Printable Piano Music Scales for Beginners

Print and practice all the major and harmonic minor piano music scales with correct fingering.

The scales are organized in groups with comments, so you can learn the fingering easier.

Printable Piano Music Scales in all Major and Harmonic Minor Keys

All the scales are here in one octave, but you can of course practice each piano scale in as many octaves and in any tempo you like.

The scales are organized in order of difficulty following the circle of fifths, but I also teamed the major scales with the parallel harmonic minor scales so that you can see the small changes they actually have.

Many times you can even use the same fingering! Make sure to read the comments in the score to help you further.

Please note that there is no key signature used. This is to make it easier for beginners to quickly learn the scale pattern and fingering without worrying about learning the key signature.

There are 12 Major and 12 Minor Scales

All 12 major scales share the same pattern of whole and half steps between the notes: 

Whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half

This pattern of whole and half steps is what creates the sound of major.

The 12 minor scales, however, come in 3 variations:

1. The Harmonic minor scale uses the same keys as the parallel major scale (same starting note, but major), but lowers the 3rd and the 6th.
2. The Melodic minor scale uses the same keys as the parallel major scale, but lowers the 3rd when ascending (going up) and lowers both the 7th, 6th and third going down.
3. The Natural minor scale uses the same keys as the parallel major scale, but lowers the 3rd, 6th and 7th steps.

Relative Major and Minor

Each major scale has a relative minor scale. They are called "related", since they share the same key signature (the sharps or flats in the beginning of the staff).

So, relative scales share the same amount of sharps or flats. (Your free scales are for beginners- so I chose to write the accidental in front of each note, instead of using the key signature.)

So, for example G major and E minor both have one sharp sign as their key signature.

When you practice the G major scale, you can use the same keys again but instead start and end on E. This is then called the Natural E-minor piano scale!

• Raising the 7th step gives you the Harmonic minor scale.
• Raising the 6th and 7th step going up, and keeping the scale Natural going down gives you the Melodic minor scale.

The scales that are called relative are 1  1/2 steps apart (a small third). From a major scale you will find its relative minor scale 1  1/2 steps down, and from a minor scale 1  1/2 steps up.

Piano Music Scales Fingering Rules

A simple rule when playing scales is not to use your 1st finger on a black key (since it is too short).

The fingering pattern you will see -much more clearly when playing many octaves- is the grouping of fingers in 1 2 3 and 1 2 3 4 patterns.

Try to practice the piano music scales that share the same fingering first, and always hands separately. It is fun to play both- but more important to be able to confidently play one hand at a time without effort.

Now go and do some "finger-jogging" with these piano scale exercises! But remember to start S-L-O-W-L-Y!

Recommended Resources

• Scales, Chords, Arpeggios, and Cadences for the Contemporary Pianist (Book & CD)

Related Pages

• Basic Technique for Playing Piano Scales
  
• Learn 10 Major and Minor Scales the Easy Way!
  
• The C Major Scale
  
• 12 Major Scales for Piano