Oh dear, how am I going to go about doing this?

[mosis]

This year, through some coaxing from my new teacher, I'm going to do my Grade 10 RCM exam. Now, pieces and studies and all those wonderful things are fine and dandy, but there's one section that's going to absolutely kill me.

That's right. Scales.

I have to know every single scale, every single arpeggio, dominanth and diminished seventh arpeggios, four note patterns solid AND broken, and scales in octaves. I haven't played scales in about two years. I don't know what speed the examiners want them at. I don't know how many they want. I don't know what they're looking for. And I know that there's no way in hell I can learn so much sh*t in so little time.

Without help, that is.

I can get the white key (C-B) major and minor scales down pretty well, but the arpeggios are absolutely killing me. The examiners want a nice legato, and that's just not possible with TO, and I keep missing when using TU, especially hands together. It's just ridiculous how much I have to learn. What am I supposed to do?

[after8ight]

scales has always been a mark-scorer for me. so heres some stuff you might want to know.

examiners (speak from abrsm) want about 3 per section. for me, I have always been taught to play scales as fast as possible keeping a solid and absolutely firm sound (FIRM. very important). Make sure you press every note all the way down and keep your wrist low. make sure your sound is also clear by 'dropping' each note. if you're tall and thin, sit with your legs apart so you get good balance. and vice-versa.

never allow your bridge (between nuckles and wrist) to collapse esp. in arpeggios.

my teacher has had heavy russian influences and like her, I play scales pppp-fffff at it's most extreme. but a nice musically shaped scale for four octaves can be done p-mp-mf-f.

for arpeggios, maintain a level wrist and dont make a dramatic turn at the pivot; just lift off and go again. do it fast so it wont be noticeable. use your elbow to guide the hand; do not move your body up and down. on your highest note, people tend to just slam their pinky down. dont do this; make a circle with your wrist and back to level position to continue down the scale. (diminished seventh same here.)

for octaves, just make sure you maintain your curve; very important: dont let your bridge collapse (very common). attack from the bottom with low wrist. if playing on the black keys with long fingers, play close to the edge. find your optimum curve and play at most horizontal possible (i.e. center of whites so that theres no jump to black)

so long as each scale or arpeggio sound complete with proper beginning and ending, it should be beautiful, so dont worry about mistakes.

practise slow to get good sound (most impt.). once you get consistent with your sound, work with speed. find your highest speed without affecting your sound.

one more thing to note, scales are just technic. once you grasp the correct technic, theres no need to practise anymore. the rest are all just variations one one pattern.

many blessings.

[Spatula]

whadday know?

I'm gradually doing my RCM grade 10 as well.

Well well well.  Personally, I remember when I was doing my grade 8, my teacher considered that I had one of the worst technique skills and sight reading ability that he's ever come across, and more so that my exam was 4 months away.  I was thinking, "oh sh!t"...because it was on August 20, 2002.  

Not just the exam was on my plate, but driving lessons to get my license was my rotten steak, renovations in the basement was that blue stinky cheese, full time 45 hour job was my moldy bread, and to top it off, Playstation 2 (which I just got right after doing my last final exam for highschool) was my wine...aged improperly and tasted awful.

Now I remember this dilemma of trying to memorize all these bloody scales and keys for every damned thing when I was doing my grade one and was a sappy 8 year old.
And the killer of my technique was that I did the most atrocious job of arppegios, especially when all the keys where black (D sharp minor etc ).

Same, I just started up my technique 6 months ago and now I’m even better than before, so don’t abandon all hope!  

I’m assuming you haven’t paid your $110 or so for this bloody exam because if you really feel you don’t have 6 months or more to catch up, then pray to whatever god you believe in for the teacher to post pone it.  I delayed my grade 8 for 2 and a half years because my technique stinked like shampoo minus the sham.
 If I could do it then (only 5 or 6 keys to memorize) then why can’t anyone do it now?  It’s the same situation.  But we should be able to…so lets get to work:

How to solve this predicament?

1) Formulate a visual plan and be systematic.

Write up a simple but encompassing grid using Microsoft excel of each key and each technique required.
This will probably take two pages.  One page for the minor, one for the major.

The major page should have on the top or left ledger the keys, and the other axis is the technique (ie scales, 4 note chords solid broken, formula patterns, arpeggios, dominant diminished arpeggios etc etc etc)

The major technique should consist of:  

Scales, thirds, sixths, tenths, contrary, alternating, formula pattern, four note chords: broken, solid, dominant 7th broken, solid, arpeggio, thirds, octaves and finally arpeggios.

Personally I listed the order of keys in a chromatic fashion.  This was to alleviate the difficulty of each key because if you start out doing C major, then G major then progressing in the order of the accidentals, you’ll find that you are increasing the difficulty (which isn’t good in my opinion, but you can order the major keys any way you see fit that works).

The minor page should look something like this:

Scales: melodic, harmonic, contrary, alternating, formula pattern, 4 note chords broken and solid, diminished 7th broken solid, arpeggios etc etc etc I don’t want to spoon feed you too much.

Make sure to include at the bottom a little reminder of the chromatics, those little bugger seem to elude and escape me when I think I've completed my routine that I somehow forgot about those guys.

2) Slow practice, but vary your playing speed, especially with the scales and arpeggios.
Mix around with the rhythms:

Dotted rhythm, triplets, quadruplets, slow, fast, you get the idea, but the main point is to perform your technique, not just merely do it.  Put as much focus into how it sounds out like a piece or repertoire, because the way that you play your technique is incorporated knowingly or unbeknownst to the way you play your repertoire.  Pay attention and add dynamics to your scales, when you do this, you do two things:

Focus on the fingering and the typography of the keys
Focus on the music (yes music, not just numbing sounds) that you are producing.

Even count out loud 1-2-3-4 when you do your 4 note chords and inversions.  Add dynamics, and start at piano and eventually when you reach the root of the top, make it forte, then vice versa.  Even add some damper pedal to make your technique sound rich and beautiful.  I don’t recall seeing a law that you’re forbidden to add damper WHILE PRACTICING AT HOME, NOT DURING THE BLOODY EXAM!  Adding pedal is just to experiment with the sound, but it’s a surefire way to irritate the bloody hell out of the examiner if you add the pedal in.

It’s the worst waste of time, by some accounts that I’ve witnessed my friends, as well as what I’ve observed from Bernhard and what he’s said about his students regarding mindless Hanon and watching the news or catching up on school work whilst dicking around for 3 hours just doing c major.  

The speed they’re looking for will be about a quarter note for = 100 or even 110.  But don’t focus too much on speed as the main issue.  The main issue is accuracy and consistency.  I’d even do my broken four note chords at exam speed at say 88, slower than the required and I know that I’ll get docked, but if I keep it consistent with the beat and not hesitate, the examiners might come off easier.

3) Start to speed up.  Make sure you have the right fingerings in place.  The beauty with technique is that you can’t go wrong when using the correct fingering (get the big red and white book the RCM issues with all the practical examination technique material that show you the fingerings.)  Even when you practice at slow speed with proper fingering, you’ll never hit a speed wall even going at MM = 110.  That’s the beauty of practicing slowly with technique.

The arpeggios can be a little pregnant dog, but keep in mind that it doesn’t really matter what key you’re in when you’ve done technique long enough.  Another beauty of technique is that it seems that once you start to learn a key, the next key becomes a little easier because your fingers and brain know what to anticipate.  And so this continues and eventually scales does become a breeze (believe me, I’m living proof).

4) Now for the memorization part.  You gotta make little tricks and recognitions in your head of how each scale looks like mentally.  For example E major to me looks like a Helicopter (don’t ask) because I see a symmetry between the A/B key.  There’s the FG sharp to the A’s left, and the C and D sharp to the B’s right.

D minor…pretend like your fingers are walking in a jungle like Indiana Jones and when you get to the B flat key and D flat, its like walking across a bridge over the Amazon, right next to the fitting music.  Memory like this lasts a life time (it did for me anyways).  

So the more technique you do, it gets easier!  Trust me, and may the folks be with you.