5 Ways to Keep Scales Interesting

Simple modifications to scales can
help your band grow by leaps and
bounds!

Good to see you today!

One of the things I like to do in rehearsal is experiment with the warm up time. A while back I blogged about  how to make your warm up time relevant for students, and today's post is closely related to that. There are plenty of ways to structure a good warm up, but I'm a believer that technique building should be included in there somewhere. I also believe scales are a fundamental building block for musicianship, not only for the music literacy and fluency, but for the technical aspects of playing. So we play scales every day. The problem with scales is that they can be very mundane. Fortunately, it can be remedied by adding in some variety. So, submitted for your consideration, here are a few ways to mix up your scales (both basic and advanced) to make them more interesting, fun (hopefully), and more relevant for students. 

Journal Entry 03-24-12

Greetings! It's been a long time since I've posted to the blog, but it's also been a very busy semester (as I'm sure it has been for you as well!). UIL Concert & Sight Reading Contest is thankfully behind us, and I'm proud to report the band made a 1st Division in Concert and a 2nd Division in Sight Reading. They were talented enough to make a 1 in Sight Reading, but a few missed notes in the beginning I think led to a lack of confidence afterwards. Even so, I walked away feeling great about the day. It was the first "Superior" rating they've had on stage since 2009 (the final year of their last good director). I found a new sight reading book at TMEA that I'm very interested in, which I think will be a major improvement over what I did this year. I know that the best days are ahead of this band, and that this was a major turning point.