I have recently discovered some great books to help with sight reading (Joining the Dots) and how to teach beginniners (Paul Harris) but am still stuck trying to find some inspirational words on how to teach scales, broken chords and arpeggios in a way that will excite and motivate youngsters to play them! Anyone got any good ideas or book recommendations - please???!!

Just thought - you might need to know - I teach piano and violin!

Do you teach your violins in groups? I do scales in canon with my recorder pupils - they sound more satisfying that way (and flutter-tongued, too... but probably not on a violin or piano ) starting two notes apart, ie in thirds. And different rhythms and dynamic variations. Paul Harris has done some scale books, too, for the piano. I used them at one point but I wasn't totally convinced.

I also have a theory that scales should be played in one direction at a time. I start most recorder scales descending and we play them several times without stopping just going downwards. I think it helps the fingers remember the patterns better, then when they have got that I do them upwards the same way before putting it all together. Not sure if this would apply to violin or piano though.

Ask Jeremy Siepmann - I really enjoyed his "journey" on a scale at Chet's!

Just a simple and rather basic thing for near-beginners on piano - I find that once a child can play one octave, they find it good fun to play 4 or 5 octaves. All they have to do is memorise 123, 1234, and it feels quite clever to play almost the length of the keyboard without fingers / notes getting in a muddle.

Specific target setting I find works with some- on a weekly basis so- 1) F major 2 octs, to be right first time
2) A minor- 2 attempts allowed..... and they get a sticker per target- or with some - (with parental permission) a sweet at the end of the lesson, per target.
It works with SOME pupils- and others aren't bothered but it can work with more advanced pupils- sent one out saying 'I'll give you a sweet per melodic minor scale you get right first time next week"... and she went "YAY"- she's taking her Gr 6 this term!

I like the idea of doing scales in canon!

sounds like the way we had to learn timestables at school. Week 1 2x table - at the end of the week if you got 100% on the test you went on to the 3x table ... if not you had another week on 2x. Remarkably motivating for the kids like me who were super competative and good at timestables - I can't imagine how demoticating it was for the small number of kids still on 2x the week the 1st 2 of us completed 12x.

Sorry gone as to the original query - sorry can't think of a way. Realising properly memorised scales were easy marks in exams was enough motivation for me.

For violin, Fiddle Time Scales is well worth a look.

I'm just experimenting giving pupils a time target; they have to get their two octave scales down to 12 seconds each for Grade 4, for example. I'm hoping it will give them a way of measuring their progress at home without needing any special equipment (such as a metronome) and will provide them with a target to aim for.

I'll see how it goes this term - I've only had a couple of lessons with them so far.

That's a really good idea! I'm gnashing my teeth over certain pupils' scales and arps at the moment, and this might give them just the impetus they need.......

I've managed to persuade my grade 5 pianist that 'The Scale Game' is fun! Basically all scales and arpeggios on little bits of paper in an envelope (I think lots of people do this). Then a timer is set to 10 minutes. Once the timer is started, one is taken from the envelope, and played. If it is perfect, you score a point. If it is not perfect, you have to play it three times in a row perfectly in order to score the point and move on. You have to get as many points as possible in 10 minutes. You can chart your progress as hopefully over time the number of points you can score in 10 minutes goes up.

It ups your concentration, given the great motivation to get it right first time, plus means focus automatically goes to those scales which need it.

I expect others use similar methods. Mine now sees this as fun, but we all know some pupils take more persuading than others!

I like these books - I start my beginners on the pentascales - they love being able to play in all 24 keys.
http://www.fjhmusic.com/piano/getready.htm

Thanks - I'm going to try that! I've got 2 pupils doing Grade 5 in Nov/Dec. One is 16 and thinks scales are fun, so no problems there. But the other one is 13 and is very daunted by all the scales, so it might make things more enjoyable for her. She works well at home and is quite ambitious, so this might be just what she needs.

Somewhere along the line (Jane Sebba perhaps) I picked up an idea for playing scales with different rhythms. You start them off with "Pink Elephants" or "Green Bananas" and they play the scale in that rhythm. Then they make up their own sentences - things they had for lunch/breakfast etc and play like that. It's actually quite demanding, because the change of rhythm makes them have to concentrate on the fingering, but I've had enthusiastic responses.

I like a lot of the ideas above.

These books are brilliant! Basically, they are duets: the top part is a scale, a chord sequence or an arpeggio, and the bottom part is for the teacher. They make scales SO much more fun for teacher and pupil. I use them in just about every lesson. If you haven't got them, get them now, they're only about 5 pounds each.

Thanks, I think I will purchase one of these books it looks really fun

Just looked at the link - they sound a good idea......thanks for the recommendation, I will try to look them up and order a couple of them......of the whole series, which would be the best?

Just ordered books on Musicroom. Looking forward to trying them out. Some great suggestions. Thanks everyone!

I'm just looking at these as well - they sound great. I am always trying to explain to pupils how the scales and arpeggios are the building blocks of improvisation (I think they are sick of hearing me enthuse about the tonic triad!) This would be an ideal way of demonstrating what I mean.

I am assuming that you just use them in the lessons and don't have a copy for every pupil - as it mentions things like flash cards and ear-training exercises. Would I be right?

Hi!
I have a 14 year old pupil taking Grade 4 this year but she can't stand scales. I sent her away with "Scale Shapes" by Frederick Stocken, and she came back after a week being able to play most of them with the correct notes and fingering. The book uses diagrams rather than notation.
On the other hand I had a 9 year old boy beginner who was really taken with the idea that if he could work out the notes to C major then he could do all the other major scales. We looked at tones and semitones and worked out the pattern in one lesson, and the following week he came back and was able to paly all the white note majors (I hadn't asked him to do that either!)

We have an electric piano and Claudia likes to play each scale using each of the different instrument settings eg. harpsichord, organ, strings etc.

From not playing scales at all and hating them she now loves playing them and won't stop doing each one until each sound has been tried out - there are about 16 different settings!