Unlocking the Secret Benefits of Scales

If you’ve ever studied music, you know scales. In the world of music learning, they are evergreen, prescribed year in and year out by music teachers across the globe.

I’m no exception: I love a scale! But I do think their ubiquity makes it easy to run through them without much thought. And that’s a pity! Because approached with deliberation and intention, scales have benefits far beyond improving your musical fitness (or satisfying your music teacher’s desire to see you suffer)! Approached on autopilot– well, scales are still good for you, but you’re only receiving a fraction of their benefits.

So how do you get the most out of your scales? Here are four ideas

1) Aim for ease, not speed. While it’s true that playing scales can build your finger speed over time, if you prioritize speed in your practice, chances are you may not actually be doing much to help yourself get faster. That’s because your fingers need to be moving in a relaxed, easy, even way for you to be able to play faster. If you practice scales with tension, the only thing you’re getting better at is playing with tension, and tension limits mobility, compromising speed. When you’re practicing scales, let ease be your guardrail. If you aren’t moving easily and evenly, you’re playing too fast.

2) Use scales to work on tone. Sure, scales are nominally a finger exercise, but you can use them for so much more! When you are working on any aspect of tone, from clarity to resonance to steadiness, it is extremely helpful to do so in a constrained context. Like, say, a scale! When you play a scale, your brain isn’t overloaded with stuff like harmony, articulation, and expression; instead you can focus your conscious mind on tone quality, laying down the mental and physical foundation you need to maintain a beautiful sound.

3) Practice connection. If you want accurate, synchronized finger movements, you need to practice in such a way that your fingers have nowhere to hide. What do I mean by that? Well, if you play a scale that’s even remotely disconnected, with any amount of silence between the notes, you’re giving your fingers cover for all sorts of between-note shenanigans. In contrast, if you eliminate all of the silence in between the notes by playing slurred, legato, or both, any lack of synchronization will be immediately obvious. And hearing your disynchronies is the only way you can eventually eliminate them. Practice scales with connection.

3) Practice with and without music. Reading a scale on a piece of paper and generating the scale in your mind are dramatically different skills. And both are useful! Having a piece of paper in front of you might make it easier to work on tone, for example. Whereas generating the scale from memory will help you to solidify your knowledge of keys and chords. So do both!

Happy scaling!