hey people
I was just wondering.... how long do you spend practicing scales per day?
rachel

scales? sounds familiar.... is it a word i should know?
(I really wish i would have learnt my scales for the lower grades because now im have to learn ALL the grade 8 scales from scratch basically (I only know about 10))

When I'm doing my grade 8,
I spent around 20 minutes doing scales everyday.
However, now that I'm diplomaABRSM,
I don't need to do scales.
Though I still do 5 minutes of scales for warm-up sake.

...about 15 minutes...I enjoy them !

As a child, I HATED scales and avoided them like the plague... I remember though, that if I was preparing for an exam, my mum would write out all the different scales, cut them up and put them in a little pot and I had to pick 5 out of the pot every day to play until I'd worked through them all, then start again.

Now I'm older and wiser, I can see the value of doing scales. I do about 10 minutes of scales every day as a warm up but about once a week I do a proper practice session on scales (especially as I'm working for an exam and scales is one of the areas where I could pick up a lot of marks). Yesterday, I did a full hour of scales...

I've got a digital piano and if I find I'm getting bored with scales, I simply change the sound! Makes it lots of fun!

Me neither! But when I was practising for my exam, about 20 mins to half an hour a day.

grade 7 scales,i play them all through every practice i do.

I never do scales although I'm supposed to.

Sometimes I'll do one or two, but that's it.

I'm glad to hear it.

When I was preparing for my piano exams I practiced them almost everytime I did my pieces, which was about 3-4 times a week on average. I think it does depend on how much you enjoy them though ... for those who don't like scales so much, perhaps a box full of scales, would be useful, where you can pick out a few everytime you practice, least like that it's more exciting as you don't know what's coming up next.



Yes, this is a lot of fun! I often do this with a piece too, to make it a bit more fun, if I am having to practice it a lot. Playing in strings, or harpsichord can be fun

Never.

Now there's a surprise

Steve

I don't any more but used to play them if I had to demonstrate to the teacher in my lesson and they were the thing I practiced most before an exam!! should have practiced a bit harder on some occasions

I practise them when I need to for exams but even then only about 3 times a fortnight. Should do them more often really but . . . . .hey!

I practise them every day.
However I am only at grade 2 so there aren't yet that many- it takes me 15-20 mins ti get through them all.

20 minutes, then I spend the rest of the hour on my pieces, and finish off with a bit of sightreading.

I try to practice them every day, but I do end up practicing my pieces most of the time.

Car Expert

i never ever do them unless its the week before the exam. i used to know all of the grade 5 ones, and now they've just dissapeared. i had a lesson this afternoon and my teacher said they needed exuming!!! AHH!

about 20 to 30 mins a day. (It's not so much fun , you know! )

Oh dear god...
Don't remind me...

I skipped from Grade 2 to Grade 8, but in between, I forgot all of my scales and all that, so now I have to relearn them for Nov/Dec exams

Not only that, but I actually got my grade 8 book just like a month or so ago, and my teacher is like "don't worry!" but a few months is nowhere near long enough to practice effectively for an examination, especially when I basically have to learn scales, aural etc. from scratch AND I havn't experienced a grade exam for ages! And I want a distinction (will settle for merit)..lol... I know like the first few pages, and now i'm going like mental !

But yeah, I practice them about an hour a day...

(Sorry for the excessive use of "like")

Thankfully, I don't have to do scales anymore (it also acts as a discouragement from perhaps going back to Grade 8 later and trying to get a better mark )

I spend 30 minutes playing scales. I am doing grade 7 and my pet hate is playing stacatto scales.

I don't have to do scales any more, but often use them to unstiffen my fingers before I play pieces. Sometimes do a couple of Czerny exercises too.

Yeah....that and aural tests

huh! lucky!!

I should be practising them... but I don't. Maybe only before a lesson. I just can't bring myself to practise scales... especially contrary motions. But I'm pretty okay in them, having started preparation for grade 7 nearly right after completing grade 6. So I already had most of them drilled into my head.

But contrry motion scales rule!!! theyre lots of fun! lol!

Luckily, I can learn scales on the piano very quickly, so I enjoy playing them, as don't have to practise them too much!! I try and practise them every day, as they are an important part of music, exams etc., and also a good warm-up before I begin to play. Sometimes I can't be bothered though, as when I do them all they start to become tiresome!! I prefer playing pieces on the whole. Especially when it comes to A major contrary motion, which I'm only just getting the hang of....

Well... yeah, the 'mirror image' ones are okay... but I can never get the coordination right when it comes to different fingerings for left and right hands. I turn at the wrong parts.

There is a rather beautiful Bach two part invention based on a contrary motion scale. Maybe you should learn that.

Which one is that?

It's N° 6 in E major.

I don't really do scales on a regular basis... I only tend to do them when required, give or take about two weeks before a piano exam!

I guess scales are meant to be used more universally than just to pass one's exams, but oh well!

~Wobby~

I practise the piano for 30 mins per day, 10 mins will be scales. I actually enjoy them!!!!!!!!! Is that weird or what? I think it is because I can see them, unlike the flute which I struggle with in the top octave to remember the fingerings.
Beverley.

1 hour everyday...

An HOUR of scales???!!! Every day???!!!

Wow!

I do an hour every day (that I practice, that is), too. Actually it takes just over an hour going as fast as I can (and still maintain control) to play each technical requirement of the grade 10 syllabus (RCM) ONCE! When I was first learning them my teacher wanted them all 2x a day . RCM is HUGE on technique! We have scales of all sorts, arpeggios, solid and broken chords, inversions of arpeggios, ect. in every key!

I'd recommend doing each scale 2x a day, and then once a day when you get good at them. However long that takes is how long I'd practice them. (This is with exams in mind though - once exams are all done, I'll probably do just 15 minutes a day then, and only because I'll need to retain them all for university).

When I was preparing for grade 8 (violin, yes I know this is the piano thread...) I did about an hour of scales most days. When I was learning the piano, many moons ago, I hated scales. However, I sat down the other day, tried to play some... and actually quite enjoyed it!!!

I find scales on the piano really hard !!! I'm working for Grade 5 and spend about 30 mins a day on them... then in an exam I get so nervous I fluff them. I find arpeggios much easier... and broken chords (none in Grade 5). Chromatics are easy. I found scales on clarinet easy... is that because I did them as a child ? My 11 yr old daughter rarely practises her piano scales but doesn't find them hard. It's not fair ....... Contraries are really hard but once you can do them I love them !!!
It doesn't seem fair that you have to learn all sca les for Grade 5 piano ... but in other instruments it's about grade 7. Scales required appear much harder for piano (only 3 1 octave scales for grade 1 clarinet and flute... and only 5 for grade 2 clarinet - some 2 octave).

I find scales much easier on the piano - if I could do an exam with piano scales and flute everything else I'd be laughing!

Yes, it must be so much easier when you can actually SEE the notes you are playing...

And all the octaves are the same....

I always hated scales with a passion. Not just the practice aspect, but the fact that you never know which one the examiner is going to throw at you next! For that reason I chose the option of playing two Czerny studies for my diploma instead of scales.