Scales and Arpeggios: In Unison and Contrary Motion

The general progression of learning scales goes through the following steps: mastering the fingering, practicing separate hands, and finally putting it together and playing in unison an octave apart.  After that, scales can be practiced in contrary motion with both hands starting on the same tonic note in the middle of the keyboard with the left hand descending and right hand ascending and then in reverse direction to end up on the tonic note again.  You can also practice scales in contrary motion starting with the hands four octaves apart, having the left hand play the ascending scale while the right hand descends likewise and reverse direction after the two hands meet in the middle of the keyboard.

There is another method that combines both unison and contrary motion scale passages widely known as Russian method/pattern.  I learnt it from a Russian teacher only after had graduated from my undergraduate conservatory studies no less!  It’s a four-octave scale that starts off ascending in unison for two octaves, after which it breaks into contrary motion for two octaves with the left hand first descending then ascending (and vice versa for the right hand). The scale passage continues ascending in unison for two octaves, descends in unison for two octaves, splits for apart for contrary motion for two octaves and finally descends in unison back to the starting note.  You can always practice this starting from the high register and descending in unison for two octaves before the contrary motion.

I found a notation for the Russian pattern (below) from http://www.key-notes.com/my-practice-routine.html

Personally, I find playing this Russian pattern for scales rather time-consuming so I only play a select number of scales this way during practice.  However, I do play a large portion of my arpeggios in major, minor and dominant sevenths using this pattern as I find it helps to improves fingering independence and memory for the chords.  Next time you find playing scales boring, spice it up and practice using this pattern so that you can train up your stamina for finger strength and mental agility.