How much time do you spend on scales?

[bernadette60614]

As above!

[iansinclair]

exactly none.  Unless they are part of a piece which I am practicing...

Exercises of any form and I have never gotten along well, somehow...

[j_menz]

exactly none.  Unless they are part of a piece which I am practicing...

Exercises of any form and I have never gotten along well, somehow...

Same here. One of my teachers was rather keen on them, so I did spend about ten minutes a week on them then (during lesson).

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Nada.

[chopin2015]

None to 30 minutes to an hour each practice!

[andreslr6]

Same as above, when my teacher asked me to study scales I spent 30 min max a day.

Now that he doesn't I only spend like 5 min a week in just 1 particular scale I like, and just to warm up. Usually, if I want to warm up I'll most likely pick a few bars of any etude I've played instead of a scale.

[brogers70]

Scales, about 30 minutes a day, and another 30 on arpeggios and other exercises.

[hfmadopter]

If a piece is in a key I haven't played in for a while I will review the scales and chords for the key. Maybe 10-15 minutes of that to get my head going in the right direction. I do practice arpeggios a little though, especially if rearranging a modern piece ( so called pop or musical etc.).

Once I'm going under full steam on a repertoire or fully into a new piece even, I don't work on the scales and I don't do them just for the sake of exercise.

[rmbarbosa]

Sometimes, to warm, I play scales but only the scales beggining with black keys and playing them like C major: 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-1....; not with Clementi notation. I do the same thing with "arpegios". Also, I like to play scales in "cadenzas", like E major scale at the end of the Nocturn no 20 in C sharp minor (Chopin) wich beggins in A and very fast.

[mahlermaniac]

5-10 minutes a day. Or until I'm pleased with my technique. I don't really do arpeggios, though I should start. I'll also work on the specific scale of the key a new piece is in to prepare.

[pandylover18]

about 5 minutes each day. i practice a different scale each week

[1piano4joe]

Hi Bernadette,

I used to practice scales but I don't anymore. I can use the time more productively working on other things.

Till next time, Joe.

[j_menz]

@ Bernadette -  Lots of people do spend more time on scales than the response sample here would indicate. Particularly for early/intermediate pianists they can be useful for manual dexterity, keyboard feel and a feel for the various keys (as in signatures).  I'm not sure too many teachers use them as effectively as they might in any of those regards, but rather just teach them because (and in the same mindless way) they were taught them.

[dima_76557]

How much time do you spend on scales?

A lot, but that probably depends on where I am now in my development. Sometimes, days go by when I don't practise any repertoire at all: only scales, arpeggios, formulas, etc. The goal: applied music theory and classical improvisation in the style of the great composers. I practise scales not only from tonic to tonic, but also starting from any key, with any fingering, with polyrhythms, etc., trying to stay in my comfort zone while doing so and aiming at musical goals, not merely mechanical drilling. The basics can never be solid enough, even if you think you are great already.

[ted]

Hardly any these days specifically on scales, and if so, never in the usual way. As normally played they do not use the fifth fingers enough to be of much use to me and have been musically done to death. In my ten minutes or so a day on the Virgil Practice Clavier, I tend to work on finger striking combinations, haptic figurations and sequences; the actual notes don't matter much for gymnastic purposes.

Musically, scales are just subsets of the keyboard like any other partition, to be inculcated into the subconscious and aligned with whatever emotional or psychic properties are used in the improvisational process; or put more simply, the sounds I enjoy. I cannot face the appalling (to me) waste of consciousness involved in going up and down in the same old ways day in and day out; life is too short for that, at least mine is. For me, creating music is a vital, dynamic and essentially serendipitous event, not a daily drudge.

Therefore any exercises, scales or otherwise, I do are always directed to that end. I think I might differ from many players, in that I perceive  keyboard subsets, including scales, spatially, as opposed to serial or stepwise thinking. If the impulse to play in a given subset, for example an F# scale, comes during improvisation, I can land anywhere in it and know I am in the right place. It seems a minor point, but I have not encountered this way of thinking in many other players. Most seem to have a deeply imprinted serial notion of scales. For me that would hamper improvisational flow.

[starstruck5]

I just improvise a lot -so scales and arpeggios get practised I guess -

[iancollett6]

I spend about 1/2 an hour a day on scales..always with two hands together.

[magic_sonata]

I do the usual 1/2 hour a day to warm up my fingers and loosen my wrist, but sometimes even 15 minutes if I'm anxious to practice or I'm fast that day. I do a regular routine of the following, for your MAIN one scale (by main, such as for an important piece your working on)

this is a very helpful guide, so I recommend using it for everyday to every other day practice

1. Two octaves, HS, quarter, beat= 84, 100
2. Two octaves, HT, quarter, beat= 84, 100
3. Two octaves, HS, eighth, beat= 84, 100
4. Two octaves, HT, eighth, beat= 84, 100
5. Two octaves, HS, sixteenth, beat= 66, 69
6. Two octaves, HT, sixteenth, beat= 66, 69
7. Two octaves, eighth (RH) against quarter (LH), beat= 76, 84
8. Two octaves, eighth (LH) against quarter (RH), beat= 76, 84
9. Two octaves, triplet (RH) against quarter (LH), beat= 76, 84
10. Two octaves,triplet (LH) against quarter (RH),beat= 76, 84
CHALLENGE: Two octaves, triplet (RH) against eighth (LH), beat= 76, 84
Two octaves, triplet (LH) against eighth (RH), beat= 76, 84

[azusasatsuma]

Once you've mastered every scale in every key, with relevant chords, dominant 7th, arpeggios etc. there should be no need to waste time on them every day... I usually play a scale when I start a new piece in a different key during practice. Other than that, I wouldn't waste so much time on them... 

[kriatina]

I always "do" my scales as a start-up for about 10-12 minutes.
These exercises always give me a good warm-up and a good introduction.

Good luck from Kristina.

[timothy42b]

1. Two octaves, HS, quarter, beat= 84, 100
2. Two octaves, HT, quarter, beat= 84, 100

What is your thinking behind doing the easy and the difficult at the same speed?  Doing them HT limits you to a speed which is no challenge at all HS.