For some reason, some of my students really struggle with scale fingerings. I’ve been trying a variety of different tools to help them remember and master the fingerings. One of my students suggested placing diagrams in the back of the assignment books with fingerings for all the scales. I thought that was an excellent idea, so I created the diagrams below for that purpose. Next year, I’m planning to include a complete set in the back of every assignment book.
Feel free to download and print these free piano scale fingering diagrams for use with your students (let me know if you catch any mistakes or have any ideas for improvement!):
UPDATE:
Originally I didn’t create melodic scale fingering diagrams because I figured there wouldn’t be much demand for them. So much for that theory! Based on the feedback and requests I’ve received, I went ahead and created these melodic minor scale fingering diagrams as well. The upper layer of numbers (black and white) is for the ascending scale, and the lower layer of numbers (gray) is for the descending scale. This seemed like the best way to reflect the fingering and key changes within the scale.
Great charts, unfortunately melodic minors are missing, which is quite a problem with F# minor and C# minor wit their right hand fingering changes at the turn (an octave with turn: 2 3 1 2 3 4 !1 3! 2 1 3 2 1 3 2)
Correction and addition:
Octave with turh in F# minor and C# minor:
2 3 1 2 3 !1 3! 2 1 3 2 1 4 3
And I was also wondering what is recommended in A#/Bb minor melodic for the left hand:
2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2
OR
2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2
These things are holding me back from recommending these charts for my pupils. But again, otherwise these charts are great.
great idea! the method books I’m using have the neatest charts in them. Basically look like this.
1 2 3 [ 1 2 3 4 [ 1 2 3 [ 1 2 3 4 5
C D E [ F G A B [ C D E [ F G A B C
(The brackets are actually lines from top to bottom in the book. They show where to pivot)
Then they have the same charts as you have above this one. I like the idea, my students are having a much easier time with the scales. I think corrosponding the finger number with the key name beneath really works well. For hands together the left hand numbers are below the key names.
I hope this all made sense! Give it a try, your students will love it! I also have a similar idea for the triads. Email me if you’re interested!
Thanks, Natalie! These are great!
You finally hit the nail on the head. I wanted pictures to color code the 3 and 4 note clusters in the scales, ie.
C scale is C D E (GROUP 1) AND F G A B (GROUP 2)…color coding them say yellow and green or whatever. Thanks.
These are great! Thank you!!
I love the illustrations, they are great!
Natalie,
Thank you, thank you! These are perfect for my students. It’s very gracious of you to share them.
Thanks again!
Gregg
You always have such wonderful ideas. Thanks for sharing!