How To Memorize EVERY Major Scale On Piano (The Blocks Method)

if you have trouble memorizing major scales and picturing the pattern on the piano remembering which notes you can use then I want you to try looking at the shape of the scale like this instead using two simple blocks of notes I'm going to show you the pattern on all 12 major scales because I think seeing everyone in quick succession is really going to help this pattern connect this video is just about the visual side of things making sure that we can see the notes clearly which is a really important part of learning piano we're starting with C major as it's the clearest example to use first so this is just another way of looking at the major scale pattern that you might not have seen before we can look at the first part of the scale as a block of three notes a whole step apart notes one two and three and then we can look at the next part of the scale as a block of four notes a whole step apart from each other and these would be notes four 5 6 and 7even remember the idea is to just see more notes in one go and then those two blocks are separated by a half step see this is a half step because there's no black key in between them and of course we play the first note again at the top and that note is just a half Step Above This block so Al together we just have a block of three notes a half step a block of four notes and then another half step that's it and we can use this pattern to help us see the other major scales more easily remember the whole idea really is to try and see more notes together in one go to make it easier to see the shape c major is an easy one to see the pattern so let's keep that as a reference image up here whilst we go through the other keys I think I'm going to go through all the scales beginning from the white notes first and then I'll do the scales beginning from the black notes I want to point out that I went through this method in my last video but I didn't go through every key like I am here but in that video I did go through how to practice finding whole steps and half steps in more detail and I went over why I think this is more useful than the standard steps method that we learned to use scales as well as looking at two octaves so you can watch that next if you want to but like I say I wanted to make this video as well because I had the thought that just seeing all 12 of the major scales might be really useful for you to help you see the patterns more easily so this is D major and you can see the same pattern again here's our block of three notes a whole step apart gives us F and then the half step and then the block of four notes a whole step apart and then another half step back up it kind of helps me to notice that this block almost looks like an extended version of this block next we'll do e major so remember the thing about major scales is that the pattern has to be exactly the same otherwise it's not a major scale but sticking to the pattern gives us different mixtures of black and white notes so so here's E major there's our block of three notes there's the half step and there's the block of four notes a whole step apart remember this here is a whole step as well there's a half step back to the beginning and again with this key the top block almost looks like an extended version of the lower block next up is f major so remember we often use that standard formula the series of whole steps and half steps or tones and semmit tones to learn major scales which you should know as well because that's useful to help you understand major scales but I just think this blocks method is much more useful to just seeing the notes quickly in one go and eventually memorizing the whole thing so here's F major there's our block of three notes our half step and there's our block of four notes the same thing every time there's the half step back to the beginning so this is almost a straight line like C major there's just a little bump after the third note because we need the half step alwayss between the third and the fourth note of the scale remember you can pause each one if you want to have a longer look hit pause on the video okay so here's G major when I'm finished there it is G major just one black key block of three notes half step block of four notes half step and this is almost a straight line like C major was just with a bump at the top we need this half step here remember from the seventh to the octave next we've got a major there's a major there's our block of three notes half step block of four notes and and a half step up again and again with a major the top block almost looks like an extended version of the lower block one more white key key and there's B major going a bit wonky with the buttons there but I think you get the idea still there's our block of three notes a half step up and there's a block of four notes and then another half step back to the beginning with B major we also have have the top block looking like an extended version of the lower block so this pattern easily repeats in two octaves but like I say I've gone over some a few two octave examples in the last video but actually over on patreon I will be going over every key into octaves as a little kind of bonus video for people who support the channel over on patreon okay so here is dlat Major and we've got our block of three notes half step block of four notes and then another half step this block also looks like an extended version of the lower block to me if you think about it going the other way so the thing about all the major scales is obviously they they all look quite different from each other because the notes are different colors really but once you get used to it once you get used to the patterns and you train yourself to see patterns not notes you can find the notes quite quickly when you get good at it okay so there's E flat major there's our block of three notes there's the half step and there's our block four notes and then another half step again with E flat major this top block looks to me like an extended version of the lower block so next one is uh g flat or F major we're not worried about note spellings or anything here obviously we're just focusing on the visual side of of seeing the notes on the piano in this in this video of course we need to practice scales and think about fingers and stuff too we're just not looking at that in this moment right here I do have a video I'll link to it in the pin comment with all the finger rings for all the different major scales and I also have a guide available from the website as well with finger numbers and theory and that's actually part of a scales bundle with minor scales and pentatonic scales and blue scales there's other guides on chords and things too I'll put a link for those down below so here's G flat major and there's our block of three there's our half step and from there we begin the block of four that block of four might be a little harder to see but take a good look at it because they are all whole steps as well and then we've got another half step back to the top so the next key is a flat major two to go so here is our block of three from the note a flat half step from there we begin the block of four then another half step back to the beginning and again you can see in this one that the top part almost looks like an extended version of the bottom part final key then got B flat major coming all right so here's our block of three there's our half step and there's our block of four half step back to the beginning again and once more this looks like an extended version of this I just find that helpful to see the shape as well it's really important that we can easily picture any major scale on the piano that we need to use to play music if we can't do that it's very easy to go off course and use the wrong notes by mistake seeing more notes in one go like this really helps us to plan ahead about what we're going to play and that really helps in particular with what fingers we're going to use I hope that was helpful please give the video a thumbs up if it was there's more useful major scale videos Linked In the pin comment below or you can check out this video here thanks for watching

Channel: Piano From Scratch

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Id: 1tNSR2yWK24

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 16 2024