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The E Major Scale
The E major scale has four sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, G-sharp, and D-sharp. The black keys fall into two pairs, one in each half of the scale, and that symmetry is what makes E major feel so natural under the hand. Once we notice the pairs, the fingering tends to organize itself around them.
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E Major Scale Overview
| E Major Scale Overview | |
|---|---|
| Keyboard Layout |  |
| Staff Layout |  |
| Key Signature | Four sharps (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯) |
| Notes of Scale | E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, D♯, E |
| RH Fingering | 1 2 3 - 1 2 3 4 - 5 |
| LH Fingering | 5 - 4 3 2 1 - 3 2 1 |
| Relative Scale | C-sharp Minor Scale |
| Parallel Scale | E Minor Scale |
Visualize the E major scale layout on the piano
The E major scale has a symmetrical shape: two pairs of black keys, one in each half of the scale, surrounded by white keys. As a terrain, it’s a flat surface with two evenly spaced hills, which is a large part of why it sits so comfortably under the hand.
Read the E major scale on the staff
This is the E major scale on the staff, both hands together, one octave ascending and descending.
Play the E major scale with hands alone
Each hand on its own is the place to begin. The fingering becomes much clearer once we see the scale’s core positions: a group of three notes played with fingers 1-2-3 (red on the charts) and a group of four played with 1-2-3-4 (blue). Between them, they account for the whole scale.
The fingering is the same as C, G, D, and A major. In the right hand, E, F-sharp, and G-sharp form the three-note group and A, B, C-sharp, and D-sharp the four-note group, with the top E on the fifth finger (green). In the left hand, the bottom E takes the fifth finger, F-sharp, G-sharp, A, and B form the four-note group, and C-sharp, D-sharp, and E the three.
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 E major scale with hands together
With the hands together, the core positions stop being much help, because the two hands change position at different moments. What we can follow instead are sync points: places where both hands land on the same finger, or where the fingers form a mirror image of each other.
The 3rd fingers meet on G-sharp and on C-sharp.
The thumbs come together on the white keys A and B, where fingers 1 and 2 form a mirror image, the “crab claw”, between the two pairs of black keys.
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 E major scale to more octaves
Once one octave feels consistent, we can extend the scale further up the keyboard. In the right hand, instead of finishing on the fifth finger, the thumb passes under to E again and the core positions repeat until the top. In the left hand, the core positions simply continue upward; on the way down, the thumb takes the place of the fifth finger on each E until the very bottom, where the fifth finger finishes the scale.
Avoid common mistakes in the E major scale
As in A major, the black keys can arrive faster than the hand is ready for them. Sitting a little further into the keys lets the fingers rest on the black keys as soon as each position changes, instead of reaching for them at the last moment.
Coming down in the left hand, watch for the fourth finger landing on B. Letting the thumb tuck under a little earlier, to begin the core position on B, keeps the fingering reliable.
Other techniques related to the E major piano scale:
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