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Scales on the Jankó piano
Below you find illustrations and explanations of the most basic scales on the Jankó piano.
The left red scale is meant for the left hand, the right green scale for the right hand.
We use the standard finger numbering:
1 for the thumb, 2 for the index finger, 3 middle finger, 4 ring finger, and 5 for the pinky.
The fingerings shown below are just suggestions that I found to be most ergonomic. But there are plenty of alternative fingerings that work too, so feel free to experiment :-)
Any of the fingerings are constructed such that you start and end on the same note and the same finger, so you can simply repeat the same pattern across several octaves.
Major scale
The major scale is a sequence of eight notes with the following intervals between them:
2 wholetones, 1 semitone, 3 wholetones, 1 semitone.
Since the Jankó is isomorphic, the fingering for such a scale is always the same, independent of the key you are playing in. The picture shows the C major scale for the left hand and a D# major scale for the right hand. These are just arbitrary examples, you can take the exact same fingering for any other key. Simply start on a note of your choice and follow the exact same pattern that you see in the picture.
Minor scale
The major scale is a sequence of eight notes with the following intervals between them:
1 wholetone, 1 semitone, 2 wholetones, 1 semitones, 2 wholetones.
In the picture, we show the C# minor scale for the left hand and the E minor scale for the right hand. As before, due to the Jankó's isomorphic layout, the exact same fingering can be used for any other key, too.
Pentatonic scale
The penatonic scale is a sequence of six notes with the following intervals between them:
2 wholetones, 1 minor third, 1 wholetone, 1 minor third.
In the picture, we show the C pentatonic scale for the left hand and the D# pentatonic scale for the right hand. The pentatonic scale is particularly useful for improvisation because all the notes contained in it harmonically fit to most of the chords in the key. So mostly you cannot go wrong simply improvising with these notes first. Once you get bored and want to add more spice, try out adding extra notes.
I chose the fingering for this scale in a way that extra notes of e.g. the major/minor scale or the blues scale (see below) can easily be added without changing the basic fingering for the pentatonic scale.
In particular, the "spicy" notes thus become optional and can be inserted when needed but the basic fingering stays the same. This is particularly important for the thumb because it is required for changing the position of the hand, so it when possible (at least for improvising), it's good to avoid constructing fingerings such that the thumb is on a "spicy" note but rather on a note of the pentatonic like here.
Blues scale
The blues scale is a sequence of seven notes with the following intervals between them:
1 minor third, 1 wholetone, 2 semitones, 1 minor third, 1 wholetone.
In the picture, we show the C blues scale for the left hand and the D# blues scale for the right hand. Note that the blues scale results from the pentatonic scale by adding one extra "blue" note (in our example the F# for the left hand, and the A for the right hand). This scale is used a lot in Blues and Jazz and serves as a good starting point for improvisation.
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale simply traverses all notes of the piano in a chromatic way, semitone by semitone. It's useful to practice this scale simply for training your fingers but also because it can be applied in improvisation in e.g. blues or jazz. Adding some chromatic and dissonant elements here and there in a solo can make it sound very interesting!
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