Tag: scales

Scales Don’t Take as Long as You Think

Scales really don’t take that long to practice. I never really thought about that until I hopped on Facebook the other day. The following quote was the first thing that came up. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Tip of the Day: “If you play scales in 16ths at a metronome marking of 96, you can play all the major and melodic minor scales in about two minutes. Little time to practice is no excuse for not practicing scales every day.” Patricia George, Flute Talk Magazine, April 2009.

My first thought was, “YES!!!! You tell ’em!” My opinion on scales is here.

Then I thought about my personal practice. Unless I’m using my 5-minute warm-up, I just run through a page or two from a scale book every day. I don’t usually run through all of the scales, just the one the book is focusing on for that page (a lot of times I’ll sync that up with the key signature that I’m playing in for my repertoire). That’s a lot more time than 2 minutes.

Those exercises in the scale books are there to even out your fingers so you can play your runs evenly. They do that through different rhythms and articulations. Most of the scale exercises go through all the church modes, not just Major or minor. That way you can begin and end on a different note of the scale and not get thrown off in your repertoire.

In other words, running through all your scales, major and minor, from memory is kind of like mopping. It keeps everything clean, it doesn’t take as much time as you think, and it’s important.

Running through a page or two of a scale book is kind of like scrubbing grout with a toothbrush. It’s not feasable to do the whole floor, but the section that you run through is gleaming. This is why we think that scales can take a long time.

Both things are important. It may or may not be necessary for you to run all your scales every day, but it might be smart to do so once every week or two. If you’re going to rehearsals, you’re (hopefully) running through your scales beforehand during your 5-minute warm-up.

I’m not going to rehearsals right now, so I don’t know about you, but I’m going to start running all my scales once a week just to keep things clean. It might be on a day that I’m a little pressed for time because practicing scales like this doesn’t take long. Once rehearsals start back up, I won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Solving Scary Music with Theory

Ever turn the page in your lesson book and go, “AACK!”? This happens to my students once in awhile. They look at it and their eyes don’t know what to do with it.

Sometimes I direct them to the backwards practice technique, and other times I help them analyze the piece.

What does it mean to analyze a piece?

It can mean a couple of things. Back in college theory class, it meant to figure out the chord structure of the piece. There are more things you can do:

  1. Find the form of the piece (ABA or sonata form, for example) to see how the melody repeats.
  2. Find all the common finger patterns – scales, chords, arpeggios, grupettos, roller coaster scales, finger wiggles, repeated notes.
  3. Find how the phrases might be the same, only slightly ornamented.

How do we analyze the piece together?

Usually, I start at the beginning. We look for the common finger patterns. I point out the patterns and have the student name them.

After the first phrase, I start looking at whether the melody repeats. At the beginning of a new phrase, I check to see if we’ve already done it. Then I point out to the student that it’s the same as before.

Results

After we talk through the piece, the students feel better. It’s not so scary. They say, “I play my scales and chords every day! This piece is so easy!”

Conclusion

Theory is the math of music, and it helps us make sense of it when it’s confusing. I know that theory lessons can be boring or frustrating, but they help make the music easier.

Being Lazy Can Be Productive

Being lazy can be productive. I know that I’m opening up a can of worms with this statement, but bear with me. I consider myself lazy. Not a sluggard, but lazy.

Definition of Lazy vs. Sluggard

I am unapologetically a Christian. I know what Proverbs says about being a sluggard. I can hear my dad quoting, “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of your hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a thief…” Proverbs 24:33

As with everything, laziness has a spectrum. A sluggard is an extremely lazy person. Someone who is so lazy that they won’t even try. There are no standards of living. As long as there’s food and shelter, everything’s fine. It’s the very bottom end of the spectrum of lazy. I’m not saying this is good at all.

Laziness, in general, is just having a goal of not doing anything as much as possible. The goal is the couch or the recliner.

How Can Laziness be Productive?

The goal is the couch or the recliner, so if something needs to be done, it will be done as efficiently as possible – the fastest, the easiest, and the same quality of work as if I did it the traditional way.

I will spend an extra 5 minutes planning something out so that I can save one minute of doing the task. That seems counter-productive, but what if I have to do that task again? I already spent the 5 minutes figuring out the fastest and easiest way to do it, so that will pay off in the long-run.

Think about all the inventions people have made over the years to make life easier. That even applies to our instruments. Do I *really* need a C# trill key? Hopefully my next flute has one.

How Does This Relate to Music?

My normal practice routine is centered around my version of laziness. I make sure that I do scales, technical exercises, and etudes because they help me learn the repertoire faster. I go into that information in more detail in the linked articles. I call it dividing and conquering.

Another thing I do to increase efficiency is I analyze my music before I play it. I note all the scales (even the modes), the patterns, the form etc., in my head. I know that it helps some people to write it down in the music, but that gets to be too much information on the page for me.

Last but not least, I use a ton of different practice techniques to help me learn my music faster. Here are a bunch of them. I’m always adding more to my list. Sometimes I make them up and sometimes I learn them from other musicians. They’re a way for me to go around, over, or under a wall, rather than try to go through.

Everyone Needs a Lazy Friend

People who aren’t lazy just do things the way they’ve always done them or were taught to do them. Lazy people spend the extra time to figure out the fastest and easiest way to do everything, all the way down to washing their hands. I’ll be your lazy music friend. My goal with this blog is to help you practice faster and easier than you did before.

How to Play with Emotion

Being able to play with emotion is necessary. Being able to fake it is necessary, too. It’s not ideal, but it’s a good skill to know.

Some days you just can’t access that particular emotion, so you need to fake it. Sometimes you haven’t been through enough life to bring the idea across. These are good examples of learning the mechanics behind playing with emotion and learning how to do it on demand.

I’ll talk today about playing with emotion for real and how to fake it. I’ll also talk about how to put emotion into the most bland things in order to make them sparkle.

How to Play with Emotion for Real

Before you start playing, take a minute to bring up old memories or current situations that make you feel the way that this music is trying to emote. Holding that picture in your mind, begin playing the piece.

Allow the part of your mind that holds memories to wander as you play. The piece will hold you in the emotion(s) that the composer wants you to feel. You’ll feel the emotions ebbing and flowing through your body, out your instrument, and into the air.

When you hit the last chord, you will feel free, like everything that your memories were working through were resolved with that last resolution in the last chord.

Notice I only said to allow part of your mind to wander. You still need to concentrate on the notes.

How to Fake Play with Emotion

You’re having a hard time conveying the emotion in this piece. Maybe you haven’t gone through enough in your life so you can’t access those emotions. This is a good thing – it means you have had a good life.

Maybe you’re not an emotional person so you can’t access those emotions. Don’t beat yourself up over that. It’s just not how you’re built. Usually those who are in your boat, though, are really good at following directions. Here they are, step-by-step.

I find that I have to teach 3rd and 4th graders how to fake play with emotion because they just can’t access their emotions on demand, but they’re starting to get into music that requires it.

Step 1: Analyze

Take a moment to analyze each phrase. Each phrase has a sunshine moment. This is usually where the melody goes up, but it can be other things. You get to decide where the sunshine moment is in each phrase because you’re the artist. Draw a sun over each sunshine moment.

Step 2: Dynamics

The piece will crescendo to each sunshine moment and diminuendo away from it. If there are a ton of dynamics already written into the music, these dynamics will be very slight. Same with if it was written before the Romantic Era.

If it’s a piece that doesn’t have much written in there, and it was written after the Classical Era, let her rip. Bring your own dynamics out.

Step 3: Rubato

General rule: Crescendo = faster. Diminuendo = slower.

Rubato should only be used after the Classical Era.

Keep it in good taste, though. It’s all supposed to equal out to the same amount of time in the end.

Adding Emotion to the Mundane and Boring Music

Wait, I’m admitting there are boring things to play? Yup. They’re called scales and technical studies. Sometimes etudes, too.

Scales are a necessary evil – I go into that more here. Technical studies might be even more boring than scales, but they’re also necessary. I go into that more here.

I’ve heard it said that if you don’t play everything musically, then you’re wasting your time. How do you play scales and technical studies musically? Add emotion. You can even make a game of it. Make a list of emotions and alternate between them while you’re practicing your warm-ups.

If you’re having a hard time playing warm-ups with emotion, try faking it, using my directions. It will give you good practice for having to fake your emotions with other pieces.

Conclusion

It’s a wonderful experience to play your instrument with emotion, but sometimes we have to develop that skill. It’s good to have a step-by-step plan to add emotion to anything. It helps with your overall musicianship and adds some sparkle to your music.

The “Divide and Conquer” Practice Technique

This is a practice technique that can and should be done from day one of starting a new repertoire piece. It’s simple, it makes you better, and you may realize that you’ve accidentally done it before.

The only time you might not want to do this practice technique is if you’re in the process of learning all your scales. If you have time to do this in addition to learning your scales, go for it.

What You’ll Need:

You’ll need a metronome, a good scale book, and etudes (optional). I can’t make a good recommendation for a piano scale book, but Pares Scales (affiliate link) would be a good place to start on the flute.

If you don’t have a metronome, there are a ton of good, free metronome apps that you can use on a phone or tablet. If you need a real one because you want to reduce screen time, I really like this Matrix one (not an affiliate link). It’s loud enough for me to hear with earplugs and over the piccolo.

Analyze Your Piece

First you have to ask yourself a couple questions:

  1. What key(s) is my piece in?
  2. Does the piece transfer into a different key for awhile using accidentals?
  3. Double-check. Is it Major, minor, both, or modal?

Scales

When warming up, play in the key(s) of your piece all scales, arpeggios, chords, and thirds with a metronome.  Keep increasing the speed of the metronome over the course of the weeks/months that you’re learning the repertoire.

For variety, use the various scale exercises in your scale book. They’re designed to even out your fingers. They’re also designed to practice the common trouble spots that you might encounter in the music.

Etudes (optional)

An optional part of this is to find etudes that are in the same key(s) as your new repertoire piece. Play a new one each week.

Etudes weave into a melody a problem-pattern that is common in your instrument. If you practice etudes that are in the same key as your repertoire piece, the problem-patterns that the etudes bring up are more likely to be the problems you’ll encounter in your repertoire piece.

These are the reasons I can think of that etudes are optional for this practice technique. I’m sure there are more.

  1. You’re going through a lesson book and you need to go through those etudes in the order given (lesson books are etude books).
  2. You have a goal of going through certain etudes. It feels good to say you’ve played all of a certain composer’s etudes, and I’m not one to get in the way of your goals.
  3. It’s hard to find etudes based on key signature, and you don’t have the time or resources to scour etude books for hours on end.

This technique can and should be used in conjunction with all the other practice techniques.  It helps you recognize parts of the song that may look hard at first, but then you realize it’s just a scale.  It also helps you keep your fingers even.

Popcorn for Scales

It’s an easy way to keep your scales memorized, yet not be bored. I call it popcorn. I sincerely hope this practice technique livens up your scale routine. The flute teacher I had back in college said that you should always find a way to challenge yourself with scales. This is definitely a new challenge!

It’s an easy way to keep your scales memorized, yet not be bored. I call it popcorn. I especially use popcorn when a competition is looming because usually competitions have you pick a scale out of a hat. As usual, when I say scales, I really mean scales, chords, cadences, and arpeggios (flutes would be chords and cadences in arpeggios, so they would skip the arpeggio category).

What do you have to do prior to Popcorn?

You have to have your scales, chords, cadences, and arpeggios memorized in each key.

Materials

You need flashcards. You could just grab some index cards and label them A-Gb. I like to use these for if a student is only doing scales that start with a natural note. I like to use these for if a student is doing all 12 keys.

The First Week

The first week of popcorn is tough because you thought you knew all your scales backwards and forwards. Popcorn brings any memory lapses to light.

Because of that, in the first week, I have them lay out three flashcards – those are the scales. Three different flashcards – those are the chords. Three different flashcards – those are the cadences. Three different flashcards – those are the arpeggios. Notice there’s 12?

In The Lesson

I only do one key per category, unless it’s the week or two before a competition, then I do three per category, just like the first week of learning popcorn.

Changing Things Up

In addition to the key signatures, you can also make a second stack of flashcards with different articulations, rhythms, dynamics, etc.

The second set of flashcards comes in handy for when you’re having a hard time with a certain concept. Sometimes you’ll take a certain concept all week, sometimes you’ll alternate between a few of them. It depends on what you’re struggling with.

Conclusion

I sincerely hope this practice technique livens up your scale routine. The flute teacher I had back in college said that you should always find a way to challenge yourself with scales. This is definitely a new challenge!