All scales with C fingering?

[bardolph]

Hello all, I am reading "Pianists at Play" by Dean Elder where he interviews famous concert pianists (published in 1982 I think).  Jean-Marie Darré, a virtuoso  taught by Marguerite Long & Isidor Philipp, described her daily scale routine:

"I practice scales for one hour, playing four octaves at first with separate hands, then hands together.... First I play all the scales [including minors] with the fingering of C major; afterwards I play them with the standard fingerings."

What do you all think of this?  Does anyone do this?  CC Chang, if you catch this, do you suppose it's an excellent way to practice thumb-over?

[pianolotus]

What is the thumb over?

Scales are widely accepted for their value in knowing key signatures. It is a good idea to know each and every key and the scale that goes with it.

As with any repetitious exercise the chance for sustaining an overuse injury is elevated. The guy who tunes my piano, who has played piano all his life, practices scales for 10% of his time, and music 90% of the time.

The law of specificity states to practice that which you want to perform.

If you want to run, run everyday. If you want to play music, play music.

[will]

This kind of practice seems very inefficient.

Surely a virtuoso would know the notes of all scales inside out, so they would not be practising to get a better understanding of the construction of scales.

Also, the virtouso would have easily mastered the simplistic (for them) motion patterns required for scales, so there would be little point in practising something they can already easily do. The hour would be better spent practising actual music.

Playing all the scales using C major fingering sounds of little value. I would be interested to find a work of piano music that forces the fingers into such contortions.
The fingering of RH 123 1234 on scales such as Db major and Gb major are contrary to basic principles of good fingering.
Therefore practising scales in such a fashion seems devoid of musical purpose and more like some sort of game or trick, comparable to sitting backwards on a bicycle seat while trying to ride in the normal direction. 

 I can't tell you if it's an excellent way to practice thumb over as I tried playing scales in the above manner some time ago though stopped rather quickly because it seemed a useless exercise.