The RIGHT Way to Practice Pentatonics

Did you know that you're probably practicing pentatonic scales the wrong way? Peter Martin shows you an exercise to fix your fingering.

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What's goin' on everybody? Peter Martin here for 2 Minute Jazz. Want to talk to you about pentatonics. I've got a brand new exercise for you over C minor, or E flat major, however you wanna think about it. And we go through two different levels, three different rhythms for each one.

The first thing we're doing, we're starting down here, an octave below middle C. Too many of you are practicing only in this [upper] range of the instrument and then you end up soloing only in these two octaves. We got great stuff down here. Great little tenor region of the piano we wanna explore. So if you wanna play it, you gotta practice in there, okay?

So we're going up. And then we're (on four) coming down and here's our shape, skipping. Lots of use of the four. A lot of you are just playing with one two three and there's some false information goin' out here that you only have to use three fingers. We've got five fingers. If you're not gonna practice with the fourth and the fifth, they're never gonna get strong and independent and be able to at least come close to equaling one two three.

So many situations, what we have to be able to play with strength and agility with our fourth and fifth finger, so we gotta practice it. So I've worked that into the fingering here. And we're just changing up the rhythm.

Level 2A, same thing: goin' up straight. Pentatonic. Now we gotta new shape. And this is really based upon something a lot of players use. That's just going up a half step. So it gets your hand ready for that. And now we're introducing a lot of fifth finger. A lot of you are gonna wanna go four or three there. But the idea is we wanna keep that wrist smoothly gliding up and down.

Pentatonics. Happy practicing!

[pianopeter]

Warning: I go FAST in this video, but see description for a longer version of similar concepts. 😀

[BlackBearCustomKydex]

Man, Peter...your videos are probably the single best resource of fresh ways to improve our individual practice time. A wide range of topics is represented on your channel and my favorite thing is that you express the ideas in a very consumable way that shows HOW to think; not WHAT to think. Public educators should take note!

[theodorekorbos]

Thank you Mr. Martin I appreciate the lesson and greatly appreciate the study guide 😊

[shesking]

I am enjoying these exercises!! Do you have a pdf of your preferred finger numbers for all 12 keys?

[ginzamusicofficial]

I love your left hand comping style under these .. so judicious delicious and rhythmic ..your left hand is a genius what do you feed that thing!?

[KwoliToli]

Wonderful lesson!! So what fingers do you suggest to use to run up and down the pentatonic scale?

[Jsteeeeze]

I actually thought you were going to yell "BITCH!" after saying pentatonics at the end

[fabiomaggioni]

Hi @pianopeter, do you have a PDF worksheet for remaining keys that you did not cover in the one linked above? Thanks

[nezkeys]

I put the video on x2 speed and interestingly still understood what he was saying with his voice lol, and could still hear the basic scale he was playing for most of it. At 0.25x is hilarious tho

This speed change option is funny, lol 😅

[jeffroberts_tunes]

Love the sound but dang couldn't you just unpack the fingering you're using, since you *emphasize* that fingering matters?

[joshuaglennwilson]

It looks like you're referencing a written doc of some sort with specific exercises. Is that sheet music available somewhere?

[MrFree-vjqj]

can you go faster? I think it would be more educational.

[ปุ๊มหิงษาพู้นแหล่ว]

It would be great if you played it slow.

[shomarinichols]

Trying to apply this to guitar😂😂
Headache

[jasneskis]

Too fast to learn anything. You play nice. So what are pentatonics?

[edbergquist]

if you could slow down a little would be nice...

[fogsworthheperstein]

Yep he's fast but that's what rewind for

[XplusX]

Art Tatum did pentatonic runs with three fingers. Guess you’re better than him right?

[BluesImprov]

You know, I respect you a great deal. . .BUT. . .I can practice a series of "shapes" in one part of the keyboard and play that same shape an octave lower with no problem. . .And I'm NOT really that good. Also, fingerings are very personal for me. The size of my fingers doesn't allow me to do much of what guys like you do, so I couldn't care less about the "proper" fingering for anything. I have to go with whatever my hands are capable of. . .That's why I'll never be any good or "acceptable" to experienced players who would happily point out that I'm doing things wrong. I'll just happily get as good as I can with the "fingers" I have and happily ignore the "experts" who would gleefully say I'll never be any good. It's the same with my artwork and photography. . .I DO NOT care what other photographers or artists say is the proper way to do ANYTHING. . .I do things my way and get very good results. As I get older I've come to realize that dwelling on what others think of my work, especially my photography, has been a waste of time. I no longer seek either the approval or especially the advice of others regarding my photography or artwork. And I don't approach my art or photography with artistic theory or principles in mind. I do what I think looks good and very, very often end up creating a very good image. Same is true of my musical efforts at the keyboard.

[jamescicero]

Peter doesn't go slow and explain about the fingering. He's too interested in "showing off" his speed