Piano Scale Fingering Chart
Standard right-hand fingering for one octave of C major is 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5, with the thumb passing under after the third finger. This chart shows that conservatory pattern for every major and minor key, for either hand, over one or two octaves.
See the standard fingering for any major or minor piano scale on an interactive keyboard — right hand, left hand, one or two octaves, with thumb-under crossings marked.
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About this tool
Scale fingering is one of the first things piano teachers insist on: the same C major run feels effortless with 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5 and clumsy with anything else. Each key has a standard fingering that keeps the thumb off black keys and places the crossings where the hand naturally folds.
This tool draws the chosen scale on a keyboard and numbers every key: 1 is the thumb, 5 the little finger. Pick the tonic, the scale form — major, natural, harmonic or melodic minor — the hand, and one or two octaves. The ↷ symbol in the note sequence marks where the thumb passes under (right hand ascending) or a finger crosses over the thumb (left hand).
The numbers are the stored one-octave charts. Right-hand C major, G major, D major, E major, A major, and E minor are 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. F major’s right hand is 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. Left-hand C major is 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, and B major’s left hand starts on 4. The octave control defaults to 2: the right hand repeats its first seven fingers and ends on 5, so two-octave C major reads 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5.
Descending uses those fingers in reverse. Melodic minor ascends with the raised sixth and seventh, and the line under the chart says the descent uses the natural-minor form. The keyboard is drawn from C, so a black-key tonic still has a white key to its left. Print and PNG export the diagram on screen.
Example. C major in the right hand for one octave shows the finger numbers 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. The default two-octave right hand continues 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5.
Limit. Fingerings are the stored one-octave charts for major and the three minor forms, not a custom editorial fingering you type in. The octave control is only 1 or 2.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the only correct fingering, or do teachers disagree?
It's the standard conservatory fingering used in Hanon, most method books, and by the great majority of teachers — the one worth learning first. A few keys have long-documented alternates (Chopin, for instance, favored a different crossing in some black-key scales), and an individual teacher may adjust a crossing for a student's hand size. Those are refinements on top of this standard, not a different starting point.
Why does the thumb-under happen at a different note in different keys?
The rule is constant even though the note isn't: keep the thumb off black keys whenever the scale allows it. Where the black keys fall changes with the key signature, so the note where thumb-under is comfortable shifts too. A few keys (F# major among them) have no way to avoid it entirely, and the fingering marks that exception rather than pretending it isn't there.
Does the two-octave fingering just repeat the one-octave pattern?
Yes — that's the point of the standard fingering, not a simplification this tool makes. The finger sequence is built to land back on the thumb exactly one octave later, so it cycles cleanly into a second octave (or a third, a fourth) without ever needing a fresh crossing pattern partway through.
Why isn't the left-hand fingering just a mirror of the right hand?
Mirroring would put the thumb on the wrong side of the hand's natural reach. The left hand applies the same avoid-black-keys-with-the-thumb rule the right hand does, but starting from the little finger instead of the thumb — so the crossing lands on a different scale degree, not the mirror-image position of the right hand's crossing.