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The B Minor Scale
The B minor scale has two sharps, F-sharp and C-sharp. The left hand starts on the fourth finger rather than the fifth, so that the thumbs can land on the white keys E and B. What tends to happen is that the left hand starts on 5 out of habit, so let's check that first finger before anything else.
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B Minor Scale Overview
| B Minor Scale Overview | |
|---|---|
| Keyboard Layout |  |
| Staff Layout |  |
| Key Signature | Two sharps (F♯, C♯) |
| Notes of Scale | B, C♯, D, E, F♯, G, A, B |
| RH Fingering | 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 4 - 5 |
| LH Fingering | 4 3 2 1 - 4 3 2 1 |
| Relative Scale | D Major Scale |
| Parallel Scale | B Major Scale |
Visualize the B minor scale layout on the piano
These charts show the overall layout, or terrain, of the B minor scale in each of its three forms.
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
The natural minor has two black keys, C-sharp and F-sharp, each surrounded by white keys, the same notes as D major. Its terrain is mostly flat, with one bump near the bottom and another in the middle.
Read the B minor scale on the staff
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
Here is the B natural minor scale on the staff, one octave up and back down.
Play the B minor scale with hands alone
Let’s take each hand separately first. It helps to think of the scale in terms of its core positions, the two groups of notes the hand can cover without moving: three notes played with 1-2-3 (red on the charts) and four played with 1-2-3-4 (blue).
The left hand doesn’t start on the fifth finger here. In the right hand, B, C-sharp, and D form the three-note group and E, F-sharp, G, and A the four-note group, with the fifth finger on the top B. The left hand starts with the fourth finger on B, so that 3-2-1 play C-sharp, D, and E, and 4-3-2-1 play F-sharp, G, A, and B. That keeps the left thumb on the white keys E and B in every form.
The charts below show the core positions of the B minor scale in each of its three forms.
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
A useful way to work with the core positions is in three stages:
- Block: play all the notes of each core position together, moving up and down the keyboard. This lets us see each position as one shape and get used to the pattern repeating.
- Crawl: play one note at a time, but hold each note down until the whole position is under the hand, then pause before moving on. This builds the physical sense of each grouping.
- Anticipate: play legato, releasing each finger as the next one plays, while keeping the next position in mind before we arrive at it.
Play the B minor scale with hands together
When we put the hands together in B minor, the sync points are the thing to follow: the moments where both hands land on the same finger, or where the fingers form a mirror image. They fall in the same places in all three forms, even though some of the notes change, and the examples below use the harmonic minor.
Fingers 2 and 3 form a mirror image on C-sharp and D, and fingers 2, 3, and 4 form another on F-sharp, G, and A-sharp.
The thumbs come together on E.
The same three stages work for sync points:
- Block: find each sync point and play it on its own, outside the scale.
- Crawl: play the scale up and down, stopping on each sync point to look at it and notice how it feels under the hands. There’s no need for legato here.
- Anticipate: play in a steady rhythm, seeing each sync point coming and landing on it with a slight accent.
Expand the B minor scale to more octaves
Once one octave feels consistent, we can extend the scale. The right hand passes the thumb under to B instead of finishing on the fifth finger; the left hand continues the core positions, with the thumb on each B above the starting note and the fourth finger only at the very bottom.
Natural Minor
Harmonic Minor
Melodic Minor
Here is the B natural minor scale in two octaves, ascending and descending, with fingering.
Avoid common mistakes in the B minor scale
It’s natural to want the fifth finger on the bottom note, but in B minor the left hand begins on the fourth. That’s what keeps the thumbs on E and B.
The second note is a black key, and it’s easy to slide onto C-natural while the hand is still settling. Placing the second finger in the right hand, or the third in the left, over the C-sharp before starting avoids it.
Other techniques related to the B minor piano scale:
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