Let's Tackle Those Scales

 Hi everyone,

In this post I'm going to talk about tackling scales, as I'm aware that quite a lot of people struggle to get their heads around them. I'm one of those people that sometimes struggles with getting their heads and fingers around certain scales. Within this post I'm going to suggest a couple of ways that you can improve on developing your scales, and get them to best of your ability.

'Improve Your Scales' series & An Easy Studies

The 'Improve Your Scales' is a series that focuses on one scale at time whether that be a one or two octave scale, and what Paul Harris does is asks you to write the scale along with the matching arpeggio, and then he gives you a selection of short pieces to practice that are set around the scale that you are focusing on.

You can also combine the scale that you are focusing on with a simple study that also features the scale that you are working on, as this will also help you to become more familiar with the scale and it should help with you with some technical aspects of your playing; depending on the study you choose to focus on.

Break the Scale Up

If you are finding that the scale that you are working on is becoming too overwhelming to practice, then break the scale up into more manageable chucks to make it easier for you to grasp.

For example if you are working on a two octave scale; you might just want to focus on getting too grips with the first octave at first. Split the first octave in two groups of four notes, and just focus on the first group of four notes until you feel comfortable with those first four notes underneath your fingers, and then tackle the second group of four notes until they again feel comfortable underneath your fingers. Then try have a go at learning the scale as one octave scale, and once you feel happy with the first octave scale you might be ready to tackle to the the second octave of the scale. With the second octave of the scale work through the scale the same way as you did with the first octave of the scale, and split the second octave of the scale into two groups of four notes.

Slow Practice

When you are first starting out learning a new scale it's  important to practice the scale slowly, as this will train your brain to get used to the notes of the scale, your fingers will be need to get used to where they are supposed to be for that scale, and also your ears need to get used to hearing the scale. Once you are a bit more familiar with the scale that you are focusing on you can also speed up the scale slowly by using a metronome.

Scales for Building on Technique

You can also use your scales to work on and build up on any techniques that you are struggling with such as staccato, slurs and grouping notes in 2, 3 or 4 notes.

These are just a few ideas that I have come up with to help you to overcome your scale struggles

All the best in tackling those pesky scales