OK, so my piano teacher is trying to make my learn all the scales in 3rds(even though you only need a few for g7).
My piano teacher set me 3 to learn for homework over easter. A, D and E majors
These 3 aren't complicated, but what do you do when you hit a difficult one?(say F# major)
Full Version: Scales In 3rd
Do you mean, where the LH plays the scale and the RH plays a third above it? (As the ones where you play in thirds with one hand are a different ball game!)
I tackled this from a few different directions and I can play all the majors, and the minors on a good day - so it's doable!
Make sure you can play the scale "as normal" in your left hand without having to think about it.
One way my teacher showed me which helped was to start the RH scale on the tonic, and then join in with the LH when the RH got to the third - feels less strange than starting on the third and gets you into the swing of things better. I also use this when I haven't played a scale in 3rds for a while and I find it's not fluent any more, it seems to help!
I am not sure how to explain it, but your 1-2-3 fingerings are together in most of the white note majors - ie where your fingering pattern is 1-2-3-1, the 1-2-3 in one hand and the 3-2-1 in the other mesh. If you're going "huh??" then ignore this, it's just a little pattern thing that I noticed.
Do them slowly to start with, better to practise slow and correct than fast with lots of mistakes, or you'll learn the mistakes.
Practise the RH going from the third to the third, I always find it tempting to stop when the RH hits the tonic, so it's helpful to have the sound of turning around on the third in your head so you don't hear the tonic and start going the other way on automatic pilot!!
One you get going they're really not as hard or intimidating as they seem at first. Because your hands are close together, you never feel like you're trying to see what's going on and not able to (which is I think one of the things that's
about contrary motion scales). Also your fingers are following each other up the keyboard and playing all the same notes so it isn't like you're doing wildly different things, even though they're "out of sync". Once you get the feel of it then even F# major and such flow surprisingly well (in fact F# is nice because you only have a couple of white notes to worry about, instead of half and half - if you can remember that the only white notes in the scale cluster round the 3 black notes then that might help??
Hope this makes some kind of sense... if not, ignore it
I tackled this from a few different directions and I can play all the majors, and the minors on a good day - so it's doable!
Make sure you can play the scale "as normal" in your left hand without having to think about it.
One way my teacher showed me which helped was to start the RH scale on the tonic, and then join in with the LH when the RH got to the third - feels less strange than starting on the third and gets you into the swing of things better. I also use this when I haven't played a scale in 3rds for a while and I find it's not fluent any more, it seems to help!
I am not sure how to explain it, but your 1-2-3 fingerings are together in most of the white note majors - ie where your fingering pattern is 1-2-3-1, the 1-2-3 in one hand and the 3-2-1 in the other mesh. If you're going "huh??" then ignore this, it's just a little pattern thing that I noticed.
Do them slowly to start with, better to practise slow and correct than fast with lots of mistakes, or you'll learn the mistakes.
Practise the RH going from the third to the third, I always find it tempting to stop when the RH hits the tonic, so it's helpful to have the sound of turning around on the third in your head so you don't hear the tonic and start going the other way on automatic pilot!!
One you get going they're really not as hard or intimidating as they seem at first. Because your hands are close together, you never feel like you're trying to see what's going on and not able to (which is I think one of the things that's
about contrary motion scales). Also your fingers are following each other up the keyboard and playing all the same notes so it isn't like you're doing wildly different things, even though they're "out of sync". Once you get the feel of it then even F# major and such flow surprisingly well (in fact F# is nice because you only have a couple of white notes to worry about, instead of half and half - if you can remember that the only white notes in the scale cluster round the 3 black notes then that might help??Hope this makes some kind of sense... if not, ignore it
QUOTE(sarah-flute @ Apr 6 2007, 01:34 PM) 
Do you mean, where the LH plays the scale and the RH plays a third above it? (As the ones where you play in thirds with one hand are a different ball game!)
I tackled this from a few different directions and I can play all the majors, and the minors on a good day - so it's doable!
Make sure you can play the scale "as normal" in your left hand without having to think about it.
One way my teacher showed me which helped was to start the RH scale on the tonic, and then join in with the LH when the RH got to the third - feels less strange than starting on the third and gets you into the swing of things better. I also use this when I haven't played a scale in 3rds for a while and I find it's not fluent any more, it seems to help!
I am not sure how to explain it, but your 1-2-3 fingerings are together in most of the white note majors - ie where your fingering pattern is 1-2-3-1, the 1-2-3 in one hand and the 3-2-1 in the other mesh. If you're going "huh??" then ignore this, it's just a little pattern thing that I noticed.
Do them slowly to start with, better to practise slow and correct than fast with lots of mistakes, or you'll learn the mistakes.
I don't remember doing scales in thirds for grade 7?!
Practise the RH going from the third to the third, I always find it tempting to stop when the RH hits the tonic, so it's helpful to have the sound of turning around on the third in your head so you don't hear the tonic and start going the other way on automatic pilot!!
One you get going they're really not as hard or intimidating as they seem at first. Because your hands are close together, you never feel like you're trying to see what's going on and not able to (which is I think one of the things that's
about contrary motion scales). Also your fingers are following each other up the keyboard and playing all the same notes so it isn't like you're doing wildly different things, even though they're "out of sync". Once you get the feel of it then even F# major and such flow surprisingly well (in fact F# is nice because you only have a couple of white notes to worry about, instead of half and half - if you can remember that the only white notes in the scale cluster round the 3 black notes then that might help??Hope this makes some kind of sense... if not, ignore it
Work out a good fingering that sounds smooth and one that you are comfortable with. And then practise it loads so that you commit it to memory.
Thanks Sarah! Yep, I do mean the scales where LH playes the tonic when the RH playes a 3rd above that.
Maybe ther're quie new to the syllabus.
Maybe ther're quie new to the syllabus.
Pretend that the RH's playing a normal scale, but don't actually play the 1st 2 notes and then join in with the LH. That made it easier to think about the fingering for me 
I don't know if they're new or not - I just know there are also scales at some point which require thirds in one hand :ph23r: and I didn't want to utterly confuse you.
I'm just about struggling towards grade 5 standard in pieces on the piano, but scales I can do to a much higher level silly but true... I started learning the scales in 3rds when my piece-playing was getting back to the grade 3 standard I managed as a teenager! 
I'm weird.
Anyway - hope some of that ^ helps
I'm just about struggling towards grade 5 standard in pieces on the piano, but scales I can do to a much higher level
silly but true... I started learning the scales in 3rds when my piece-playing was getting back to the grade 3 standard I managed as a teenager! I'm weird.Anyway - hope some of that ^ helps
QUOTE(BBTOTW @ Apr 6 2007, 02:04 PM)
Pretend that the RH's playing a normal scale, but don't actually play the 1st 3 notes and then join in with the LH. That made it easier to think about the fingering for me
Yeahh, this works for me too
QUOTE(onequirkypianist @ Apr 6 2007, 01:02 PM)
Work out a good fingering that sounds smooth and one that you are comfortable with. And then practise it loads so that you commit it to memory.
Your fingering should be exactly the same as your fingering for scales starting and ending on the tonic. e g If you are doing RH C major you start on finger 3 and immediately turn under to the thumb. Do the scales hands separately starting and ending on the third (or sixth) and get used to the sound of them before putting hands together. Do slowly at first.
oqp, are you thinking of the one-handed scales in thirds?? 
QUOTE(sarah-flute @ Apr 6 2007, 11:06 PM)
oqp, are you thinking of the one-handed scales in thirds??
Yup. They're usually harder to learn so I thought that was what was being asked about.
QUOTE(lizbun @ Apr 6 2007, 12:11 PM)
OK, so my piano teacher is trying to make my learn all the scales in 3rds(even though you only need a few for g7).
My piano teacher set me 3 to learn for homework over easter. A, D and E majors
These 3 aren't complicated, but what do you do when you hit a difficult one?(say F# major)
For the minors, I imagine my RH "pulling" my LH over the raised 7ths- imagining a piece of rope between them and the RH hoisting up the other hand... it sounds weird but worked for me... yeah...
Sorry if someone has already said something similar...
I "tap out" the couple of keys from the tonic in the right hand silently before starting on the 3rd when the left hand starts in.
Scales in 3rds sound lovely
When it's a 6th apart I do the same thing only with left tapping on the 1st couple of keys.
I "tap out" the couple of keys from the tonic in the right hand silently before starting on the 3rd when the left hand starts in.
Scales in 3rds sound lovely
When it's a 6th apart I do the same thing only with left tapping on the 1st couple of keys.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.