Monday Mailbag – Teaching Pentascales
When do you introduce the five finger pentascale to a student? Any information regarding pentascales would be greatly appreciated.
I usually introduce pentascales as soon as the student has learned the names of all the white keys and understands half steps and whole steps. We start with the C-Major pentascale, and I teach them the pattern (Start-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole). I have them line up their fingers silently on the correct keys to show that they know which keys are in the scale, and then they play them. I also try to use this as an opportunity to discuss finger shape, arm weight, and the idea of dropping the weight through the finger into each key.
I even have them start playing what I call cross-hand-chord-shells as soon as possible. (Left hand plays C-G, then right hand plays C-G, then left hand crosses over and plays C; then back down the same way – hope that makes sense!) This is not only a great skill, but also sounds really cool, so the young students feel very grown up being able to play them!
As soon as they’ve mastered the C-pentascale, we work our way around the Circle of 5ths through all the sharp keys, then start back at C and go through the flat keys. Then it’s on to the minors. We use pentascales frequently for working on other skills as well – like staccato vs. legato between the hands, dynamic balance, etc.
I’m curious to know how other teachers approach this. When do you start teaching pentascales? In what order do you teach them?
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
Our area has a “Technique Tournament” every year. I use that as a guide. It’s GREAT! I teach the kids the C Pentascale as soon as they can do it! They don’t need music to play them and it really helps when they start learning notes.
I like the idea of doing the chord shells to get the hands in a nice rounded position. I think I will work on this with my very youngest students.
When I teach pentascales I will talk about whole and half steps as well, but teaching C and G is confusing for students because it lays out easily on white keys so the concept is lost. Often I will introduce D and F as well, then go back to C and teach the minors alongside. It is not such a hard concept for them to lower the third.
I read in Frances Clark’s book that she would have students write out their scales to help solidify the concept and I have had students do that occasionally.
I love your chord shells idea! Am stealing that for sure!
I did a two-part post on teaching pentascales at my blog back in January. Here are the links…
Part One:
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-pentascales-half-and-whole.html
Part Two:
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/2009/01/teaching-major-pentascales-formula.html
I like how you use the time while their hands are lined up to teach them about hand shape and arm weight. I’m going to start doing that.
I start teaching pentascales as soon as their fingers seem strong enough. I start them with “twosies” and “threesies,” where they go back and forth between two fingers and then three fingers. When they can do that with no problem, they are usually ready for pentascales. If not, we just go back and do more “twosies,” “threesies,” and “foursies.”
I would love to know how others go about teaching the I V7 chord pattern. I use a scale book primarily. I do go about explaining it to them and some students get it, others have no clue and cannot convert the pattern to any other key!