Posted by Leland on February 22, 2004 at 01:38:06:
In Reply to: Importance of learning scales posted by Rob McGray on February 20, 2004 at 23:16:37:
Scattered & rambling, but hopefully relevant --
Remember the Nike commercial with Michael Jordan all by himself on the court shooting free throws? While he's shooting, he's saying on the voiceover, "What if my name wasn't in lights? What if I wasn't in the All-Star game so many times? What if my face wasn't on television every day? ... Can you imagine that?" *swish* "I can."
What was he working on? Fundamentals. Why? To maintain his skills as a top basketball player. Do free throws have anything to do with his ability to hang in the air and dunk? Maybe not, or maybe so, but everyone knows that he would be worthless if he only throws bricks at the free throw line.
Guy asking a question of Arturo Sandoval at the UNC Greeley Jazz Festival back in 1995 or so:
"What method books do you recommend for a trumpet pl.."
Arturo: "Arban's."
Guy: "Well, I mean, maybe something besides Arban's, like.."
Arturo (more deeply into the mic): "Arban's."
Guy: "What about..."
Arturo: "Listen to me. Arban's. Everything is there. ARBAN'S."
Ever read through the Arban book? Scales, scales, scales, scales, and oh yes, scales. Is Arturo Sandoval a good trumpet player? You tell me.
"...all twelve scales." I wish it were that simple. But, no, it isn't. Tell ya what -- do more than your director is asking by doing every minor scale, every mode, and start branching into blues scales, swing scales, jazz scales, pentatonic scales, and every other kind of scale you haven't thought of yet. Do them with a metronome, starting at 60 beats per minute, then once it's PERFECT, bump it up to maybe 62 bpm, then 64, 66, all the way up to 170 bpm or so.
Take a deck of cards, assign a tonic to each number, a mode to each suit, then play through the deck. For the cards past "twelve", use other modes or styles. Tongue each note, slur pairs of notes, slur two - tongue two, tongue two - slur two, tongue one - slur two, double tongue, change time signatures, change tuplets (instead of just going in groups of 5 or 8, play groups of four, six, three, seven, fourteen, or whatever, while keeping the same time signature)... heck, think of something NEW.
Do you think that football teams will succeed without drills? Or that soldiers will survive battles without practicing how to aim? Or that hockey players will be able to skate by only wearing skates for the game? Or that a writer will put food on the table without learning grammar?
It took me a long time before I started to know my scales well enough to begin playing them musically. That is, once the muscle memory was solid enough, I could actually feel musical ideas happening as I went up & down each scale.
Maybe that 90% of school musicians that never play again would instead be playing if they spent enough time in school on their fundamentals to be able to easily read & rehearse music later in life.
Things that will let you play better:
Breathing.
Fingers.
Tonguing.
Buzzing.
Skip out on scales, and you're going to be 25% worse. Why settle for mediocrity?
LASTLY... for now, anyway...
I really hope this post was a troll. I refuse to believe that some kid is that arrogant and ignorant. Maybe this post was from a director who's getting this kind of attitude from his kids, and he wants to get some reinforcement that he's doing the right thing by working scales.