Philosophy of scales

[Chris_Repertoire]

What are your theories for why scales "work" -  I think it can be taken as a given that practicing scales is a great help to overall pianistic ability - but why? How does playing scales effect the mind/hand?  

What do you think?

My own conclusion is that the main benefit from scales is that they allow the fingers to adjust and learn (automatically) where they need to go to play the correct notes on the scale. For example, if you play enough scales in D major, when you play a piece of music in D major it is much more effortless to hit a C or F sharp instead of a "regular" C or F.   That's been my experience at least.

And I think if you play scales attentively you get a better sense of where your hands are on the keyboard. You get a sense of where your finger is and the notes around it.  

Anyone agree, disagree? Have any other thoughts? What about using scales to build finger dexterity?

[mosis]

Scales are good for learning relaxation and how to utilize the weight of the arm and shoulders. Since they may be played infinitely fast, you don't necessarily have to practice them until you hit ridiculous tempi, just as long as you're using correct high-speed motions and the other wonderful things mentioned above.

[Indigo]

When you think about it, scales are really pretty crap in some senses.  We use our 1, 2, 3, fingers the most, and our little finger the least and we play all the scales in relatively the same pattern...    What it does teach you is the scales for technical work and they do assist a lot in scale patterns and anticipating music.  They also strengthen fingers and assist the development of hand coordination and technique.  However, like any exercises you must be careful of the repetitive nature of them.  Also you shouldn't rely on them solely to build technique and strength.  Be very careful you do not over work yourself with exercises especially the repetitive ones where only some of the fingers get a work out and the others don't...

[bernhard]

Have a look at reply #10 on this thread:


https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2429.msg21143/topicseen.html#msg21143

Best wishes,
Bernhard