The Scales Competition!

[invictious]

Ok, this thread is inspired by the thread of recording of scales.

Ok, here are the rules:

Scales must be 120 BPM
4 octaves, beginning on root note.
All keys must be done.
Chromatic scales are excluded

Yep, that's all.

Go on.

[timothy42b]

But that's not all, you have not sufficiently defined the task.

120 BPM presumes 120 quarter notes per minute unless you specify otherwise.

However we don't know what your scale notes are.  They could be half notes, or thirty-second notes, and we would still be at 120. 

If you mean 120 scale notes per minute, they would all be quarter notes. 

[pianistimo]

is it really fair if someone is playing a digital piano? i mean u couldn't play it so fast it sounded like a cluster, i guess, but u could press the keys down without a lot of effort.

btw, one of my teachers used to teach scales in clusters.  that would show every note included up to the next thumb point.  if u can do that quickly - then u can move on to playing each note, and then getting lighter and faster and lighter and faster - until one day ur just whizzing along at light speed.

what might be even harder than just a regular scale is to introduce some kind of passage (from repertoire or czerny or something) that people tend to mess up on.  saint-saen's has some wild stuff in his 'allegro appassionato.'  or, liszt ballade #2.   

[Derek]

yea I mean, how many actually GOOD pieces of music can you think of that has billions of scales whizzing up and down with no change in direction and no chromaticism?

[jlh]

Interesting thread... not sure what the point of this would be except to show off, but hey, it might be fun...

If I were making the rules, I'd say digital pianos are not allowed at all...  it's too easy to speed up midi without it sounding fake for something as straightforward as scales.  You don't want a whole bunch of people trying to see who can post the best sped-up recording of the scales they played SLOWLY and PERFECTLY now do you?  Acoustic piano sounds are more difficult to speed up without changing the pitch, so they should be the only pianos allowed in my opinion.

Also, you meant to say 2 hands, parallel motion and hands an octave apart, right?

[henrah]

yea I mean, how many actually GOOD pieces of music can you think of that has billions of scales whizzing up and down with no change in direction and no chromaticism?

It's just a bit of fun

[stevie]

playing a normal c major scale at 320 bpm (16th notes, 4 per beat) is harder than any piece intended to be played.

why is there a limit on the speed? raw nakedness

and actually, the piece that has helped my scales the most is chopin's 10/2

[kriskicksass]

playing a normal c major scale at 320 bpm (16th notes, 4 per beat) is harder than any piece intended to be played.

why is there a limit on the speed? raw nakedness

What kind of metronome do you have that goes up to 320? Do you mean playing sixteenths with 80 to the quarter? Because that's not all that fast. A teacher once told me that scales at 144-160 to the quarter should be every student's goal (mine are around 132).

[steve jones]

Reminds me of that thread we had a few weeks back in the Student section!

Yeah, I agree that all scales at 160 - 200bpm (semi quavers) is a good target. I can do some scales at this speed but only a few. My descending RH, ascending LH C Major is working at upto 200bpm (but I start loosing the plot a bit by then!). My D and B Major RH isnt to bad, around 160bpm.

C Major ascending RH, descending LH is the one that always cocks me up. B seems to fit my hand like a glove, but with C I can never get a totally seemless passing of the thumb at spends much beyond 140bpm (RH, with a good warm that is too).

Indeed, I believe that Stevie is bang on when he says that scaling C Major at 320bpm is pretty much as hard as it gets (practically).

As for the contest, surely it should be a speed comp?

C Major, ascending / descending, either hand. Marks, set, go!

And those who can get much past 160bpm, please video it for me 

SJ

[stevie]

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166967532762278587&q=barere

scales vid

[mike_lang]

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166967532762278587&q=barere

scales vid

Good god...

[steve jones]

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7166967532762278587&q=barere

scales vid

Lol, yeah this vid keeps cropping up all over the shop.

Strange guy, but he sure can scale, I'll give him that.

SJ

[jlh]

Yeah, weird that he has his myspace account blocked to all but his friends -- it's like the sphinx's riddle...

Anyone know who this guy is?

[invictious]

Right 200 semiquavers per minute it is.

[quantum]

Yeah, weird that he has his myspace account blocked to all but his friends -- it's like the sphinx's riddle...

Anyone know who this guy is?

He's a member of this forum.  I belive he posted some stuff in the audition room. 

[nervous_wreck]

makin fun of me

i'll enter! 120 bps? easy... in fact, i think most people would agree with me on this, you should bump it up to something htat's gonna push us. like... 160-180. GOOD QUALITY!

[timothy42b]

I'm still not convinced we're all measuring the same.

Quarter = 120 bpm, sixteenth note scales, so we're playing 480 notes per minute.

I can't do that yet. 

I just started looking at the Bach 2 part invention, number 1 this weekend.  The key signature is C, my edition is marked quarter = 120, the notes are mostly sixteenths.  So it will exactly match this contest.

Do you all play the inventions at that speed? 

[jlh]

I'm still not convinced we're all measuring the same.

Quarter = 120 bpm, sixteenth note scales, so we're playing 480 notes per minute.

I can't do that yet. 

I just started looking at the Bach 2 part invention, number 1 this weekend.  The key signature is C, my edition is marked quarter = 120, the notes are mostly sixteenths.  So it will exactly match this contest.

Do you all play the inventions at that speed? 

I think we are all thinking the same thing except you.  Quarter=120 is not that fast for sixteenth notes.  There's no need to play inventions faster than that. 

I had all major and minor scales up to 160 after 4 years of piano -- and also arpeggios in triplets up to 160 around that same time (diminished and dominant 7th arpeggios to 4 sixteenths=160 as well).  There's no reason not to set the standard up to 160 if you really want only the best recordings of scales.

[xhunterjx]

160 with 16th notes
or 160 with 8th notes?

[rapmasterb]

"I am finished, thank you."

That would almost sound pretentious if he wasnt so damn good.

[steve jones]

I think its a quote form the Cziffra improv vid. 

SJ

[quantum]

I think its a quote form the Cziffra improv vid. 

SJ

https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9145958126932794540&q=cziffra

I randomly concur.

[rapmasterb]

Yeah of course it is that's why it would sound so pretentious. Its like cziffra's most famous quotation. 

[jlh]

160 with 16th notes
or 160 with 8th notes?

Four 16th notes = 160 MM

[timothy42b]

Okay, I am officially unconfused.

Sixteenths, at quarter = 120 MM.

Oh, wait a minute.  HS?  or HT?  <g>

[nervous_wreck]

you can play the inventions in whatever tempo you want... usually i go with my teachers opinion, but tempo markings aren't by bach so they have no relevence to you. just as long as you don't take it out of context, if it's an energetic song, play it fast. if it sounds like it should be slower, do so.

does this thing include the whole enchalada? double notes? arppeggios, obviously you said no chromatics, which i think should be included if anyone wants to puit this much energy in a recording. and what about octaves? and anything else i'm forgetting.

[steve jones]

I can play No 1 at 120 just. But it sounds daft! I prefer not to play it faster 100bpm.

No 8 has a tempo marking of 144bpm, which is crazy imo. But I guess if you're using them for technical development (as many do, myself included) then it makes more sense.

SJ

[moi_not_toi]

Hey! Nervous_Wreck!
Is there any way that you could notate that improv of Hava Nagila?

You are probably better at scales than my teacher. Awesome.