Easy Piano Scales: Lessons, Charts & PDF's

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Are you ready to learn more about piano scales?

Print and learn to play piano scales in major and minor as well as in other interesting modes, in the lessons below. This is a resource with free piano lessons and printable scale charts for beginners. Let's get playing!

Why Learn Piano Scales?

Learning and practicing scales is an important part of learning how to play the piano. The study of scales will teach you about technique, proper fingering, as well as one of the most important building blocks of a musical composition; the tonality, or Key.

Good news is that the most common scales used for piano playing are not that many, and they don’t take very long to learn either!

>>Click here for a popular online piano method teaching you piano step by step.

2 Top Tips for Learning Piano Scales

1. Learn Your Scales by Heart

When you learn scales, you should teach yourself to play them from memory. A book with scales and chords is great to have as a reference, but always aim to learn your scales by heart.

Why? First of all, it’s easier! But it is also the best way to really check what you are doing and to pay full attention to how it sounds, feels and looks to play.

How do you learn scales by heart? Easy. Simply learn how a music scale is built, and the logic and music theory behind it will help you to always remember them!

2. Practice Scales S-L-O-W-L-Y First

Starting at a slow tempo and then gradually building up speed is also important. Remember that you will not learn scales faster if you start playing them fast.

You need to gradually build up control and balance. Patience will pay back many times over!

It’s also useful to learn how to use a metronome and check how your speed improves day by day. Although it's a good idea to practice playing scales every day as a warm up and technique routine, don't overdo it.

Obviously, just learning scales will not make you a great pianist..

Try to not spend more than about 20% of your practice time for scale practice.

Printable Piano Scales & Charts

First Piano Scales to Learn

The C-major Scale: This is the one most of us learn first. Learn about it here, and some useful exercises, tips and tricks to play it perfectly!

The Technique of Playing Scales for Beginners: Learn the proper technique for playing scales that are using black keys, but these are MUCH easier than you think!

How Many Major Scales Are There? What is the difference between major and minor? How many major scales are there really? And how about the scale formula? Lots of questions... Learn about it here!

major and minor piano scales

Major Scale Chart: If you don't want notes, here are picture scales with all the major scales plus fingering for each hand. Great tool for visual learners! See below for all the minor scales as well.

The 12 Major Piano Scales Pdf: I knew you would ask! Here they are, printable with fingering and study guide. Ready to print and learn for free!

Learn 10 Major and Minor Scales The Easy Way: Here is a trick to quickly learn how to play 5 major and 5 minor scales on the piano.

All Major and Minor Scales: Learn how to study the scales more effectively in different groups regarding similarity and difficulty. Here you will also find ideas on what scales to study in which order.

The Piano Minor Scales: Learn about the Natural, Harmonic and Melodic minor scales, as well as why and how they are different.

Learn 3 Minor Scale Patterns easily, without reading notes in this Video lesson tutorial for beginners.

Tip: Get yourself a good piano scales sheet music book like: The Complete Book of Scales, Chords and Arpeggios. Every serious pianist needs something like this as a reference.

Piano Scale Charts for Beginners

The piano scale charts show you exactly how the scales look like on the piano keyboard. The charts are great for visual learners, and for learning scales quickly by heart.