The whole tone scale is a unique scale on the piano that allows a pianist to produce a dreamlike sound effect. One might be familiar with this scale during the movie scenes when a character moves from reality to a dream. To remember how to play this scale, piano players should keep in mind the scale's title -- only play whole tones. By avoiding all the semitones, a piano player will quickly learn to play the entire whole tone scale.
The chromatic scale is a versatile piano scale that can be adapted to almost any type of musical score. This scale is so versatile because it uses all of the keys when it is played. The key to remembering how to play the chromatic scale is to always start and end on the right note. For instance, if a piano player is playing a song on the C chord, then the chromatic scale should begin and end with a C note.
There are 12 major scales on the piano; five of them are sharp scales and six are flat scales. The C scale is neither sharp nor flat. There are several tricks to remembering the order of sharp notes within the scales. All piano players have to remember is the phrase "fat cats get drunk at every bar" -- this mnemonic reminds pianists that F, C, G, D, A, E and B are the correct order of the sharp scales. There is also a quick way to remember the order of flat notes in every scale. Pianists should remember the word "bead" with G and C coming after it. The order of flat notes is as follows: B, E, A, D, G and C.
The natural minor scale is one of three minor scales for the piano and is the most common minor scale. This is considered an essential scale to learn for any piano player. The biggest tip experts give to help students learn the natural minor scale is to tell them to remember where to place their fingers. If playing on the A notes, a pianist should play from A to A hitting only the white keys in order to play the natural minor scale.