Fast, easy, pentatonic scale fingering for blues piano (1/5)

A single, fast fingering for the funky pentatonic scale.
#1 in a series of 7 from the book by Marius Nordal.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• jazz/piano/marius
• nordal/butch
• nordal/pentatonic
• scale/blues
• lesson

[radiokid2]

Guess it depends on the key...but for Eb minor I'd use 5321 431 4321...you can see it's basically the same as RH reversed, but you have alter once in awhile depending where a black key falls.

My comment "The LH is usually the RH fingering simply reversed" says "Usually"....that allows you to alter the occais. finger number but keep the whole RH scheme pretty much intact.

[wartree]

now with the left hand

[radiokid2]

@wartree

The LH is usually the RH fingering simply reversed...! (no joke)

[grzankomuzykant]

@radiokid2 Does reversed left hand means 5421 421 4321 or 4321 421 5421 ?

Thank You for sharing this knowledge with the world :)

[philnoll]

@radiokid2 Why the 1213 at the top? That's so I can continue the scale upwards with the same fingering?

That's great. So are you promoting something here on youtube, because a fingering manual is definitely something I need.

[radiokid2]

@philnoll Your top few notes are a bit off...

Two octave blues going up might be: 1234 1234 1213 (5) the (5) represents the high C or turnaround note.

Going down would be 531 4321 31 4321

[philnoll]

@radiokid2 I'll tell ya, my fingering is pretty bad. I've been playing a Blues scale (C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb) with my 1 and 3. Its bad form I know that, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Now, after watching this video and learning about a two-octave fingering, its seems pretty simple. I can just play that scale using 1234, 1234, 12345. Is that correct? I may still have it wrong. My pinky doesn't normally do anything but turnarounds.

[radiokid2]

@philnoll

Right...the pentatonics are not convenient to play...BUT, the good news is that I'll bet that very little music ever uses a straight pentatonic scale anyway!....anymore than a straight major scale is used much after about 1875.

Most music I suspect, just uses fragments of scales.

Try to invent some cool Pent. fingerings that your hand "likes."....then tell ME about them...I'm still searching!

[philnoll]

@radiokid2 Just tried it today with the Eb pentatonic. I dig it. But there's some strange ones in your next video. No wonder I have a hard time playing in certain keys

[radiokid2]

@philnoll

Sure, 123 12 is a group of very strong fingers and OK for teeny, repetitive little ideas spanning less than an octave....the two octave fingering in the vid will actually transform your hand and mind into a diff. way of thinking.