Basic Keys: Getting Started with Scales

The ability to move, produce tone, and visually identify patterns within chords and scales is universal to ALL percussion keyboard instruments. These skills are specifically designed to the demands of percussionists, and fill in many of the gaps left by a school band approach – which is designed primarily for the needs wind players.

A basic approach to scales and patterns is sufficient for most players, but those wishing to advance to more professional repertoire will need to invest a considerable amount of time on the fundamentals of body position, motion, and pattern recognition.

Download and print this worksheet to help guide your practice. This is for ALL major scales, and includes details for beginning One Octave “Typewriter” scales, the developing Visual Scale Pattern recognition, and the more comprehensive “Artist” Scales modeled after the work of L.H. Stevens.

Following these basics, deeper study with 2-mallet requires work on patterns, breaking up the straight line of scales into more usable and complex layered patterns.

Download and print this worksheet to help guide your practice. This is for the first 4 patterns and videos.

STOP HERE if you’ve been studying this set of material non-stop from the beginning. The patterns that follow are all great and useful, but this is as far as you need to go for a strong foundation. Go to Basic Drumming or explore the other topic areas before returning to complete this later. Well-Roundedness is a key trait in a successful percussionist, and this is a great place to stop and go work on something else for a while.

Download and print this worksheet to help guide your practice. This is for the next 4 patterns and videos.

Download and print this worksheet to help guide your practice. This is a simplification of “Ideo-Kinetics” by Gordon Stout, and you should check out the full version once you’ve gotten the basics here.

Download and print this worksheet to help guide your practice. This revisits previous patterns, adding an octave spacing, which is a common and often frustration element of keyboard playing. You may be asked to do this before you have a solid foundation, and although you can make it happen based on this material, definitely go back as soon as you can to complete the previous training.