Scales are the foundation of playing any musical instrument. They benefit every single aspect of your playing! Although this post focuses on piano, this approach to scale practice could be applied to any melodic instrument.
I practice scales regularly on all of my instruments. As a child, I didn't understand the purpose of learning them. I considered them a chore to get done quickly at the start of each practice session, so I could focus on playing all the fun stuff! Years later I realised just how often I relied on my scale knowledge as a musician. I also came to appreciate how relaxing and meditative scale practice can be!
In this post I break down the five reasons why scales are so important and I suggest the five most beneficial ways of practicing them!
5 Reasons why you should learn your scales:
1 - Your technique will improve FAST!
One of the most important reasons why you should practice your scales is to develop your technique! When playing pieces, we tend to focus on getting the tune and the rhythms to sound right. When playing scales you will learn the notes you need to play fairly quickly and the focus is all on your technique!
Scales train and develop your fingers, particularly the 4th and 5th fingers which are usually weaker than the others when you start to play. Regular scale practice strengthens all of the muscles of the hands that are used in piano playing, improving the accuracy, speed and fluidity of your playing!
2 - You'll learn to play more rhythmically
When playing scales, we focus on playing the notes evenly, with each note lasting the same duration as the one before. This helps massively with developing your "inner pulse" - your ability to accurately feel the beat or pulse of the music. Through regular scale practice, playing in time becomes second nature.
3 - Reading and playing sheet music will become a bit easier
The scales are like a "musical skeleton". You can't see a skeleton, but you would soon know if it wasn't there! Remember in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry had to regrow all the bones in his arm after Lockhart's spell went wrong? Without his bones, Harry's arm was useless and flopping about like jelly! The musical scales are like the bones of music. Although we aren't always aware of them, the scales provide the structure that music is built around.
Knowing the notes that belong in each key helps you to see this musical structure! Not only will you recognise key signatures easily, your fingers will be familiar with playing the pattern of sharps and flats found in each one.
4 - You’ll gain a great theoretical foundation for your improvisation!
Whilst musical improvisation is all about freedom and expression, knowing what notes belong in each key and sound good together gives you the ideal foundation from which to be creative!
5 - You'll gain the theoretical foundation you need to play by ear!
Ever wondered how it's possible to pick out a tune by ear and work out a full piano accompaniment for it?
Scales!!!!
Once you've worked out the first few notes of the tune you'd like to play by ear, you can usually work out the scale that those notes belong too quite easily. Then, once you know which scale fits with the tune, you can work out what chords you will need to use to make the accompaniment!
5 ways to practice your scales:
1 - SLOWLY!!!
I can't emphasis this enough!! Playing the scales slowly and absolutely correctly will help you progress so much faster than playing too quickly but with lots of mistakes. Your fingers need time to build up the muscle memory that will allow you to play the scale with ease. When you play too quickly and make mistakes, muscle memory can't develop!
Practice your scales as whatever speed you can get them completely correct at, no matter how slow this is!!!
Alongside training the muscles to remember the right notes to play, and the right fingers to use for each note, you also want to focus on the technical aspects of your playing. Are your wrists straight? Are your arms and shoulders relaxed? Are your fingers curved, with fingertips touching the keys?
Have a look at this brilliant video from Lang Lang, demonstrating the finger technique you want to aim for.
Notice how still and relaxed his arms and wrists are, and how much control and flexibility he has in his fingers! It is only through slow focused practice that he is able to build up his speed!
2 - Use a metronome!
Remember what we said earlier about the importance of playing the scales evenly and completely in time? Using a metronome is the best way to practice this!
You can pick up a digital one in your phones app store for free or just a few pounds. Here is the metronome that I use. The free version has everything I need:
The purpose of the metronome is to provide a steady beat for you whilst you play. You can choose how fast or slow to set the beat. As you play along, try to keep perfectly in time with the clicks. With regular practice, you'll find that you can playing along to the beat even without the metronome!
3 - Add some variety!
Once you've mastered the notes and finger patterns of the scale, and you're able to play it evenly and in time with good technique, try adding some variety to your practice. Here are some examples:
Vary the rhythms: try playing the scale with a dotted or triplet rhythm
Here is C major, right hand, with dotted quavers:
And this is C major, right hand, played in triplets:
Vary the articulation: trying playing the scale staccato and then legato. Once that becomes easy, mix the articulation up.
Here is C major, right hand, with a mixture of staccato and legato notes:
Vary the dynamics: play the scale quietly, then loudly. Then try out getting louder or quieter as you play the scale.
Here is C major, right hand, beginning very quietly,
then gradually becoming very loud.
It is surprising how a scale you know very well suddenly feels very unfamiliar when you change how you are playing it!
4 - Play the scale in octaves!
Try practicing the scale in octaves to really build up strength in the little fingers! You will use this octave stretch often as you play, so working on it within your scales is great practice!
Here is the scale of C Major for the right hand, with notes an octave apart:
5 - Use a drone!
Drones are brilliant to practice with, for many reasons. Music is really all about the relationships between the different notes, sometimes these are notes played together as chords, and sometimes they are individual notes interacting with the notes before and after in a melody line. But there is always a relationship going on - between the notes themselves, and between the notes and us as we listen to music, or as we play it.
Drones help you hear those relationships, because they give you a constant reference point. They free you from focusing on things like counting and getting a tune right, and let you simply listen to - and experience - those relationships!
You can find drones for every key on YouTube, by just searching for "drone backing track" plus the key you want.
Try playing the scale of C major over this C drone backing track:
You will begin to hear how the relationships between the notes shift and change around one root note (or tonal centre, in music theory terms!). In any scale beginning on a C, for instance, the relationships of the notes all shift around the root note of C.
Try playing freely, using the notes scale to improvise over the drone. It does not have to be tuneful or rhythmic! The aim is to just get a feel for the relationships between the notes in this key and to experience how they work together as a whole to create a musical structure!
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