I find it really difficult to play the perfect scale, I've got an exam coming up soon and I'm kinda worried!

is it just me or does anyone else agree?
I've got small hands and moving smoothly from one octave to another isin't exactly easy for me to do!

does anyone have any suggestions?

All I can suggest is lots of practice.

What grade and instrument?

Just practice makes perfect really i suppose... Good luck. What exam are you doing? Grade? Instrument?

It's a case of practsising your scales really. I'm rubbish at scales and i didn't even know any of them a week before my exam. So, thinking i was going to fail if i didn't do them, i practised them really hard in the week before. When I got the results back, i found out that I had got full marks in them!!!!! I wouldn't recomend this, but it seems to work for me!

I'm doing Grade 6 Piano

I am doing Grade 8 clarinet in the summer, and so I am practising scales like crazy now so I have a better chance of getting a high mark. I always seem to leave it a bit too late and they arent all perfect! But I expect you can still get 20/21 even if you make just a couple of minor mistakes!?
My examiner failed me in grade 5 piano scales a couple of years ago cos they werent up to speed even though the notes were all there!! I got 113 that year i was really disappointed cos the examiner was a bit harsher than usual! But im sure your scales will be fine if you do a lot of practice! I hate them but i cant say theyre not helpful!!

Kate

QUOTE (Kate @ Apr 27 2004, 08:30 PM)

I am doing Grade 8 clarinet in the summer,

ooh im doing grade 8 clarinet next year!!what pieces are you playing

Looks like you're stuck with 'just practice', highnotes. I'm still really bad at technical work - 18 years later! I just don't seem to bother memorising scales etc very well. Also, I have crooked middle fingers on both hands, so I have a bit of a reach problem (particularly with dominant and diminished 7th arps in inversions! Ouch!! ), and my technical work can tend to be uneven at top speed!
Don't freak out and do too much practice and hurt yourself. If you're having problems with smoothness, practice *sloooooowly*. If there's also an uneveness, 'swing' the notes (I know that can sometimes be hard for pianists who haven't been exposed to much jazz) deliberately. Another fun thing I get my students to do is overemphasised staccato: take your hands waaaay off the keyboard in 'bouncy' movement which creates a nice firm, crisp staccato still. Play scales at a moderate speed - still slow enough that you can get all the notes right and have complete control of where you go to next. It gives you a lot of control.
I'm sure you'll be fine though - as far as I'm concerned, if music is 'perfect', it can be quite boring, and I often prepare pieces to be 'unperfect'!

Also Kate, I know this is Australia, with a different system and examiners, but we usually get the benefit of 2-3 strikes and then you're out for tech. I even had an examiner for my 7th Grade AMEB sax exam who ticked my sustained altissimo scale when I didn't know how to play the notes: my teacher at the time was a trumpeter, so the guy took pity on me!

the way i practise scales (and im a bit of a perfectionist sometimes!) is to just play them over and over, at different speeds, hands separately and together (this is piano obviously!) until i get them perfect and i cant get them wrong. dont practise them in the same order all the time, or you get used to the order and its really hard to play them in the exam! i usually write them all on little bits of paper, put them in an envelope, and pick out about 20 a day to practise thoroughly. i play each one staccato and legato, hands separately and together, loads of times. i make myself play each one 5 times perfectly, in a row before i go on to the next! a few times before my grade 8 i spent about 4 hours just practising scales without a break! but i am a perfectionist when it comes to piano, and you might have more interesting things to do than play scales...
jess

QUOTE (acissejw @ Apr 29 2004, 04:07 PM)

the way i practise scales (and im a bit of a perfectionist sometimes!) is to just play them over and over, at different speeds, hands separately and together (this is piano obviously!) until i get them perfect and i cant get them wrong. dont practise them in the same order all the time, or you get used to the order and its really hard to play them in the exam! i usually write them all on little bits of paper, put them in an envelope, and pick out about 20 a day to practise thoroughly. i play each one staccato and legato, hands separately and together, loads of times. i make myself play each one 5 times perfectly, in a row before i go on to the next! a few times before my grade 8 i spent about 4 hours just practising scales without a break! but i am a perfectionist when it comes to piano, and you might have more interesting things to do than play scales... jess

i am exactly the same as you

I don't always see why people find scales so difficult. As long as you establish a good technique then you can do everything. Maybe you find sclaes difficult to learn because you hate them so much and get annoyed when you can't so them, but be patient, it takes ages to learn scales.

Good point purple dolphin!
I hate scales too but most people do!

Why don't you try to make them fun by doing different rhythms and patterns with them. Just treat every new scale you learn as a little new adventure, thats wot i say!

Don't worry, be happy

Daisy
xxx