A couple of months ago I was getting oriented to the keyboard, since piano is not my primary instrument. I ran across two systems for orienting for all the key signatures, but they had the same idea in common: going along the I chords of a scale, and the fact that we have five fingers for playing those chords, which is important for the piano as a principle.
The system for scales that is embedded in the other thread is preceded by a chord exercise which Betty taught me, which also holds other principles. As follows:
The circle of fifths gives us all the keys in ascending order of sharps, and descending order of flats. I.e. C major (no sharps or flats), G major (one sharp), D major (two sharps) etc. So the ascending order of keys in the circle of fifths is CGDAEBF#C#. The next key is always has the starting note or tonic that was the fifth note of the preceding key. Thus, in C major, G is the fifth note, and the fifth note is is also the tonic of G major, which is the next key in the circle of fifths.
When we play the I chord, we use five fingers, and on the right hand, the pinky or # 5 rests on the 5th note, which is also the note for the tonic of the next key in the circle. Follow so far? We get a visual and tactile way of orienting ourselves. An exercise ensues from this:
You rest your right hand on the first five notes of the C major scale so that you are covering CDEFG. You play the I chord: CEG. Your fifth finger is on G. Move your hand so that your thumb is on that G, and now you are covering the five notes, GABCD. Play the I chord GBD. Move your hand to cover DEF#GA. Play I chord DF#A. etc.
As you become accustomed to the patterns of what and black keys for the sharps and flats you move from chord to chord along the circle of fifths this way until your hands can find their way easily to each starting position of the scale. As with any instrument, you use the unique properties of the piano to orient yourself. This property is that your fifth finger of your right hand (thumb of left) tells you visually and tactilely where the next chord of the next key is. You end up building a tactile and visual map that allows you to move around with ease to whatever key signature you want.
The ensuing exercise is one that I now use as a warm-up: You go up and down the keyboard in the manner described above, playing the I chords. However, there is a next step in which you play the root and inversions of the I chords so that you end up having all three configurations. This is a common pattern that pianists use and which is inherent in music. So when you play CEG, you also play the inversions, going CEG EGC GCE and back down if you wish, doing the same for the keys of G etc.
STEP TWO
Having oriented yourself along the keyboard with the chords you can fill in the holes for the scale itself. This is where Betty's description in the other thread comes in. It is also why in that post she mentions with what finger you find the fifth note. The preceding exercise tells us the significance of that fifth note. At this point the emphasis has shifted to the tetrachord, and we are no longer interested in the five fingers. that was yesterday's emphasis. When we play a scale, we use four fingers, shift via the thumb and play four more notes. The scale when played on the piano comes in groupings of four, or tetrachords. I notice that in Betty's description yesterday, those two tetrachords are initially covered by two separate hands placed side by side. You end up very clearly perceiving that division and the patterns within each tetrachrod.
What I see in all of this is an orientation that is not primarily intellectual. You get the patterns of scales, chords, key signatures, into your hands and what I call the body-mind, where body and mind talk to each other. It's the same thing that happens when you are playing chords and runs on the guitar (I played classical guitar).
OTHER
I ran into a similar approach, but without the circle of fifths, around the same time that I was learning the preceding chord exercise. I wanted to understand the chord symbols used by the jazz crowd and they brought me to a site where a similar exercise is used. The difference is that the order of keys goes by patterns of black and white keys. All key signatures that have, for example, black white black, are learned as one grouping. They also move about in root and first and second inversion, and create a routine of covering all the keys. Personally I stayed with the circle of fifths, but I adopted the idea of being aware of the black-white-black groupings.
http://psrtutorial.com/Resources/R_ChordSecrets/r_chordsecrets.html However, if you go far enough in that system, you are right back to the circle of fifths.
Principles I picked up a few principles that I think answer the kind of questions you are asking, namely how to get oriented physically on the keyboard and think pianistically I suppose, rather than a guitarist trying to play the piano.
- The scale is divided into tetrachords, and we have five fingers. which also allows us to use groupings of four fingers.
- The fifth note of a scale brings us to the starting note of the next scale in the circle of fifths (for flats you descend).
- Physically, our five-finger hand spans up to that fifth note, so we have an instant orientation, especially when playing chords.
- Pianists are very aware of groupings of black and white keys. When you get more into it, you'll find that some of those groupings affect fingering choice since it's awkward to use the pinky on a black key. There are memorized fingerings, or one can get the general principle behind it.
- The hand can expand or contract to cover a different number of piano keys. Being aware of how many keys you intend to cover, and initially being aware of the five you keys you naturaly cover, will give you a sense of "place" so that you will play with ease and without hesitation. When you move to a new hand position, be aware of placing your whole hand, and that you are covering those five keys, and what that range is - not intellectually, just have a sense of it.
These are the things that helped me orient. I now do the circle of fifths chord as a daily exercise. Knowing that I, IV, V cover every single note of a scale I have also invented another exercise as a warm-up: I play each note of the scale and chord the suitable chord and its inversions, then play the next note and do the same. I'm hoping it will make some things automatic (it seems to).
