I’m thrilled to announce that the Black Key Smart Scales are available now!
I’ve spoken many times about how I used to particularly dread teaching one octave scales hands together. But that aversion was even greater when I got to the Black key scales.
Black key scales have complications all their own. And many teachers even find playing in black keys more challenging. You are not alone if you find that to be the case!
Why are Black Key Scales Hard?
Black key scales are challenging because they:
- Begin on different fingers than students have used for beginning a white key scale
- Use more black keys and can feel intimidating
Most importantly:
- The scale fingering often doesn’t make sense unless you play more than one octave of the given scale. To the student, it feels as if they had to learn a G Major RH scale fingering starting on a B with their 3rd finger. It feels peculiar and arbitrary.
How Does Black Key Smart Scales Help?
Because black key scales are so challenging, I worked to make Black Key Smart Scales especially effective at familiarizing students with these quirky scales. By moving both up AND down from the tonic, they explore the feel of the scales from every angle. Sometimes the notes move up and down by interval to give the student extra practice feeling the shapes of the scale.
Here’s an example:
More Pages of Practice Than Usual
Practicing scales straight up and back down is rarely the best way to learn how they feel. So Black Key Smart Scales works to help students learn the unique feeling of each key.
But because black key scales are even more challenging than white key scales, I have given students even more opportunities to practice these black key scales. So there are more examples for each black key scale than in White Key Smart Scales. Even the Greatest Hits Section is expanded to give students extra practice.
New Scale Reference Pages
Additionally, I’ve added a Scale Reference Page for each key in case teachers want to present the “regular” scale before or after they do their Smart Scales. Smart Scales now provide everything you’ll need to teach scales effectively, and pleasantly.
So whether or not you get Black Key Smart Scales for your students or to improve your own reading and fluency in the black keys, I think you’ll find it especially effective and beautiful to practice.
I hope you and your students enjoy them as much as my students and I have!
Here’s where you can get the Black Key Smart Scales:
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$49.99
