Daughter is doing her grade 1 clarinet exam in July.

She has the scales and arpeggios of F, G major and A minor to learn and all in all she's doing pretty well but has a tendancy to mix up F and G majors - i.e she may insert an F# and B natural into F major or a Bb into G major.

I know plenty of rhymes to help me remember which key is which but without going into a long explanation with her they are not going to help.

Are there any simple ways you use to help your pupils remember what sharps and flats go with which key at this early stage or do you just encourage them to learn scales in the same way as they may memorise a short piece?

Just wondering what tack to take and whether to attempt any explanation at all pre-exam or just leave her be.



P.S. I was never that good at learning scales when I was younger and I'd like to help MissF avoid the pitfalls I encountered if at all possible.

We are already talking about peeling off the fingers rather than saying each note in her head as she goes so she's playing them at a good speed and she's able to hear when she goes wrong which is half the battle. But I'm thinking about how can I help her not to go wrong in the first place and am thinking that if she understands why certain notes are sharp or flat then it might all seem a bit less random to her. On the other hand it may confuse her even more. What do you experienced people think?

The issue of scales on clarinet is one I'm still not entirely sure of from a teaching point of view.
At her age I'd most likely go for just learning them one at a time form memory.
Even on piano if I had a child that age playing scales I might talk about patterns of tones and semitones but wouldn't necessarily expect them to fully understand or remember.

I think that it's a bit like times tables..... you can learn them before you are properly ready to understand them.

For F, I say, you use your 'First' finger for the Bb and for G you use your Giant finger (it works for the Grade 2 2 octave scales too- when for A minor 2 octaves- you use "Alternate' fingers in the different registers).

With those that struggle to remember scales,I get them to say the scale/ arpeggio to me, and say "What do we have to remember?" "f sharp' that's right etc etc.

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I have a 7 year old doing her Gr 2 and about 2 weeks ago, she really didn't know her scales or pieces. This week, she had made so much progress so maybe I'll ask her mum how she managed to drum them into her head! She obviously used better tactics than me!