Hi,

My first post...bit apprehensive!

Anyway, after the last exam administration, I've now completed what I originally set out to do - grade 8 at both Viola & Piano.

Despite 'finishing' though, I'm left with the nasty memories of the one thing that plagued me for every exam I ever took...scales. Ugh. I'd like to share what I found however (and I know most of you already know it) - making up flashcards of all of the scales you need is a brilliant way of learning them. You can put them into piles, and only practice the ones you need to - as well as using them give yourself a full 'mock exam' alongside other things. So yes, all in all, really useful.

The thing is, now that I've basically got the whole summer free, I thought I might spend some of it making up all of the flashcards for all of the syllabuses on all instruments in PDF format - so instead of having to write them all out on tatty bits of card, anyone that was interested could just print off a set and cut them up for, well, 'much neater practice'.

The service would, of course, be totally free. I'm trying to 'repay the world of music'. Or something.

I guess I'm just really interested to know what you'd all make of the idea. It sounds like it should be a quick thing to knock up some flashcards, but I've already done 5 instruments and spent about 4 days doing it...not exactly rapid. It's no problem for me to do them all...I just don't want to waste my time at it

So yes, if you could see yourself benefiting from a thing like this, I'll work at it until I've done all 168 different PDFs of instrument grades (ABRSM has 21 different instruments to grade 8?). It'll be a long task, but if I can give somethng back that a good number of people will seriously use, I'll do it.

I look forward to hearing from you

Oh, and apologies if this breaks any forum guidelines...I don't think that it does, and I can't see why ABRSM could have a problem with me aiding learners (after all, they hardly own the copyright to scales, do they?). But yes, if it does, I'll make enquiries for taking it down immediately.

Hi badegine, welcome to the forums. Don't worry we're generally Mostly Harmless and Not Very Scary as you will see on some signatures

That's truly a mammouth task you have set yourself but it does sound like a pretty good idea - I know I can always use more ways to make myself practise scales, and as for those I teach....

Oh and many congratulations at G8 on viola and piano - G8 in either of those seems hopelessly beyond me (especially in piano ) so I am in awe!

Edit: oh again - I can't see the AB having a problem with this but imagine the mods will let you know if they do. Don't see why they would though!

Thank you for the reply - yes...it certainly is a mammoth task...roughly in excess of 7,500 individual flashcards? Guess I shouldn't tell you I intend to do them for Trinity if it goes well after this too, right?

But, well, ABRSM and music in general has been brilliant to me over these past few years, so I really feel I should give something back. Scales have always been the thing I loathed-the-most-but-knew-I-could-get-better-at-if-only-I-had-the-willpower, but these flashcards, trivial as they may sound, really helped me to get through them. If I can share that with other people, I will have done something right.

Oh, and thank you for the congratulations - much appreciated.

If anyone else has any opinions on the idea before I sit down to write any more of these PDF things, I'd really love to hear them.

Thanks,

badegine

Hello and welcome!
Can I just ask exactly what you mean by scale flashcards ? Are you actually writing out the scale on the card? If so, what size would the cards be? Are you showing just one octave?

Or are you just writing the name of the scale? I have been using cards with just the name of the scale / arpeggio / broken chord for some time. My cards are small - just large enough to write, for example
"F sharp melodic minor left hand".

I don't use them for teaching how to play a scale because I tend to use either the scale books or pictures of the keyboard. I use the cards as a cue because my pupils often find it hard to play scales when I jump around from one key to another out of the order in which they have learnt them. It's to help them call to mind the mental image of a scale when asked to play it. The cards mean that they can practise at random when they are at home.

I just wondered if your cards were based on a different idea.

Aquarelle - thanks for your reply.

For the moment, with possibly 16,000+ flashcards to churn out before I've satisfied myself, I'm only doing the same as you...with pretty much the same intention in mind. For example, for the Cello, I'd have:

GRADE 1
GROUP 1
SCALE
Bb Major
Pizzicato Bowing
1 Octave

(not sure if this actually is a Grade 1 Cello scale, but you get the idea). So yes, something like that...with some fancy formatting to make it look appealing etc - the most salient points in larger font and the like...

Printing the scale onto the card (essentially making two sets of cards - one for learning, one for revising) is something I really want to do at some point, but for the moment I'm just going to keep it at that. The work involved is, shall we say, 'dauntingly monumental'

With that in mind...may I throw an idea into the pot? How would you all feel if I were to 'make them to order' initially - just to get the project off the ground. Then you could see what I mean and give me hints on improving them before I make more cards and buy hosting and a website etc. for them to be accessed through? I mean by that that I'll put the ones I've done already on the net, but if anyone wants anything else (such as something marginly more 'obscure' - say Harp Grade 4), I'll get it out ASAP.

Would that be an acceptable way of cutting out labour on less commonly used ones (such as, I would assume, Harp Grade 4 or the like) whilst still over time building up a finished collection? I just feel that doing that would allow you to assess what I'm doing before I go on a production spree only to have to do massive reformatting later. That way Piano, Violin, Flute etc. would get done and get used quickly, and Harp etc. would still get done but only as needed. Perhaps.

So yes, any volunteers with requests? Or should I just stick to the original plan?

I've made my own cards like Aquarelle's with just the name of the scale on. I do a different colour paper for each grade and then I laminate them. There are free flash cards on the Sibelius site for all the piano grades - couldn't find any for any other instruments though, so they could be useful.

Exactly what I was thinking - and found to work. In my research into this, I did stumble across the Sibelius ones, but they didn't exactly cover all of the requirements for the grade, and couldn't really be used for 'proper' exam-style practice. Oh, and like you say, they are only for Piano - I couldn't find anything similar for any other instrument at any grade (does this mean they aren't wanted/required?).

What I want to eventually offer is a set of cards that can be used to virtually simulate the scale part of an exam - and, on a wider level, an invaluable tool for committing scales to memory. I don't know about other people, but I've always found that that takes far too long by simple repetition.

Out of interest, too, how many people have used a similar sort of technique, but had to make their own cards? If you have, would you have preferred to just have been able to print them off the internet, cut them up, and start 'work'? I realise that I'm doing it for 168 grades so am somewhat biased, but it does take a reasonably long time just to churn out one...perhaps something people could do without?

This idea is, despite what I've already done for some instruments, still very much only an idea. If you think an index of all the scales (and arpeggios, dominants etc.) for every instrument at every grade won't be used by enough people to justify the effort required in production, I'll find another way to pass the hours.

Like I say though, I really feel that I should 'give something back', and this seems as good a way as any to do it. I signed up to this forum in the hope of getting some kind of public concensus before I invest all of the time though, so if you can add anything, whether student or teacher, then please do.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm sure people will find your cards useful. I'm afraid I won't, however, because although I gave my example in English, mine have to be in French! I usually do a few each year to replenish the stock, and each exam candidate gets a little plastic box to put them in. Some say "Genial :" when I get them out and others say "Oh non! Pas ça!"

Good luck anyway and congratulations on your results."

I suspect it's just that piano is such a popular instrument!


Definitely!

Having flashcards, a scale pot, all that kind of thing, is definitely useul. The other idea I've found immensely helpful is "splurts" as linked to at the start of this thread, though I don't think it would especially help for piano and not sure about strings. But yes, having a system for randomly selecting scales is something that comes up again and again, for me personally, I would love to be able to just print them off and cut them out. It would also be possible then to have a set and give them to the student one at a time, so they could randomly select from known scales without panicking if they came across not-yet-known scales, whilst keeping a track of which scales they had done quite easily.

Thank you all for your replies, - however, my offer still stands; if anyone would like any set of these work-in-progress cards to try to point me the right direction with layout etc., I'd be more than happy to knock them up. It brings my list down to 167, and also stops me from making any huge 'fundamentals' mistakes which my patience may find a little testing in about a fortnight

So yes, let me know. I know this isn't a big time for 'hardcore scale practice', but it will come around, and I want to be prepared for it so that others can benefit when they need to.

Oh, and please - any more thoughts on the general idea...how useful you'd find it and the like?

As a teacher who already makes her own scale flashcards I probably wouldn't use any others unless they were significantly different to those I produce, and I thought would be really useful- it's all set up on my computer and is just easier to do. However, if I was a pupil whose teacher didn't already have flashcards I think I'd find it invaluable to find these on a web site, so I could print them off for my own use. Could you perhaps just put some samples up on your web site as a pilot and just see what the interest is, before spending a huge amount of time developing them all?

I'd be very happy to have flute ones available for myself and for students.

me too! Good luck with it!

Wow what a wonderful thing to do. A resource like this could be useful for everyone, teacher or student. I would certainly love to look at anything produced for the descant recorder (as a student not a teacher I should add).

Good for you!

Oh and congrats on the grade 8's!