1/ Because the corner shop doesn't stock your favourite masichism books any more and you need an outlet.

2/ Because your family is trying to watch a film and you want them out of the house so you can change the channel.

3/ Because you're trying to give up smoking.


Can we make it to 101?

4/ Because you're in a rotten mood and hammering them out is a good stress reliever

5/ Because you like playing with patterns

I played them on the table in my seminar today, does that count? If so, I'd like to offer 6/ Because the annoying boy next to you won't stop re-stating one very simple point in 101 different ways, and you need something to distract you.
If that doesn't count, just skip to the next one.

7/ Because you can play them anywhere, anytime as long as you've got your instrument - you don't have to have your music to hand

8/ Because you can annoy people with them.

(sorry, am not feeling as friendly as usual today )

9. Because allegedly, practice makes perfect.

10) Because you can pretend you are a brilliant instrumentalist by showing off how fast you can play them.

Disagree with skylark - yes, you can play them anywhere, anytime, but I don't think you need your instrument!

11) because if you're practising a work in, say, A major, playing the A major scale first can get you into the 'A major mood'.

Because you'd like a seat to yourself on the train or the bus

13 Because you actually enjoy the sense of pattern and rhythm in playing them
14 Because they exercise your brain if you do some harder variations on them

15 Because they help to keep your keys nice and shiny.

16) because three octaves of C major on the clarinet definitely blows the cobwebs out!

Because my teacher might suddenly say "play the scale of Gb" (or whatever) so I have to keep on top of them as I never know when she'll throw it at me.

18/ Because they enable you to become a bona fide member of the I Love Scales Club

19/ Because they give you endless topics of conversation

20/ Because you can immediately identify a soul-mate, even with a stranger

21/ Because they enable you to pass the ABRSM exams

22/ Because it's something you can do left-hand only when your right hand has tendon pain!*

* for pianists

Because they are an example of beautiful, orderly perfection in an untidy world.
N

24/ It's an easy way of getting brownie points from your teacher

25. er.....?
because you've been given the challenge of playing a new instrument and haven't got any real music yet
26. because it's better retaliation for over-loud shrieks from the neighbours in their garden than nice music would be
27. because it's more effective for chasing teenaged offspring out of bed and to school than real music is

24/ Because you can practise the fingering and watch Eastenders at the same time.

29) Because you can play them and read a book at the same time. (Idea borrowed from "The Getting of Wisdom" but I must confess I was always defeated by the page turns which never seemed to correspond to the end of a scale).

30) Because you can play them and revise at the same time. (Then in the exam you think "ah yes Bb minor" and the answer comes back to you).

31) Because you can impress people by your sight-reading in 7 flats.

32/ Because practising scales improves finger dexterity

33) because playing scales gets you used to alternative fingerings on the clari...

34 because you've misplaced the nice music which practises finger dexterity just as well
35 because the same nice music which gave lots of opportunities for alternative fingerings has disappeared under a pile of junk mail somewhere

33. Because you're too tired to play anything else.

37/ Because scales are nice music

38 because the boredom of doing scales might actually cure insomnia
*detects distinct partisan tendencies *

39. Because they are the foundation of good technique

40. Because you're on your own in the house and realise that at last you can play them without thinking you're going to drive your husband round the bend.

Cat was still dinstinctly unimpressed, though (as usual, no reaction to tenor, tolerates treble, runs away from descant)

41/ Because they are a very good way of settling your new violin strings in...

42/ Because devising new ways of doing them is good brain exercise

43/ 'Cos the Monster Mob think hearing Miss do scales up and down the recorder like lightning is cool

44 because you're buying a new instrument and want to test out its range
45 because you can't remember any interesting music in the heat of the moment in the music shop when trying aforementioned new instrument

46. Because knowing all the scales in all the keys makes improvisation a whole lot easier

47. Because the finger movements needed to play up/down by a tone, semitone, minor/major 3rd etc become automatic from any note and you don't have to think about it.

48. Because you start recognising the function that the different degrees of the scale have in a piece of music

49. Because you start thinking of tunes as e.g 5,1,7,6,5,6,3,4,5,1,7,1 instead of G,C,B,A,G,A,E,F,G,C,B,C (first phrase of St Thomas) which makes playing them in different keys a whole lot easier, and if you know the scale of the key you want to play it in it's a doddle.

50. Because if you make sure you practice the scales over the full range of the instrument (instead of just the 2 octaves or whatever you need for the exam) you cover the low and high notes that are often neglected and you can work on getting a consistnt tone throughout the range of the instrument.

51. Because practicing scales means that you can practice e.g. different articulations at the same time

52/ They're good for doing long tone exercise (clarinet, sax...)

53. because there is an urgent pile of ironing and you've run out of any other dodges

54.cos you've been on a course, have been inspired to play, but left the music in the car when you got back late last night and there's now a howling gale raging.

55. They are easier to play than the pieces.

56/ Cos you've just bogged up sightreading the music for the aural tests with a pupil and you want to redeem yourself by saying "Let's move on to scales now," and proceed to fly at breakneck pace through a chromatic scale in minor thirds.

57/ Because they're useful for the TG orchestral excerpts.

58/ Because convention has it that scales are the way to go, and that a good player is a good player because of practising scales rather than than a good scale player being a good scale player because of having developed good technique through playing music.

59) Because Chromatic scales enable you to use every single note on your instrument.

60) Because you spent 2 years not bothering and now realise it wasn't the most sensible choice and have a lot of catching up to do.

61/ Because you can win a prize in a scales competition (such things do exist)

62/ Because you can do fancy things like playing different scales with each hand simultaneously

63/ Because you can practise odd things like 2 against 3 - really good one for cocky students this

64/ Because your teacher / Mum / insert other authority figure says you have to!

65/ Because through pain comes understanding... (no pain, no gain)

66/ Because Perfect Preparation Prevents P*ss Poor Performance

OK, I'll shut up now.

Show off!!

67/ Because, alongside sight-reading, there may just come a day when there will be an audience willing to pay to listen to scales....

68/ Because we need to keep examiners in a job.

69) Because half an hour drilling scales in your lesson is humiliating...

70/ Because you want to check that the piano tuner has done a good job.

71/ Because a 'good' music teacher can fill a good 10 minutes in a lesson with scales without having to think about music for more than 20 minutes of the lesson. So by playing lots of scales you're giving your teacher a welcome rest.

72) Because an even better music teacher can spend 2 x 30 minute lessons on C major scale
Not only does the teacher get a rest but the pupil doesn't need to buy any music.