What are scales and how do I practice them?

What scale book do you recommend?

This is something I am asked quite frequently. While there are many great scale books out there, they leave much to be desired when it comes to actually learning and practicing scales in a way that helps you make progress. Scale books just provide the notes; its up to you to decipher them, decode the fingerings, and solve all of the issues that inevitably arise.

The Complete Scale Guide seeks to close this gap around learning and practicing scales. This guide includes instructional videos for all 1, 2, and 3 octave major and minor scales and arpeggios, plus interactive practice videos, PDF sheet music with fingerings, and practice tips. You won’t just learn how to play your scales- you’ll learn my best advice for tackling tricky shifts, improving intonation, sounding good in the high register, and so much more.

From now until June 3, 2023, get 20% off the guide with the code SUMMER. Click here to check it out.

What are scales?

At their simplest, scales are a sequence of notes where you don’t skip any notes. For example, when playing an A Major scale on the violin, you start on open A, then play B with the first finger, C# with the second finger, D with the third finger, and so on. Scales also begin and end on their tonic note name; in an A Major scale, both the first note and the last note are A.

What are the different types of scales?

There are several different types of scales, but the most common are major and minor. All major scales use the following pattern of half and whole steps:

whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole half

All minor scales use the following pattern of half and whole steps:

whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole

There are three different types of minor scales: natural, harmonic, and melodic. In the natural minor scale, you simply play all of the notes written in the key signature. In the harmonic minor scale, you raise scale degree 7 on the way up and down the scale. Scale degree refers to the order of the notes in the scale; the 7th scale degree is the same as the 7th note in the scale. In the melodic minor scale, you raise scale degrees 6 and 7 on the way up and lower them on the way back down. In the case of A minor, you would play F# and G# on the way up the scale, and F natural and G natural on the way down.

How do you incorporate scales into practice?

There are infinite ways to practice scales, but I incorporate them into my practice in two ways: as a warm up and as a trouble shooter.

When practicing scales as a warm up, I usually start very slowly, sometimes incorporating a drone, listening very closely to my intonation and sound quality. Then I practice the acceleration exercise for three octave scales. I practice arpeggios in a very similar way: starting off slowly and being mindful of intonation and sound, and then quickly with 9 note slurred.

The beauty of scales is that once you learn them, you don’t have to think very hard to play them. When using scales to troubleshoot issues that arise in my reperotire, there really are no rules. If I’m having trouble with a bowing pattern, I practice the pattern on a scale. If I’m having trouble with intonation or finding notes in a particular position, I practice a 1 or 2 octave scale in that position. If I’m working on varying vibrato to create a musical line, I use that same vibrato pattern in a scale.

There are no right or wrong ways to practice scales, but I hope that in sharing what works for me, you can begin to create or refine your own scale routine.

What’s your favorite way to practice scales? Leave a comment and let me know!