Category Archives: Technique

Scales – Why they’re so important (Piano Teacher in Wallsend, NSW)

When we learn to read, we don’t begin with War and Peace, or the works of Shakespeare. We begin with learning letters and sounds, then blending those letters, then short words, then rules. It is a process. Learning music is no different. Simply learning what key on the piano is what note name doesn’t mean you can immediately play a Bach fugue. It is a process.

Scales are part of this process; they are the backbone of most music we play. They are the foundation of chords. They help to build muscle memory and dexterity. They are so important! Yet they are the hardest thing to convince students to practise.

Practising scales is crucial for piano students for several reasons, each contributing to both technical development and musical understanding. Here are the main reasons:

  1. Develops Finger Strength and Dexterity: Scales help build strength and agility in the fingers, which is essential for playing more complex pieces. Regular practise ensures smooth, controlled movements and coordination between hands.
  2. Improves Hand Coordination: Scales allow students to practise both hands together in various patterns, improving hand coordination and independence. This is important for playing pieces that require different actions from each hand.
  3. Enhances Technique and Control: Practising scales with proper fingering and hand positioning teaches good technical habits, which translate to better control over dynamics, articulation, and phrasing in more challenging music.
  4. Develops Knowledge of Key Signatures: Scales help familiarise students with all major and minor key signatures, improving their ability to recognise and understand the structure of different keys. This knowledge is essential for reading music and playing in various tonalities.
  5. Aids Sight-Reading: By regularly practising scales, students become more comfortable with the patterns found in music, which helps improve sight-reading skills. They will be able to recognise intervals, patterns, and harmonic structures faster.
  6. Improves Musical Ear: Playing scales helps develop a better sense of pitch and tonal relationships, improving the student’s ability to recognise intervals, chords, and melodies by ear.
  7. Builds Speed and Accuracy: Practising scales at various tempos allows students to gradually increase their speed and play more accurately, which is essential for performing more advanced repertoire.
  8. Develops Mental Focus and Discipline: Scales require focused and repetitive practice, fostering discipline and a deep connection to the music. Regular scale practise also trains the mind to maintain attention to detail and to practice with intention.
  9. Establishes a Foundation for Technique in Complex Pieces: Scales are the building blocks for more complex piano techniques like arpeggios, chords, and runs. Mastery of scales gives students a solid foundation for tackling more advanced technical challenges.
  10. Teaches Musical Phrasing and Dynamics: When practising scales, students can experiment with different dynamics, articulations, and phrasing, which will help them incorporate expressive elements into their playing in a more sophisticated way.
Piano teacher Wallsend NSW

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.

Can you play the piano with long fingernails? Of course you can.

But should you?

That question has an entirely different answer.

Long fingernails cause a multitude of problems for a pianist in the areas of:

  • Hand position
  • Control
  • Fluency and Speed
  • Tone and Expression
  • Risk of injury and pain

The fingertips are a crucial connection between you and the piano.

These points are relevant to hand position in general and important for all pianists, but long fingernails will immediately compromise good hand position.

Hand Position

From the very first lessons at the instrument, correct hand position is stressed and supported. This position is natural and requires no extra effort. If the nails are too long, the fingers are extended, the position is no longer natural and everything becomes more difficult. Having the fingers stretched out exerts unnecessary strain on the hands, as well as making movement much more awkward. 

One very important aspect of hand position is developing strong, supportive first knuckles (the ones nearest the nail). If the fingernails are too long, it is impossible to support this knuckle and typically the knuckle will collapse inwards. At this point the knuckle and finger ‘lock’ into place, severely impeding movement as the finger sinks into the key. If the knuckle doesn’t collapse, there is a tendency for the finger to slip on the keys, or a ‘wiping’ motion is introduced, because the knuckle isn’t supporting the finger.

Control

With the correct hand position you can feel the keyboard and have more control over how your hands and the keys connect. Piano keys don’t simply go up and down; there is so much nuance available. Where the finger is on the key, the depth of pressure, the speed of the attack and how the finger approaches the key are all elements of control that are lost if the fingers are flat.

Fluency and Speed

You can possibly get away with playing with flat fingers if you are playing some types of music such as chords and slow passages, but for anything requiring speed and precision, flat fingers are definitely out. The photo below shows how the hands would be positioned and you can see it would be impossible to move quickly around the keys (particularly around the black keys). The length of the nail means the pad of the finger would struggle to connect with the key and the nail itself cannot depress the key.

Long nails simply get in the way of fluent movement. Playing may end up sounding muddy or clumpy as the hands struggle to move smoothly to their next position.

Tone and Expression

All the other points lead to this. You play an instrument because you want to produce beautiful music. You want to play expressively. We don’t always keep the fingers curved, but you need to have the choice. Different articulations require different techniques and hand shapes. For example, finger staccato requires great control of the first knuckle to produce crispness, whereas flattening slightly and using more of the pad may produce a warmer, singing tone.

You feel the keys, know the weight of the keys and learn how you can produce different sounds with just a tiny change of your hands and fingers.

A good hand position that can control tone and expression

Long nails mean flat fingers that cannot grip the keys, which results in only one level of tone quality; everything sounds the same.

Additionally, long nails usually result in a constant “click click” sound as the nails hit the keys… most distracting for the listener!

Injury and Pain

Nails can get caught in between the keys, especially when you are navigating around the black keys, or when moving quickly through larger intervals. The result? Nails being torn off. Additionally, continual pressure on the end of the nail from contact with the keys can cause pain in the nail bed, particularly with false nails.

The incorrect hand position that results from long fingernails creates unnecessary tension that moves through the hand, wrist and forearm resulting in painful strain to connective tissues.

If students don’t like the sound they are producing, they won’t continue to play (and they certainly won’t want to practise). The most common means of sabotage are a poor instrument – either non-weighted keyboards, or out of tune pianos – and poor sound as a result of poor hand position. We want students to have control over what and how they are playing and to love the sounds they produce.

Happy students controlling their touch with short nails and good hand position 😊

If you are considering music lessons for your child or for yourself, please contact me to discuss the options. Piano lessons are conducted at my studio in Wallsend, NSW.