5 Reasons to Practice Scales: Unlocking Their Importance
Why do we need to learn and practice scales? It’s a common question that many students (and even teachers) ask. Are scales just a traditional exercise assigned by every piano teacher, or are they simply part of the ABRSM syllabus? As teachers, it's crucial to understand why scales are essential, but it's equally important that our students grasp this as well.
Here are my reasons why practicing scales is vital for every musician:
1. Scales Appear in Music
Scales are not just exercises; they are fundamental to many pieces of music. Understanding scales makes learning and memorizing scale-based passages much easier. For example, many intermediate-level sonatinas by composers like Clementi and Kuhlau feature scale passages. When students are familiar with their scales, these sections of their pieces become more manageable, making the learning process smoother and more enjoyable.
2. Developing Coordination Between Hands
Playing scales is an excellent way to improve hand coordination. Getting both hands to move together fluently on the piano is a challenge, especially for beginners. Practicing scales helps build that coordination, as it requires the hands and fingers to work in sync, ultimately making more complex pieces easier to handle.
3. Establishing Good Fingering Habits
Good fingering is crucial for smooth, efficient playing, and scales provide the perfect opportunity to develop these habits. Once students master correct fingering through scales, they’ll find it easier to apply similar finger patterns in their repertoire, making their playing more natural and intuitive.
4. Enhancing Aural Awareness of Keys
Practicing scales helps develop a student’s ear for music. Over time, students begin to recognize how each note functions within a key. For instance, the 7th note, or leading tone, naturally resolves to the tonic. This understanding also helps students differentiate between major and minor keys, giving them a more refined ear for the pieces they are learning.
5. Improving Theoretical Understanding of Keys
Scales are the foundation of music theory. By learning scales and key signatures, students gain a better understanding of how music works. This knowledge extends to how chords are formed, how chord progressions work, how modulations occur, and how dissonances resolve into consonances. Understanding these theoretical concepts not only helps with interpretation but also makes it easier to learn and memorize pieces.
Where Technique and Music Theory Meet
Scales serve as the meeting point of technique and music theory. Practicing scales doesn’t just build technical skills like coordination and fingering, but also deepens the understanding of musical keys, which is a cornerstone of theory. As a bonus, mastering scales helps students learn repertoire pieces more effectively.
While scales may initially feel like a chore, once students begin to appreciate their importance, they will unlock new possibilities for growth in all areas of their musical development. So give scales a try, and approach them with enthusiasm—you’ll be amazed at the progress you make!