Make your scales and arpeggio practice more FUN!
Tips and resources on how to be creative with technical exercises like scales, broken chords and arpeggios. A fun way for parents to get involved in their child’s practice.
I previously wrote about the importance of memorising and understanding your major and minor scales and what a significant role they play in music. If you missed this, here are the two blogs where these topics were discussed in detail:
https://www.ashbeamusic.com/blog/become-the-best-key-signature-identifier
https://www.ashbeamusic.com/blog/memorise-your-minor-scales-and-key-signatures
Now it’s time to put our knowledge and memory into practice! Let's have a look at how you can possibly reinforce and expand your knowledge of scales and turn your practice into FUN.
Regardless of what instrument you play, these suggestions will work for you!
1. Experiment with Rhythm
Take any scale or arpeggio and add a dotted rhythm to make it more interesting as well as reinforce what you already know about this type of rhythm. Once you have mastered it, you can now experiment with triplets or any other rhythm that you find fun.
2. Try different dynamics as you go up and down your scales and arpeggios
Practise your crescendos as well as diminuendos. The hardest dynamics to keep consistent are the piano and pianissimo dynamics. Practice those the most. Changing volume can be a tricky technique to execute, especially in the beginning stages of your instrumental playing.
So why not practise dynamics when playing scales or other technical exercises? They are a necessary part of your musical journey, especially when you are preparing for graded exams in your chosen instrument.
3. Change the articulation
Articulation deals with HOW you play your notes. Smoothly (legato), detached (staccato), with strong accents or slight emphasis (also called a tenuto) and so on. When playing their pieces, most students tend to play everything either smoothly or very detached, despite all the articulation markings being visible and very clear.
Next time you practise, try to alternate between smooth, detached or accented notes. This way you are constantly perfecting your technique and learning the difference between each type of articulation that exists in music. It is often this detail that gets forgotten in your pieces. Examiners tend to mark down a performance that lacks articulation!
4. Recite the note names when you practise your scales and arpeggios
By doing this, you will better internalise your theoretical knowledge of your scales and you will NOT depend on just your muscle memory. Take the time as you call out loud each letter name and don't forget to call out the key signature too. Remind yourself how many flats and sharps the scale you are about to play contains.
Wind and brass instrumentalists should do it before they play the scales, however all the other instrumentalists can call out the notes at the same time as playing. This will help you slow down and really think about the scale in more detail.
5. Random practice
On a piece of paper, write down the names of your scales and arpeggios you are currently learning or know already and cut each scale name out into a small piece of paper and drop it in a container or lay them out on a table. Do the same with dynamics (pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte and fortissimo, crescendo and decrescendo) and throw them in a separate container. Shake it up and pull out one piece from the scales container and one piece from the dynamics container. You can do the same with your articulation (as per tip 3 above).
6. Play with your eyes closed
This can be quite daunting for a lot of students as they have always depended on their eye sight to guide them and make them feel secure and confident. Be patient with yourself when you start practising with your eyes closed. A lot of your notes may not be accurate and therefore you will feel that things are out of control.
Don’t worry, just go slow and try to visualise the trail in your mind’s eye! Trust your brain that it knows the way and that it will guide your fingers in the right direction. This way you are allowing your brain to perfect its spatial awareness! You are also training your ears and aural skills when you do this!
7. Play from top down
Most students practice their scales and arpeggios going from bottom up, just as it’s prescribed in their exam syllabus. Next time you practice, try to go from the top octave down and then back up. I’ve observed that most students tend to make more mistakes when going down the scale. So changing direction is a great way of getting used to any scale, and perfecting the movement when going down the scales!
8. Play your scales in thirds
This technique works on coordination, spatial awareness and depends on the theoretical memory of scales rather than just muscle memory. To play your scales in this style, play your first note, skip to the third, then return to the second note and then play your fourth and so on.
Let’s use C major as a guide: C-E-D-F-E-G-F-A-G-B-A-C
As you can see- following this pattern, you play each note twice in the first octave already. You can also add a swing rhythm to it and it will almost immediately start to sound like a piece of music.
9. Stagger your hands - if you are a pianist or play other pitched percussive instruments
To stagger your hands when playing scales or arpeggios means that you will use one hand at a time followed immediately by the other hand. So if you are playing a C major scale- you can try using left hand (L) first starting on the note C followed by the right hand (R) next, also playing C. So you will use the following hand pattern:
L R L R L R L R L R L R L R L R
C C D D E E F F G G A A B B C C
Don’t forget to reverse the order of hands! This way you are perfecting your coordination between both hands.
Have fun practising your scales and feel free to let us know which practice suggestion was the most enjoyable to you! All the best on your musical journey.
With love ❤️
🎵 Ashbea Music 🎵
P.S. Here are some additional resources you might find useful!
The Basic Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios: & Cadences
