Some thoughts: how to play Scale in a musical way?

[bbnd]

Recently, I found out that although I can play scales in a very fast speed, it sounds very bored, cold and like little hammer strike on the keys...
How to play these things with music curve, sounds warm, and with good quality tone?

[kulahola]

Sometimes scales, treated as finger gymnastic session need to be played very equal, deep in the key, not moving wris and it sounds boring. Pure gymnastic.

I personally ask my students to play scales in many ways, the "boring" one and then with variations: huge crescendo and diminuendo and vice versa. Very legato. Non-legato but very fast (crispy fingers).

It is evident that a scale in Mozart cant be played in a gymnastic way.

[lagin]

Hi,
Try not starting with a bang.  Make it sound like the scale has been playing all day and you are just now joining in.  Have a subtle crescendo at the beginning and diminuendo as you return at the end--not to overexaggerated, but done nicely. Also listen to how harsh your notes are in the high registers.  You want to play on the keybeds but not with a harsh sound.  Hope this helps.  It's what my teacher told me.

[mound]

You can do any number of things to make a scale musicical, it's just a matter of "taking interest" in it again, rather than mindlessly running your fingers up and down the keyboard.

think about a certain tone you want to produce and see if you can make it happen. Try to very the rhythms to make a statement. Think "colors" - try to play the scale "red" and then try to play it "green" - what can you do with your articulation to make a sound a different color? Try doing stacatto, try legato. Really connect physically and emotionally with every single note in the scale. Try to play it extremely slow so that you don't hit the next note until the reverberance of the previous is just barely still alive..  the possibilities are really endless! Just become interested and ideas will come

-Paul

[faulty_damper]

From my experience about music, when you start a piece of music that does not have the character of jumping off the page, you should extend the duration of the first note slightly giving it not only a dynamic accent (if the piece calls for it) but a duration accent.  Popular example, the first notes of Beethoven's Moonlight sonata.

The second thing is that when a melody rises the tendency is to increase the dynamics: crescendo.  And when it falls, it diminishes: decrescendo.

This is what I have always done when my teacher showed me how to play scales.  I had never been told to play them at strict tempi and at strict dynamics.  However, for music exams she has her students play it that way, the boring way because that is what the examiners expect.  (anything to get higher points, i suppose)

But I follow the "musical" method (the natural method, I consider it) of playing scales.

Another thing I would ask is whether or not your repetory is as "cold" and "bored" because it may be a sign that you have taken the playing of scales into a totally technical exercise and not of a musical one.  (This is something I have noticed with other piano students who can play scales the way you describe.)

[ted]

I don't think scales played straight up and down are particularly interesting either musically or physically. What I do (which isn't very often because I hardly bother with scales for physical purposes) is continually invent different figures within the scale. A simple one is 1,3,2,4,3,5... (5,3,4,2,3,1.. left hand) i.e. alternating thirds - that's a better exercise because it uses more fingers and, if played with both hands simultaneously from different starting points, also exercises rhythmic coordination.

But that's just one simple case - I'm sure your imagination will come up with dozens of others.

[anda]

i suppose i would have to start by loving that scale, so, i don't know about you - but that will never happen to me 

[Bob]

I like the huge cres/dim way.  You can also draw it out a little with a ritard/rall.

I think sometimes that cold, exact (boring) way is necessary to work out lumps and work on control.

Playing scales leigero (I can't spell it?!!!) is nice -- light and quick.

I've also had fun "improvising" on scales -- playing the same old scale routine (notes and rhythm, up/down 4 8ves in 16ths), but varying the expression -- sometimes big and loud, sometimes quiet and meek, sometimes playful with accents on the fourth 16th, sometimes slow and legato, etc.

Or you can take a scale and play patterns over it, esp finger patterns that are used in the scale -- those same finger patterns can help you play the scale in the normal way.  For example, the finger pattern 123 is found in the scale.  You can take fingers 123 and play scale degrees 123, then scale degrees 234, then 345, etc. -- all with those same fingers.  It's basically taking a fragment of the finger pattern and repeating it, but it's a little more pleasant for the ear to hear different notes.  In this case, "musical" would mean playing something slightly different than a straight up and down 4 8ve scale.  You could also do 321, 1234 or 4321 finger combinations or do something with the thumb cross-unders and cross-overs. 

Depending on what you consider musical, you could play the scale in one hand and chords in the other.  It's a move more toward an etude, but it's a little more interesting than straight scales.

Hope that helps.

[Ed Marlo]

Ah, scales. 

To add a little interest I do the following:

Vary the way each hand is played.  Staccato in one hand, legato in the other.  Crescendo and diminuendo as mentioned before, but play differently in each hand.

Emphasise certain notes, try alternating the emphasis between right and left hand.

Play 2 octaves in one hand in the same time play only one octave in the other.  The hand which you play 2 octaves in, play staccato, and in the other play legato.  Vary the emphasis..

Contrary motion scales, crossing over, vary all the dynamics mentioned above. 

Play scales to a different rhythm. 

Arpeggio in one hand scale in the other.

Alternate notes between hands.  Eg. for C Major play C (LH); D (RH); E (LH).. etc. 

Use scales as exercises for counting, 3 to 4 for example. 

Play a scale with 3 fingers from each hand, crossing them over to go up the keyboard. 

The list goes on..  I very rarely play a scale the 'normal' way.  I play scales as exercises for coordination, counting, practicing dynamics.  I'm not taking exams, so I don't have to worry about learning to play a scale 'perfectly' so much.  They are very very useful exercises, and if you use a little imagination are far from boring.

[johnnypiano]

Look for scale passages in works by different composers and practise them.   

[Torp]

As a corollary to the "color" analogy above, think of all the emotions you may want to express.  Then, figure out how to express that emotion through the playing of the scales.  This is an exercise you can apply to any section of music though, not just scales.

How would you play a scale to evoke happy vs. sad vs. angry vs. melancholy vs. pensive vs. _______?  Try to 'really' be in that emotion.  What would it sound like if you had just been told that your best friend had been diagnosed with cancer?  What if they announced they were in remission?  What would it sound like if you had just proposed to someone and they had said yes?  What if they had said no?

Think about the variability and depth of human emotion.  From the highest highs to the lowest lows to the complex to the saccharine, the list can go on and on.

Don't know if this helps or if it just sounds cheezy....

Jef

PS - I personally think it is a lot more fun to do this with actual pieces of music than with scales alone.