Scales are fundamental to learning most musical instruments and certainly key to becoming a better keyboardist. By incorporating them in all your daily practice sessions using a metronome, you will see significant improvement in your technique. This post also introduces a new concept of arpeggios using the chords C Major and F Major.

Practising Scales

Let’s begin with the C Major scale. Set your metronome to 80 and start it. Before you play any note, just count out loud in sync with the metronome -1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4- and get a hang of the tempo. Now position your right hand on the middle C, while keeping the other hand on your lap.

Practise the scale, both ascending and descending. Remember to accent (play a little louder than the rest by hitting the key, instead of pressing it) the first note while practising scales. In this case, accent the C note. Ensure you press down with the finger and not push down your arm for accenting a note.

As a beginner, it is normal to experience certain challenges such as your fingers slipping off the keys, or playing out of tempo. All these can be fixed simply by practising scales regularly, with the metronome active in the background all the while.

Practising Arpeggios

Next, we move on to the concept of arpeggios. These are a bit similar to broken chords but they follow the pattern of finger numbers: 1-2-3-1-2-3-5-3-2-1-3-2-1. You will have to use the technique of tuck and roll to move from 1-2-3- to the next 1-2-3.

For this practice as well, it is recommended to use a metronome. You could increase the tempo slightly on the metronome, from an 80 to a 90. Try the arpeggio for the C Major (C, E, G) chord and F Major (F, A, C) chord first. We’ll stick to the C Major scale for now at this beginner level, but you can try creating arpeggios for all the remaining chords (D Minor, E Minor, G Major, A Minor, B Diminished) in the scale.

In the upcoming blog post, we explore an interesting concept called dynamics – that’s the variation between loud and soft bits that you hear in most songs. There are certain dynamic controls that you should be aware of with regards to the keyboard. Keep reading to know more about these.