Should You Practice Contrary Motion Scales?

as a beginner piano player do i need to practice contrary motion skills what does a contrary motion scale even look like and are they even important today i'm going to answer those questions and teach you how to play these amazing skills you'll learn my practicing contrary motion skills will improve your hand independence and technique making you a better piano player right away later we'll jump into some tips to make practicing contrary motion skills a lot easier whether you're a beginner or an intermediate piano player let's jump in what does a contrary motion scale look like well first we need to understand what parallel motion means if you remember from geometry class parallel lines travel in the same direction but they never intersect parallel motion scales travel in the same direction but your two hands won't run into each other contrary motion basically is the reverse your hands will start on the tonic note of the scale and then move slowly away from each other until you reach the tonic note again and then you'll come back together your hands are moving contrary or opposite to each other like a mirror image contrary motion skills look complicated and they sound kind of weird does that mean they're a waste of time to learn absolutely not in fact if you're a beginner pianist you should start learning contrary motion skills first they're a little easier to understand than a parallel motion scale because you're crossing or tucking your fingers at the same time in both hands by playing different notes with each hand you'll get a chance to clearly hear the notes that each hand is playing which will improve your hand independence tucking your fingers with both hands and moving in different directions will take your coordination to new heights not to mention helping you understand the scale a lot more thoroughly ready to gain the benefits of practicing contouring motion scales let's jump in with the easiest contrary motion scale the pentascale or five finger scale a parallel motion c major pentascale looks like this start your fingers on c and then slowly play up to g and then back down to c if we want to play this in contrary motion our left and right hands will need to start on the same note and move away from each other place both thumbs on middle c and then slowly work your way outwards until you hit your outside fingers [Music] now come back in until both thumbs are on c [Music] yay you did it you played your very first contrary motion scale now that you've got the contrary motion pentascale under your belt are you ready for something more challenging let's take a c major scale and play it in conjuring motion for one octave start with your thumbs on middle c just like you did with the pentascale now play with finger two in both hands then finger three now tuck your thumbs under to reset your position this frees up fingers two through five to play the rest of the notes so now play with fingers two three four five now both of your fifth finger should be on c's that means it's time to start coming back together so play with fingers four three two one then bring finger three over to play the next note this frees up fingers two and one to finish off the scale what if we want to cover two octaves with each hand instead of one there's only one simple adjustment you need to make for a one octave scale you'd play finger five on the top note with each hand but if you want to do two octaves you'll have to tuck your thumb there instead of using the fifth finger continue with the normal fingering for the rest of the way out when you come back in play the first octave as you normally would until you hit the c then you'll need to cross your fourth fingers over when you get back to your thumbs cross over your third fingers to take you back to middle c what about practicing contrary motion scales how do you learn them without getting confused let's talk about exactly how to do that start by going really slowly there's a lot of information to process when learning a contrary motion scale so stick to a slow tempo until you've got the pattern practice hands separately at first this is especially helpful when you learn more complicated key signatures with lots of sharps and flats once you can play the left hand and right hand parts independently it'll be much easier to play them together challenge yourself with new key signatures once you've learned c major try g major or f major next g major has one sharp which is f sharp and f major has one flat which is b flat gradually work through the 12 major and 12 minor keys until you know them all now that you know how important contrary motion skills are i hope you'll practice them consistently as a beginner pianist you'll see lots of amazing improvements to your hand independence and piano technique if you found this video helpful please hit that thumbs up button and share this video with your friends don't forget to subscribe and click the bell for notifications whenever i upload happy piano playing you

Channel: Learn Piano with Emma Blair

Views: 3,183

Keywords: contrary motion scales, contrary motion scale, piano scales, should i practice contrary motion scales, how to play contrary motion, how to play scales in contrary motion, how to play contrary motion scales piano, piano technique, how to play scales on piano

Id: yCS4gf02Rqo

Length: 5min 27sec (327 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 02 2022