4 Reasons Why Playing Scales on Piano are Important
Piano scales often get a bad press. Repeated scale practice is often
cited as a reason for quitting piano lessons among beginners. The simple fact
is, though, that scales are incredibly important - it’s very difficult to
become a really good pianist unless you master your scales and practise them
pretty regularly.
The problem is that it’s very rarely explained to piano learners why scales
matter so much.
1. Muscle Memory - Trains your fingers to play common
patterns found in music. When you have practised a scale for a while you
will begin to ‘just get it’ and the scale will flow naturally from your
instrument. What you have done is to begin to develop muscular memory. This is
a very useful thing to have. When you see this scale again or indeed a similar one you will be able to rely
partially on this muscle memory to help you play the scale. This also applies
to snippets of scales, of which there are a lot in music.
2. Dexterity – one part of learning an instrument
involves training parts of the body to do new things, to repeat them and then
do them very quickly. Scales are a great training partner. They will help you
refine and improve your speed. Slow careful practice of scales at the outset
will have you whizzing up and down in no time.
3. Ears – if you can’t hear what is wrong you
can’t correct it. This is true of all of your music practice. Learn to listen
very, very carefully when you practice your scales and you will start to hear
areas where you can improve your other playing. Pay attention to tuning,
articulation, tone quality, consistency etc. Imagine what a perfect scale would
sound like in every way and try to make each of your scales sound like that.
4. Timing – to play together with other people
you need to have good time, good internal time. One of the best ways to develop
this is to practise scales. Slowly at first, with a metronome if needed until
you are placing each and every note exactly where it needs to be, not too soon
or too late – just right.
You can get
ahead of the music practice game by taking your scales seriously and realizing
that they are far from boring. In fact, there is a huge range
of possibilities when you begin to think about it. Those that think
scales are boring are on the track to slow progression. Realize the potential
scales have to improve your music practice and you will be in the fast lane.
Proper fingering of the scales on the piano is
very important to the development of your skills and advancement as a pianist.
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