Juliana Han Teaches "Chopin" Scales 

This hits the nail EXACTLY on the head. Whenever I have the opportunity to teach piano to real beginners, before they learn anything about reading music, I start with the B major scale, for all the reasons that Juliana says, plus more. I can teach them about how to move their hands over the keyboard and their fingers on the keys, trying to get them into good habits before they learn bad ones. They can learn to play multiple octaves, hands together, both parallel and in opposing directions, and they will start out their piano experience loving to play scales, before they learn anything at all about musical notation! Unlike my own experience: I was taught the traditional way, beginning with C major, which is indeed the hardest. It taught me to be afraid of black keys; and when I learned to read music, I was terrified of playing in B major for a long time because of the accidentals in the written score. But the keyboard was constructed with black keys precisely because this fits the human hand and allows the player to locate himself on the keyboard solely by touch. (I actually play most of the time with my eyes closed!) Once I discovered how comfortable it is to play using ALL the black keys, I then overcame my fear of reading music written in these keys.

Wow, this makes horrendously good sense.

I think Horowitz was once asked what was the most difficult piano piece to play - he said it was tie between Liszt's Feux Follets and the C-major scale. :-)

She sounds life a really good teacher.

Ms. Han is truly mesmerizing. So friendly and engaging, non-intimidating. Btw, if I’m not mistaken, Liszt had a twist on this, teaching E first - which dips a toe in the water of the “non-clumping” scales… but, personally, I’ve always preferred to start students off with B, Db and Gb, as she (Chopin) does - but have only just now learned that that’s what Chopin did! Thanks, Juliana!

Eigeldinger book on "Chopin as Teacher" tells this and more, it is actually very interesting. He also noted when a student had problems with speed, "practice diminished up and down an get them even". But from there to play a piece there's still a stretch to go (sorry for the pun). ❤

I stumbled onto clumping on my own when working out problems with pieces. Very useful

Interesting. I learned it all third-hand and as a "fun fact" - to start on Db (index finger on Db, exploring the piano by pointing at the first of each group of black keys) but the B major part adds so much more context to this!

Excellent teaching! Thank you for the video

From a players perspective C major isnt the easiest, that makes sense. But from a composers perspective it totally is.

I am a guitarist and self taught pop piano, yes middle C, G and F are my favorite go to keys. This video is fascinating and changed my perspective. Thank you and I am now a subscriber.

Great lesson. I just figured out that all of the black keys in the last movement of Mendelssohn Op. 6 actually help you to play it faster.

All my favorite keys, because as we all know here they fit our hands wonderfully.

You're pulling the blinds from my eyes. Thank you so much!

I like the key of A. As a composer it works well as a high and low key, and A minor is a very solemn key, and I also frequently modulate to F# minor, which is one of my favorite minor keys.

Wonderful video! Thank you for sharing.

I understand the arguement, it makes sense - and who am I to argue with Chopin or Juliana Han! However, I first learnt the piano when I as about 12 years old, starting with the scale of C major. I never thought, "Wow, this is difficult, my fingers are different lengths" - I simply played it, easily as I recall, without thinking and then went on to learn all the other scales in order.

spot on. I thaught my little brother (aged 5 at the time) the b major scale, and he never practiced, yet next couple weeks after, he played it again to perfection.. so all of those fretting with the nonsense that b major is too advanced blahbfah may just fall asleep with their no sharps or flats policy..for a long while.

This is just brilliant. Kudos!

You make my life easier after watching your video. 👍 Thank you

fair enough, however i believe one of the most difficult triad arpeggios is F#.

This is pretty cool

I am super impressed after checking her bio! How often do you see a pianist with a JD from Harvard Law School, a biochemistry degree from Harvard, and AND degree from Julliard? WOW!

Interesting concept!

EXCELLENT! Thanks VERY much.

Totally agree (!) Thise keys are so much more clearly marked out. Its much harder to improvise in C (for me) because it can be difficult to see where you are. I actually learned B first after C when i first started (self taught. ..)

As spanish speaker, the Seymour Bersntein's classes for me are excellent cause he speakes slowly and clearly. No so that

Love the clump scales!

Just should clarify what is meant by long fingers (2,3,4) and short fingers (1,5).

I agree with this concept. Also, to point something out...not as a critique but as a word of caution...when playing that scale from 3:45 to the end it looks her pinky is sticking up. If so, that is a sign of tension. This can be alleviated by ensuring you use the weight of your arm to depress the keys fully into the keybed, don’t push the keys down with your finger muscles.

Ofcourse it is the most difficult scale TO PLAY FAST. However for a beginner C majir is the most PLAYABLE scale also from the point of Tone/ Semitone introduction.

Thank you for this, I almost agree with what's being said. When it comes to the left hand fingering in B Major, in my opinion the 5th finger is better here than the 4th because then there is less tension between 3rd and 4th finger, the hand is more relaxed and you'd have a start which feels comfortable with the 5th of the left and the 1st finger of the right hand.

I'd learn piano if she were my teacher. She makes everything simple.

Excellent advice.

C major is certainly the most difficult to play in for any advanced pieces. The black keys fit the hand much better.

I think this would work for someone who already knows or can read music. But I think it'd be kind of hard introducing what sharps and flats are for a beginner.

My favorite scales is the blues hexatonic scale

This was super interesting, thank you!

As an amateur piano player, it never ceases me to amaze me how people think some keys are "more difficult" than others. Why is this taught? As far as I am concerned, they are only different on the keyboard--- NOT "more difficult". The steps are exactly the same for every key. I use fingerings recommended by piano teachers. I practice all 12 scales major and minor, both hands, two octaves up and down. I usually start on C but it doesn't matter. I do NOT care if this is the "Correct Classical" or "Chopin Method" or not. All I know is that none are "more difficult", only different and I have to change the fingering as necessary. It works for me and I'm going to keep doing it.

yes cmajor isnt the easiest to play, but as you said at start, there's a reason why it's generally the first taught scale: because early students (especially kids) are not advanced enough to deal with sharps/flats and understand the theory behind those scales, whereas c major is easy in theory because it's all white keys, so they can practice easy scaling and fingering/crossings on that scale. and their future early beginner pieces will mostly all be in c major as well ergonomically, Bmajor and a few others are indeed the easiest scales

Hmm, that fourth finger thingy also works for the B minor scale for the left hand, n'est-ce pas?

Try mirror scales of B and E...Rudolph Ganz,,a great musician ,,,,,,,

What I am wondering is how does this help one learn to play or read a piece of music? Whether one uses this Chopin method or starts the other way by learning the C major first?

I fully agree. C major absolutely is the hardest major scale to learn, because there are no black keys to reference. You have to be extremely cognizant of the fingerings as you practice it.

i always warm up with C7alt scale. its very organic. its basically B major without the B but a C instead (but please dont teach that to the kids like this lol) (a mode of Db melodic minor)

Can anyone explain why she only named the enharmonic key for F# major (Gb major) but not for Db major (C# major)? Why the inconsistency? 🤔

Wow just wow l. I didn't know Chopin taught C major last

Visual approach is great for technic. C major is a theory foundation.

And Suddenly It all Makes Sense

Fantastic

I would say most people watching this have piano experience, so they know what Juliana is talking about, and they understand it. But for a true day one beginner, this makes no sense and/or is too complicated. What she says is true, but beginners need something they can intuit quickly, so they can keep their momentum of learning and not get frustrated early on. For this, C major makes perfect sense. Yeah, Db major might fit the hand marginally better, but a beginner doesn't even understand the concept of a key center. You don't want to be spending the first lesson explaining what a half step and whole step is, and telling them, "Okay, now what's a whole step from Db? And then from Eb? Oh, plot twist, now go up a half step! And did I mention, you need to start on your second finger?" No. You want to be able to say, "Here's C, and there's the next C. Okay, now play all the white keys in between the two in order. Finger it 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5." And I'm not sure of Chopin really taught C major last because of its difficulty, but I would say that a key like F major or G major is arguably way more awkward as far as the way it fits the hand.

The shape of the hands~!

wow genius!!!

You didn't mention what is possibly the most contentious issue in scale playing: do we pass the thumb under the hand in an ascending scale? Some makntain that this is essential, others state that in a fast tempo this simply cannot happen, especially if one has a short thumb, because in a fast scale the hand should not move laterally, as this leads to unevenness.

The issue is the other things that enable to playing. These are hard to conceptualize. It is a whole other art. Accomplished pianists teach students already selected for these "other things".

Anyone knows where to find Chopin's teachings?

I play guitar so it all ends up the same level of ease/difficulty. I feel a bit spoiled. ;)

Horowitz said much the same but there's nothing wrong with beginning with a slightly harder scale.

Eyes wide open. Thank You

Its interesting knowledge, but the reason we teach C major first is because its the simplest thematically not practically. None of the scales are that hard. The order you learn them in should be about the key of the music your playing and It's easiest for young beginners to learn the 7 degrees of the major scale as all white notes first. Very easy to remember and focus on the fingering

I love you

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Don't understand a thing she said, but watched the whole thing

I always thought C Major was the hardest scale

I thought I was trash thinking C major scale is harder than most scales

This is the classic blocking out of shapes...in other words, she hits 1-2-3 as a chord...and then sez "This is infinitely fast...now just slow it down." Ha! Applies to any passage or arpeggio.

Obsession with C major, yes. I blame that John Thompson guy!

Taking piano lessons most likely you learned C major first then G, then D Then A, on to E and so on - the sharp keys. Then you progressed to the flat keys making them out to be the ‘odd’ keys going the other way on the scale of fifths. By the time you became intermediate running scales and arpeggios actually became more agile with the keys that had more sharps or flats in them. By the time you realized this it didn’t matter anymore because you were intermediate going onto advanced but you wondered why was you forced to start with the most difficult key?

Wonderful teaching....... beautiful woman!

There are several reasons the game Nostalgia is annoying to play using piano technique, and one of them is that it doesn't have any black keys.

Hum... I read somewhere that Chopin would start with E major. It's easy to do inverted movement in scales (because it's mirrored) wich helps with hand independence. Even so i don't belive Chopin had that many begginers to work with or pianists with no reading skills. If your student doesn't know what is a key signature, you will struggle to teach effectively this concepts.

i can't play a piano i don't even have one in my house i need to attend to my class this morning why am i watching this at 1.30 am

Neat stuff! Thanks. Will you be my teacher please?

Sure ...Simple reason C major is easier is because there are no sharps and flat to memorise...I'll play anything in C major..but ask me to play in G sharp then its chaotic.. lol

3:22 isso está absolutamente errado, tem que ser o quinto dedo, não o quarto, por que perde a lógica de chopin nessa escala dos dedos mais compridos nas teclas pretas. compridos

I have a question. What’s the difference between scales and the scales you find on a fish? Are they somehow related to piano or is it just coincidence they both are the same? Also what’s a chopin?

Most great works are not n C major

What a fox

No....you agree with HIM

C major is the most difficult.

When I started playing around with my grandmother's piano, my instinct was to clump black keys like this. A piano teacher told me that was wrong, and told me to do all right-hand scales as t i m t i m a p and left-hand scales as a m i p a m i p. It was so hard to coordinate. Watching this I feel so vindicated!

She is cute, wow!

“One expert Chopin, he agrees with me” C’mon! what are you talking about?!?! You should rather say you agree with him.

Pseudo-knowledge:by this time, the passing of the thumb was not in current use, hence start in any other key than C major!

Just teach all the scales to your student in the cycle of 5ths so that your adding 1 accidental for each new scale that they learn. Then when they play pieces they understand dominant and sub dominant modulations.

B is probably the easiest.

C major is harder because there are no landmarks. D major is the easiest.

Chopin had a sense of sarcasm to weed out the wanna-be’s

That's why op. 10 no. 1 is horribly difficult..

Deceptive title.

Nothing in this video is original. Any good teacher knows that. Any good teacher would apply this information when it works for a particular student.

Clumps are for chumps.

You don't need her for this. If she can't teach...

It would be virtually impossible to teach average BEGINNING students the 3 scales listed. They should not start with C either. Either F G or possibly Bflat represent the correct starting point. No reasons given : the above is true !!! D flat Csharp minor are the best keys in the whole world. E minor seems to be pretty good as well !

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