Memorizing scales

ByBret Pimentel

As I’ve mentioned before, my university students are subject to a scale proficiency exam. Most arrive at the university “knowing” at least some major scales, but most of them will also have to learn at least a few new ones and maybe put some old ones into a new format.  For their exam, the scales need to be memorized well enough to play three randomly-selected major ones, and three randomly-selected melodic minors.

For some students, there are technical barriers to this:  untrained fingers, insufficient familiarity with alternate fingerings, or tone production issues in extreme ranges. Some also struggle with nerves or other psychological baggage (“I’ve never been good at scales, Dr. P.,”). Even among students who are moving rapidly through advanced repertoire, and have all the necessary facility to play the scales, there are some that find the memorization to be very difficult.

metronome
Photo, CZMJ

Here are some of the issues that my students have:

  • Playing too fast, too soon. While accumulating the many, many repetitions necessary for mastery, it’s crucial that the repetitions are totally accurate. I sometimes see a student start a scale at blazing speed, make a mistake within the first five notes, start over, and repeat. (Some determined but misguided students will repeat this cycle indefinitely until I stop them.) Two possibilities present themselves here: first, the student is making the exact same error over and over, cementing the bad habit; or, second, the student is making a variety of errors, developing no habit whatsoever because there is no true repetition. I beg them to slow down—whole notes at 40bpm are an acceptable starting point if that is what it takes to play the scales the same (correct) way every time. Use a metronome to enforce disciplined tempi.
  • Substituting academic knowledge for technique. I do expect my students to be able to “spell” their scales. Some, when I ask them to play, even like to spend a moment thinking aloud about the key signature or interval pattern. Some can even successfully pull off a scale that they haven’t practiced well by thinking through the notes while they play, but this is risky behavior when the pressure of an exam is applied. “Knowing” the scales academically is one thing, playing them is another. They need to be practiced until the fingers can do them on auto-pilot.
  • Going one way only. Some students can play a scale smoothly and accurately going up, and then stumble through the descent. Unfortunately, the ascending and descending versions, even when the pitches are identical, are separate feats and must be practiced equally. No shortcuts. You can probably recite the alphabet very quickly, but slow down quite a bit when saying it backwards—you haven’t practiced the backwards one as much.

For successful, useful, technique-building scale memorization:

  • Go as slowly as you need to go to get total precision every time. Speed up gradually, but never at the expense of accuracy.
  • Repeat many, many, many times, over the course of weeks, months, and years. Plan to spend a lifetime polishing this crucial part of your technique.

Practice smart!

Similar Posts

  • Simple and effective cues

    ByBret Pimentel

    Inspired by Jenny Maclay’s post about the importance of giving good cues in chamber music, I’d like to share some advice on cueing technique. Beginners to this often work much too hard at it, trying to execute movements that are large, elaborate, and confusing.

    Instead, try one of these:

    1. Just breathe. For intimate ensembles, a purposeful breath on a preparatory beat is often enough. (For example, for a piece in 4/4 time that starts on beat one, breathe on beat four.) The breath is simple and natural, and is subtle but just detectable visually and aurally. To an audience, it looks almost like telepathy. A breath cue is also expressive—it can communicate not just tempo and downbeat, but also character.
    2. Or, if a more visually-oriented cue is really necessary, keep it extremely simple. For a preparatory beat, lift your instrument and/or head up (an inch is more than enough), then cue by bringing it back down. Skip the curlicues.

    cue

    Easy!

  • Professional-sounding ornaments

    ByBret Pimentel

    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you.

    When I’m working with new or prospective college music students, one thing that I often hear in their auditions or early lessons is awkward ornamentation. Here are some common pitfalls:

    • Aggressive grace notes. Notice how grace notes are printed smaller on the page? They aren’t there to call attention to themselves. They are usually adding weight or importance to the following note. Give that note a little extra volume/tenuto/stretch/stress, rather than accenting the grace notes themselves.
    • Weak trills. Don’t let your breath support sag. Blow through the trill like it’s part of the phrase (because it is). Every note of the trill, no matter how fast it goes by, needs a full, clear, in-tune sound.
    • Short trills that aren’t short enough. If you don’t have an exit plan for your trill, it’s easy to get stuck in it and be late for the next note. It’s especially a problem for shorter trills, like on a quarter note. To make sure your trills aren’t interrupting the rhythmic pulse, decide exactly how many notes they should have. The shortest version (for trills starting on the lower pitch) is three notes—the starting note, the upper note, and back to the starting note. Five or seven notes (hitting the upper note two or three times) makes it sound more convincingly like a trill, if there’s time. Decide what number makes sense for the style and tempo, and practice it slowly and deliberately with a metronome so you can land on the following note right on time.
    • Missed accidentals or key signatures. Even within ornaments, key signatures still apply, and accidentals still carry through the measure. Check carefully and mark in any sharps or flats that will help your accuracy.
    • Uninformed interpretation. Ornamentation is an art, and takes into account musical style, historical context, harmonic context, rhythm and meter, and a lot more. If you possibly can, listen to lots of recordings by professional players and see how they approach the ornaments. Listen for note choices, rhythms, emphasis, and articulation. While you’re still accumulating the knowledge and background you need to make good ornamentation choices on your own, there’s nothing wrong with stealing some ideas from musicians you admire. Also: a surprising number of Baroque composers wrote books on how to play ornaments, so if you’re playing something in that style it may be worth checking to see what the composer themself had in mind! (Quantz‘s chapters on appoggiaturas and “shakes” are a good example for woodwind players.)

    Graceful ornaments raise the maturity level of your playing, and audition judges notice. Don’t wing it!

  • MS Word music hack: Automatic sharps, flats, and naturals (Updated 2019)

    ByBret Pimentel

    Ten years ago in 2009 I wrote a blog post about how to set up auto-complete sharp, flat, and natural symbols in Microsoft Word 2007 running on Windows Vista. Here’s an update for Word 2016 on Windows 10.

    Thanks to Ariel Detwiler for calling my attention to the need for an update.

    How it will work

    Type this (plus space bar)Get this
    F-sharpF♯
    B-flatB♭
    C-naturalC♮

    Will it work on Office 365?

    No, the web version of Office doesn’t currently (2019) support this feature.

    How to set it up

    1. Open up a new Microsoft Word 2016 document.
    2. Type the following:
      266d
      Then press Alt-X. The “266d” should turn into a flat symbol.
    3. Highlight the flat. Click the “File” tab, then “Options.” A dialog box appears; click “Proofing” at its left-hand side. Click the “AutoCorrect Options…” button. On the “AutoCorrect” tab, make sure “Replace text as you type” is checked. In the “Replace:” box, type:
      -flat
      Next to “With:,” make sure “Plain text” is selected. Your flat should be in the “With:” box. Click “Add,” then click “OK” twice.
    4. Repeat steps 2-3 for the sharp and natural signs. In step 2, use “266f” for sharp and “266e” for natural, and in step 4 use “-sharp” and “-natural.”

    If you are in the habit of using the pound sign (#) and lowercase b for sharp and flat signs, shame on you for your unprofessional documents. You might be tempted to set up your AutoCorrect to correct those. The problem with doing it that way is that you will have to create a separate AutoCorrect entry for each note (Ab, Bb, Cb, etc.). Plus, it’s a good idea to just get in the habit of typing “F-sharp” so if you’re using a system that doesn’t have your special AutoCorrect set up, you will be left with that more correct version instead of a pound sign or letter b.

    If you have set up the AutoCorrect but you actually want to type “-flat,” “-sharp,” or “-natural” and override the automatic change, type what you want and then press Ctrl-Z (Undo) to change the symbol back into text.

  • Tips for student chamber music groups

    ByBret Pimentel

    One of my goals for the semester is to improve my skills as a chamber music coach. This week I set out to explore some resources on the techniques of playing chamber music, and found surprisingly little in my initial search besides historical surveys and repertoire listings. (A fuller search remains to be done, but in the meantime I welcome your tips and suggested resources in the comments below.)

    So, in hopes of making someone else’s search just a little easier, I’m putting in writing a few of my favorite basic tips I use frequently with my college chamber music students:

    Photo, euthman
    Photo, euthman

    • Arrange your chairs and music stands so you can see everybody (at least in a group that is small enough to do so). If you are the one cuing the start of the movement, make eye contact with everyone first.
    • Start each movement by breathing together, even if not everyone plays the first note. Also breathe together at appropriate places within each movement. I think this is better than someone giving a visual downbeat for a variety of reasons: it’s aural, it’s unifying, it’s non-distracting to the audience, it’s easy and natural. (It particularly makes sense for wind or vocal chamber groups, but I think it’s a good idea for others as well.)
    • Move a little. If everyone participates in some subtle “conducting,” it can really help to reinforce and unify the tempo and phrasing, and even indicate a rehearsal mark for someone who is lost. (Too much movement is awkward and distracting, but mostly my students err on the side of being statues.)
    • Get detailed about matching your sounds. Not just note attacks, but also note shapes and endings. Coordinate breaths if appropriate. If there is a crescendo, don’t just get louder at the same time, but get louder at the same rate. Match and blend tone colors—for example, maybe the flutist tries to sound like a clarinet, and the clarinetist tries to sound like a flute, and they meet somewhere in the middle.
    • Especially for less-experienced groups, it may be wise to talk through (and maybe even rehearse) some things like stage entrances, exits, and bows, so you aren’t awkwardly trying to figure it out with an audience watching. Make sure you’re one the same page dress-code-wise as well. I personally find matching or overly-coordinated outfits a little silly, but do at least be sure you’re agreed as to an appropriate level of formality so no one feels uncomfortable.

    Please do jump in and share your best tips, or your resources on how to be a better chamber musician.

  • Using sticky notes to focus my performance thinking

    ByBret Pimentel

    I might put in weeks or months preparing for a high-pressure performance. The groundwork is done—I have made the technical and interpretive decisions, drilled the difficult spots, and otherwise planned and prepared every aspect of my playing.

    But all of that can fall apart pretty quickly if my head isn’t in the right place. Nerves, stress, and distractions can make one small error snowball into an unfocused, sloppy performance.

    One of my favorite tricks to help avoid this is to plan my thinking. As I do the final preparations for my performance, I often pick out two or three things I would like to focus on as I begin each piece or movement. These might be important technical details (“make sure embouchure is stable before playing the first note”), more general advice (“keep breath support strong through the ends of phrases”), or interpretive thoughts (“light and playful”).

    I write these two or three things (no more) on a sticky note, and place it at the beginning of the piece or movement. If the reminders seem especially crucial, I might put the sticky note over the first few measures of music, so I can’t start playing until I have physically moved it out of the way.

    This small preparation helps ensure that as I begin to play, I’m thinking about the things that are most important to the success of the performance, rather than reacting to distractions.

  • Learning fingerings as shapes

    ByBret Pimentel

    I observe that many woodwind players, when learning a new fingering—whether a beginner learning a standard fingering or an advanced student learning a new alternate fingering—tend to think of them as sequences: “This finger plus this finger and this finger and this key over here.” Sometimes my students even want to recite the fingering aloud as they add one finger at a time, and then finally play the note. The problem with this is that there is obviously no time for such a procedure when playing music.

    I now occasionally find that I have the opposite problem: a student will ask about a fingering, and I will discover that I am not prepared to verbalize it. I need to pick up the instrument, do the fingering, and then explain which keys I am pressing. My fingers know how to make the right shape, even if I can’t immediately recall the list of keys involved.

    Photo, Bassonist26
    Photo, wfiupublicradio

    To learn new fingerings in the most efficient and practical way, move as quickly as possible to the “shape” stage. I suggest this method:

    • With instrument in hand, think through the fingering, referring to a fingering chart if necessary. If you need to, think in sequence about each finger that will move and where it will go, but don’t move yet.
    • When ready, move the fingers all at once, in a crisp and snappy way.
    • Freeze, and think through the fingering again. Did you form it correctly? If it is incorrect, don’t fix it “in place,” by moving a finger or two into place; release all fingers and start over. Fixing it in place habituates a sequence of events, rather than a single shape.
    • Put the fingering into context (a scale, a musical passage, etc.) using a metronome set on a very slow tempo. The object at this point is to succeed at forming the fingering shape accurately and on cue. Speed up only as you are certain that you can maintain 100% accuracy. If your fingers don’t move simultaneously, you are wasting time cementing a sequence.

    Practice hard smart!

4 Comments

  1. Yes! — especially to the “plan to spend a lifetime….” part!

    As a jazz player conscious of the huge “ear” portion of the genera, my scale proficiency improved when I started thinking of them as intervals I really had to “hear.” Today I must admit I’d be embarrassed if required to spell out an Ebm scale or arpeggio, but I’d do better (somewhat!) playing it “by ear.”

    Reply

    1. Jack, I had a nagging feeling I was leaving something out, and you hit it on the head: when my students know what the scales sound like, they learn them much more quickly and effectively. Some get lost in the varieties of minor scales, making lots of mistakes and never really wrapping their ears around the sounds of the scales.

      Reply

  2. Hi!

    This thread brings up some ideas I’ve been incorporating into my practice and I thought I’d share them…

    In the same way as you describe ‘wrapping their ears around the sound of the scales’ I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘hearing’ the the degrees of the scale rather than getting stuck with the clarinet notes.

    What I do now is to get the A and Bb out and alternate clarinets whilst playing scales in the same concert pitch. It really helps you to forget about the individual notes and start hearing the whole scale.

    So if I start with the A clarinet and play F# major I’ll then play F major on the Bb then do another.

    If you keep going back and forth you practice the fingering of two scales whilst only listening to one and it helps intonation (you’ll start hearing discrepancies) and you’re getting better at transposing with out even trying.

    Reply

    1. Really good idea Henry!
      Cool. Could work with other pairs of instruments.

      When I was in grad school, when I did most of my practicing in room with piano I often found passages ‘sticking’ if I played them at concert pitch on piano (s l o w l y). I was then playing Bb/A clarinet, alto sax and flute.
      During grade school I was an unmotivated piano student, but the time apparently put some connection to hand shape and pitches and sequence.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comments that take a negative or confrontational tone are subject to email and name verification before being approved. In other words: no anonymous trolls allowed—take responsibility for your words.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.