please help with PIANO SCALESS !!! :)?

Question

OMG, i 've been practising since forever and i still can't seem to remember my scales
IS THERE A MORE EASY WAY?
i m doing grade 6 so includes major minor harmonic and melodic scales
PLEASE HELP
its seriously killing me
theres sooo much to remember
and also any tips before the exam to calm myself down
cos i tend to get very shaky
:)
thankss
and PLEASE tell me you have a easy way to remember them
THANKS :)
my exam is in two days so HELP

Answer 1

I got grade 5 when I was 9 years old, then gave up.

I would say that the only way is to practice, practice, practice.

Answer 2

I feel your pain. I almost failed scales for every grade I took. Wish I could help you out, but mostly you should try to remember the sequence of black and white keys (eg Eb major has 3 black keys, Ab major has 4 etc), and their intervals, eg the harmonic minor scale has an augmented 2nd which is a rather wide interval so you should sort of anticipate it.

I don't know if this helps but for all the sharp keys, the black keys are the same (eg G major has F#, D major has that and C#, A major has those two and G#...). This also applies to all the flat keys.

You can get by if you forget the fingering, use whatever fingers you can think of, and still hit all the notes.

Edit: A pianist friend is online on MSN and I'm asking her. Excerpt from the convo:

Her: just remember the key signature i guess..
Her: you have to use your brain and not be mechanical..
Me: anything regarding fingering?
Me: do u agree with the part about if u forget just whack any fingering
Her: yeah of course..
Her: you can't just stop playing...
Her: basically fingering is the same for almost every scale isn't it?
Me: can't remember
Me: anyway thanks for ur help
Her: it is the same for almost every scale..
Her: except stuff starting on black keys..
Her: anyway i have class now..
Her: bye!

Lesson: Look for the similarities in fingering for each scale, usually similarities between the sharp key scales and the flat key scales.

Hope I helped.

Answer 3

OK. For the performance anxiety... start getting good night's sleep every night. Seriously cut down on caffeine!! Caffeine makes your hands shake and keeps you from concentrating. Eliminate it completely if you can, but if you're addicted to it, ease back.
When you take your exam, you need to do some mental imaging. Focus on the music, the piano, the next measure. Ignore any audience. They're not there. If someone coughs or talks, you're hiding behind a black curtain and they can't see you.
Other pianists use different images, but it's the same idea; you're in a separate world, unaffected by anybody else. Just you, the music, and the piano. Professional musicians who "play" their audiences have grown beyond performance anxiety or they cover it up really well.

Take deep cleansing breaths from your gut, hold them, and release each breath slowly to a 5 count. Do this for 10 minutes before your exam.

Scales. Go back to your scale book and go through them VERY SLOWLY as if you've never seen them before. Work on fingering. Sing (or hum) the scales as you play, saying with each note "this B flat harmonic minor" or whatever it is... 8 syllables. Just do one octave up and down, up and down each hand alone until you can relax swith the fingering and are comfortable. Don't do anything fancier than two octaves until you are very solid with the fingering.