yuck yuck yuck, my grade 6 piano scales are awful! my teacher is kinda moaning heehee so guess what she does, makes my alevel teach do scales with me for a whole HOUR, OMG it was torture lol

Thanks for reminding me to keep all my music teachers away from each other.

well yes thats an idea, but it couldnt be helped. but if its manageble with your teachers, id say definitely keep them away from each other! apparantly it was either do scales or aurals......hmm give me scales any day!

that does sound painful!

it was indeed! i mean trying to understand melodic minors with lots of flats/sharps yuck and arpeggios, dont even get me started on them.

i cant even play them slow let alone the speed they have to go for grade 6. and my teach keeps going on about SHAPING them, how on earth can you shape scales, their too boring to actually be shaped!

and jsut ARGH SCREAM ill never get them perfect by next week

Keep on practising Nat, you _will_ get them perfect!

...and every time you get frustrated, you can vent on here...

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Jan 7 2005, 05:07 PM)

i cant even play them slow let alone the speed they have to go for grade 6. and my teach keeps going on about SHAPING them, how on earth can you shape scales, their too boring to actually be shaped!

I realise your teacher may be harrassing you to do them quickly, but learn them hands seperate and slowly... I know the flat melodic minors just look impossible, but really they aren't as bad as you think... learn them reeeeeeeeeeeeeally slow... (I mean REEEEEEEEEEALLY slow!!!) - slow them down until you can get them accurate, till it isn't hard to keep up with yourself any more, and practice them at that speed until you are confident that, at that speed, you can't go wrong. once you really have the scales in your fingers, speeding up won't be a problem. if you try and play them fast before you know them, then you will just keep hitting a brick wall!

I know what you mean!!! I'm trying to learn my grade 7 flute scales, yes the melodic minors are a pain in the rear end keep getting my fingers all mixed up!
Hope you don't die of boredom and good luck for the exam.
xxxx

Hi Nat
One thing my pupils find helpful with melodic minors on the way UP the piano is to begin by thinking of the minor (harmonic) and then ending the scale, the top 4 notes as the major. I am assuming you already know your harmonic minors here.For example take F melodic minor. Imagine you are playing F harmonic minor ie F G Ab Bb then finish off imagining you are in F major ie C D E F. another example Bb melodic minor Begin as if you were in Bb harmonic minor Bb C Db Eb then finish off in Bb major F G A Bb. On the way down flatten the first two notes ie Bb then Ab Gb. Another way to think about the descent of a melodic minor scale is to play all the notes of the key signature. For example (if you are still following!) Bb melodic minor is related to Db major which has Bb Eb Ab Db Gb in the key signature so these will be the flats you play on the way down. G melodic minor is related to Bb major so on the way down you should find you play Bb and Eb in the scale. If you have taken grade 5 theory you will know what I mean.

Hope the above explanation is of some help.

Try and learn to love your scales. They really are the backbone of piano playing. They will help you in every way with your playing. Let them flow and sing just as you would your pieces. They make up music. Think how much they will help your playing - Mozart, Haydn Beethoven are made up of scales, arpeggios etc. Einaudi ( who I know you love) uses arpeggio figures all the time!!!

Do let me know if any of the above helps. Good luck

Nat: I know the feeling! My grade 6 flute scales are sending me insane! Well, G# minor in particular...

I have C# major to worry about, I don't fancy having to do my scale study for Guildhall in that key.

Ick, C# major is horrible! Poor Nicki!

Its good to hear people saying the same thing to Natalie - practice the scales SLOWLY first, don't run before you can walk as they say, and they will be ok eventually - fairly soon in fact because they really arent that bad at all!
(boo to you too!)

F# major and Eb minor are disgusting, too!!! Mind you, I practised F# major loads though and now it sounds even better than my A major scale!

QUOTE (july @ Jan 8 2005, 06:39 PM)

F# major and Eb minor are disgusting, too!!! Mind you, I practised F# major loads though and now it sounds even better than my A major scale!

F#major isn't too bad for me... I can do most of the harder ones, but not easier ones for some reason... partly because our conductor springs all the nasties on us to warm up when he is in a particularly bad mood!

QUOTE (sally @ Jan 8 2005, 06:21 PM)

and they will be ok eventually - fairly soon in fact because they really arent that bad at all! (boo to you too!)

i said boo 1st, you cant copy me! and stop telling me they arent that bad, theyare!

If you do the crapwise scale (C major up one octave, Db maj down one octave, D maj up octave, Eb maj down etc.) as part of your warm up, then you'll practice every scale over one octave, and after a while it'll only take you about 5 minutes to do, depending on how many octaves you do!

I wouldnt reccomend the minor version of crapwise, it really hurts your head after a while!!!

QUOTE (hornplayer @ Jan 8 2005, 10:56 PM)

If you do the crapwise scale (C major up one octave, Db maj down one octave, D maj up octave, Eb maj down etc.) as part of your warm up, then you'll practice every scale over one octave, and after a while it'll only take you about 5 minutes to do, depending on how many octaves you do! I wouldnt reccomend the minor version of crapwise, it really hurts your head after a while!!!

this "crapwise" thing sounds evil....!

Hehe, I think it is supposed to be crabwise, or something like that :-\

lol I kinda hope so. either way it sounds like it would be very confusing...

QUOTE

crapwise scale

sorry, with all the negative thoughts around about the rubbish-ness about scales I must have "slipped" on the keys. it's meant to be crabwise, cos the movement up and down the scales is like a crab.

Maybe thats simply a reflection as to how awful they are! lol

Natalie: if its any reassurance, everyone I have ever spoken to say the biggest "jump" in difficulty for scales is between 5 and 6, whatever the instrument, and you'll get there in time! (like the rest of us have)

As to my fellow flautists:

To the best of my knowledge G# monor is the hardest scales, but with practise, it gets there (unlike the 3 octave ones which is your flutes cold can still be a bit hit and miss) try memorising and playing over and over, just the 6 notes at the top of the sclae and coming back again to help get your fingers used to the changing patterns of those top octave notes. F# minor (at risk of sounding complacent ) is easy! Just remember, everything is sharp except the B and it'll slot into place, think of it as a sort of "anti-F-major"! lol

And finally Eb minor, what I found hardest with this one (though I believe its easier than G# minor) was mixing u[p the melodic and harmonic. Till I realised that you play one with the Bb thumb key and one without.

QUOTE (tamsin @ Jan 9 2005, 05:17 PM)

Natalie: if its any reassurance, everyone I have ever spoken to say the biggest "jump" in difficulty for scales is between 5 and 6, whatever the instrument, and you'll get there in time! (like the rest of us have)

maybe there is hope yet then

QUOTE (tamsin @ Jan 9 2005, 05:17 PM)

everyone I have ever spoken to say the biggest "jump" in difficulty for scales is between 5 and 6, whatever the instrument, and you'll get there in time! (like the rest of us have)

i agree with that 100%!!!!!!

at least its not just me

QUOTE (tamsin @ Jan 9 2005, 05:17 PM)

try memorising and playing over and over, just the 6 notes at the top of the sclae and coming back again to help get your fingers used to the changing patterns of those top octave notes.

yeah! and remember - learn them at the pace which you can play with absolute accuracy, so that you learn the correct fingering from the start however slow it is. the extra pace will come with time.

I remember going from grade 5 to grade 6 on the violin, and having to do 2x all the minors was horrible - even though on the violin it's relatively easy once you know the way it's supposed to go, because it's not like you have to learn a whole new fingering as on the flute or other keyed instrument.

I decided on the flute to give myself a headstart and, as I did grade 4 with all harmonic minors, I'm going to learn the grade 5 scales as melodics. As the whole idea of melodic minors isn't new to me (a huge bonus!) I figured I might as well get used to actually playing them before I have to re-learn every single scale in a new form. I think that's half the trouble - melodics do tend to be more difficult, but not as much as everyone thinks... but if you've spent years and years doing harmonics and then suddenly you have to learn all these scales in a form you (for some people) never even knew existed, of course it's going to be scary!

QUOTE (sarah-flute @ Jan 9 2005, 11:05 PM)

I think that's half the trouble - melodics do tend to be more difficult, but not as much as everyone thinks... but if you've spent years and years doing harmonics and then suddenly you have to learn all these scales in a form you (for some people) never even knew existed, of course it's going to be scary!

i knew they existed because i had to know about them for theory,but playing them............a completely different matter!