Piano Video Lesson: Why You Should Practice Scales Two Octaves Apart

Welcome to LivingPianos.com your online piano store. I'm Robert Estrin. And today's tip is why you should practice your scales two octaves apart. Two octaves apart? You might wonder why, what's the value of that? Typically you play scales an octave apart, right?

I mean you might not do it that fast, but the whole... I just wanted to show you quickly. So that's the typical way you practice scales, right? And by the way, if you don't practice your scales in four octaves the way I just did, you should start doing it. It's very important to cover the entire range of the piano, because you might not think it's different playing up here, or playing down here, when it's the same notes and the same fingering. But it absolutely is. Because your body's at a different angle. It feels different. Get comfortable playing the whole keyboard. The good news is once you learn one octave, it's all the same, right? So go for the full four octaves. Like in Hanon 60 Selected Studies for the Virtuoso Pianist. Has all the scales and arpeggios with the correct fingering. So what about this idea of practicing two octaves apart? Well, the whole reason for it, is that you can hear the hands independently from one another when you're two octaves apart.

Much easier to hear sloppiness, isn't it? When you're playing two octaves apart, I talked about playing in contrary motion also. These are all techniques so that you can hear the clarity and evenness of you're playing. So this is a quick video. It's just a quick tip for you. If you have never done it before, try playing your scales to octaves apart. At first it's going to feel a little unnerving. First of all, you can't look at both hands, but you know what? Truth be known, you don't really have to look at your hands so much on scales. The notes are all right next to each other. But you can hear better playing two octaves apart. I'd love to hear from you if any of you have never tried it before, and you try it out, let me know how it goes. And if you find improvement in your scales for practicing this way. Again, I'm Robert Estrin here at LivingPianos.com your online piano store. Thanks for joining me and subscribing anytime you like.

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