonna start with my thumb:
one - three - one - three. Here is where it gets a little too even from the right hand.
Now because there are two white notes ahead of this black note, I'm gonna use two here,
two so that I can go to my one and continue that one-three-one-three pattern. I'm just going to
show you that again. So, one - three - one - three instead of one here, instead I'm going to use two.
Why? Because there are two white notes here. So two - one - three - one - three - one - three.
Again, it's that same pattern of two white notes ahead of me again. So I'm going to
use two - one. Just going to head back now. Using the exact same thing is I just used
two - three - one - three - one - three - one - two - three - one - three - one. I'm
gonna do two octaves now going from here all the way to here.
So practice that everyday. If you are doing that consistently, you are going to get the chromatic
scales in no time. Now the next thing you want to work on is to play with hands together. For
both right and left hand, most of it remember it's gonna be one - three - one - three. Just a
couple of spots where you're gonna, you're gonna have to know where the two comes in. I'm just
going to show you that together. So one - three - one - three. Here is where it gets different,
where there are two white keys above this black key. My left hand is gonna be at two, my right
hand is going to be a one. And then they're gonna switch. This one's gonna be a one and that's gonna
be a two and I'm just gonna continue my three - one - three - one - three - one - three pattern.
Here we go again. Another two black keys ahead. So I'm gonna use two for this one
and one for this one. It's gonna finish my octave there and come down the exact same way.
Just gonna show you that again.
...tricky part.
Just be careful to follow those rules because I see a lot of students do a
rookie mistake where they don't follow those rules and they have this sort of
weird cross thing. I'll show you. What that is so they do something like this,
instead of doing two here. They do one here and do this weird cross.
...gets really really tricky and causes a lot of problems down the track if you,
if you do that. So remember...
Two for the left hand. So once you've mastered that, you can start to do funny things like
playing thirds or six. So something I like to do is to start my left hand on the C. And
I start my right hand on the E flat. And I go up, let's say one octave for today.
Something pretty fun to do. Or something else I can do is I might switch them around and do
6's. So instead of doing C and E flat, I'm gonna do with my right hand C and E flat on the left.
So there you go, that was a tutorial on how to play the chromatic scales. Chromatic scales are
very essential to piano exams and also it exists in a variety of songs and pieces. So it's a really
good idea to learn them to practice them as part of your exercises. As like what I said,
it's going to be used quite a lot in your pieces down the track. What do you find most
difficult about playing of the chromatic scale? Let me know in the comment section
below and I'd love to discuss with you in the comments. My name is Jazer. Remember to LIKE,
SUBSCRIBE to my channel and comment down below. And I'll catch you in the next video.