How many times has everyone been told, "Learn your scales!"? It gets pretty old, and really, what is the point of learning all these scales? If you're in high school you'll need to learn all the two-octave scales for some kind of All-State audition, and some colleges might ask for them. So after that there's really no point to knowing scales, right? ...Wrong!
Melodies are usually based in a certain key and most the ones you'll see won't jump around all the time. They follow a certain pattern and do you want to know what that pattern is? It's a scale.
Scales aren't just some random thing that are thrown at musicians because teachers thought we needed something else to learn. Once you learn a scale, you're really learning the pattern for a certain key. Now that you know that certain pattern, whenever you start to play a song that goes into that key you'll automatically be stronger while playing it since it won't seem and feel like a bunch of random notes.
Now, if you still have any doubts and complaints that scales still don't seem worth the effort, here's a word from the renowned professional trumpet player, Rafael Mendez --
Although scales are vital, I do have a couple problems with how they are usually approached...
First, when you're learning a scale for the first time it's not enough to just read music that already has them written down and just try to play them off that. Learn the theory behind how that certain type of scale is formed. Then take the time to work out each key on your instrument. This may take awhile since you no longer have all the answers in front of you. In the long run though, you'll actually remember your scales much easier after working them out, instead of just trying to memorize them off of sheet music.
Second, is it really necessary to learn two-octave scales? If you're every planning to audition for something, then yes. Many groups like All-State and college request two and three octave scales as part of the process.
Melodies are usually based in a certain key and most the ones you'll see won't jump around all the time. They follow a certain pattern and do you want to know what that pattern is? It's a scale.
Scales aren't just some random thing that are thrown at musicians because teachers thought we needed something else to learn. Once you learn a scale, you're really learning the pattern for a certain key. Now that you know that certain pattern, whenever you start to play a song that goes into that key you'll automatically be stronger while playing it since it won't seem and feel like a bunch of random notes.
Now, if you still have any doubts and complaints that scales still don't seem worth the effort, here's a word from the renowned professional trumpet player, Rafael Mendez --
First, when you're learning a scale for the first time it's not enough to just read music that already has them written down and just try to play them off that. Learn the theory behind how that certain type of scale is formed. Then take the time to work out each key on your instrument. This may take awhile since you no longer have all the answers in front of you. In the long run though, you'll actually remember your scales much easier after working them out, instead of just trying to memorize them off of sheet music.
Second, is it really necessary to learn two-octave scales? If you're every planning to audition for something, then yes. Many groups like All-State and college request two and three octave scales as part of the process.
Now on the practical side of things. Do I sit down and do two-octave scales everyday? No, in my warm-up I do plenty of tetra scales, which are just five-note scales. Western music almost never has you play full two-octave scales, but there are countless amounts of five note groups. When first beginning scales I suggest learning the tetra scales as it makes the task seem much less daunting, and you're really learning all the same information.
Now if I see an audition coming up that requests two-octave scales, I do start practicing them again. Just never think that you're going to cram all of your scale work right before the audition. Do scales everyday and you'll notice remarkable improvement and ease on judgment day.
Now I'm interested to here from my readers. How important to you find scales? How'd you learn your scales? If you're a teacher, do you like the idea of the two-octave scale? Anything that pertains to the idea of scales really. Please don't hesitate to speak up as getting over "the hump" of learning all the major scales can be a huge turning point for many young musicians (I know it was for me). The more we get over "that hump," the more great musicians that we'll see come forth.
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