Practicing Scales (blog article)

10/7/2014

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Practicing Scales 13 October 2010 6 Comments

By Gohar Vardanyan

Each instrument is unique in the challenges it presents. There are technical elements on each instrument that fit the fingers perfectly and let us glide through them with almost no effort and there are some that always cause a problem, hinder us from their perfect execution. For the guitar a rest-stroke scale is perhaps the most dreaded technical element. The longer and the faster the scale is, the bigger the problem. It is often said that a guitarist either ‘has scales’ or does not. There are a number of reasons why playing scales on the guitar is so difficult compared to other instruments. First, we should consider the technique used to play scales. We only use two fingers on our right hand. While a pianist is attacking the keyboard with all ten fingers, we have to repeatedly alternate only two. Our two hands are doing different movements that need to be completely synchronized. And finally, the very nature of the instrument, its tuning, its fingerboard, string crossings, uneven intervals between strings http://legacy.guitarsessions.com/?p=138

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10/7/2014

Guitar Sessions » Blog Archive » Practicing Scales

(perfect 4th-s and a major 3rd), makes it almost impossible to find a uniform fingering for each key. However, there are ways to practice scales that can improve them and make us into a guitarist that ‘has’ scales. As with all technical elements, the right hand needs to be completely free of tension. Any tension in the right hand in the beginning of the scale will only be worse at the end of the scale. I like to think that while playing scales my fingers are walking on the strings. This means that fingers should always be alternated and never repeated, as you would alternate your feet while walking. This will eliminate the chance of stumbling. Since the two fingers most used for scales (i and m) are not even in length, sometimes it becomes awkward when we need to cross strings with m (the longer finger) going from a higher pitched string to a lower. When first learning a scale I try to finger it in a way that has the least amount of awkward crossings. Though not always avoidable, the less these occur, the easier the scale becomes. Once the scale is memorized and the fingering is decided upon I write both the left and right hand fingering on the music and begin the process of getting it up to speed. Depending on the meter (triple or duple) I divide the beat into smaller units. For a scale with four-notes per beat I divide it into two-notes per beat and practice it with a metronome at a very slow tempo until I can execute it with no mistakes and speed up the metronome as I go. Once the scale is memorized and can play at about half the intended tempo, I begin practicing it with dotted rhythms—for duple meter that means a dotted 8th note and a sixteenth; for triple meter, an 8th note and two 16th-s. I practice it at each speed about 5 times before going up. Then I reverse the meter to a 16th note and a dotted 8th for duple and two 16th-s and an 8th for triple. While playing with dotted rhythm, it forces me to practice some notes faster and some slower, which helps me build up the speed quicker. As I near the intended tempo I revert back to even notes and switch the metronome to the actual beat instead of its subdivision to build up the tempo. I also begin practicing the scale from the end. I play the last two notes, then the last three, last four, last five and so on until I can play it from beginning to end. This is when writing the right hand fingering comes in handy. When practicing, I want to make sure that I practice what I’m ultimately going to play. Therefore I need to always play each note of the scale with the correct right hand finger. So often in a performance a scale starts off great and then something happens and it never makes it to the end; practicing the scale from the end helps me make sure that I’m comfortable with the end of the scales as much as with the beginning. To be more secure in a performance I like to make sure that I can play the scale just a little above the intended tempo. If the intended tempo is the absolute maximum speed at which we can execute the scale, then we do not have a sense of security on stage. Sometimes nerves get the best of us—we start a piece just a little too quickly, we rush… having the extra notch on the metronome will help us make sure we have the necessary flexibility in our ability to vary the speed. Other techniques to help with scale speed: Most classical guitarists play scales with the i and m fingers; however, practicing scales with the m and a fingers is very important in developing speed and ease with i and m. Because of our hand’s anatomy m and a are interdependent fingers that often do not work well separately. Practicing scales with these two fingers develops their independence and reflects on the quality of other technical elements such as even tremolo and arpeggios and faster scales with i and m. http://legacy.guitarsessions.com/?p=138

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10/7/2014

Guitar Sessions » Blog Archive » Practicing Scales

Rasgueados also play a very important role in developing scale speed. Almost all flamenco guitarists have fast scales. They spend their careers playing all sorts of different rasgueado patterns. As classical guitarists we rarely play any because our repertoire rarely requires them. We spend our career developing our wrist flexors when equally important is the development of the wrist extensors. Rasgueados offer this crucial development of our extensors that no classical guitar element does. The ability of the extensors to quickly pull back the finger is just as important in playing fast scales as the ability of the flexors to pull the finger in. Digg Share Share with Tweet Stumblers

6 Comments »

(15 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

Henk said: I enjoy this article very much. Although I’m not a classical/Spanish guitarist myself, I admire the deepness of experience that’s communicated. Thanks. # 2 November 2010 at 5:52 pm

Glenn Jarrett said: Great article and great advice. 5 stars definitely! # 20 December 2010 at 6:12 pm

Jacob said: Im a beginner whose been playing for about a month now. i’m taking a beginners class at my community college, and we just got to reading scales in Mel Bay’s guitar lessons vol.1 (pg.131-32 i believe). But i’m having trouble understaning the whole, whole, half, and so on pattern when it is put to the staff. i only have the class one day a week and never get any one on one with the teacher. Can anyone help me by post something on this site or emailing me please. # 28 January 2011 at 1:50 pm

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