Yes, friends, my “Breakthrough Week” even includes a breakthrough on scales.
According to my handy-dandy practice journal, I started working on scales again in late February, which was about six weeks into my grand return to the piano life, and about a month into my Tonebase and PWJ memberships.
My Scale Routine
I generally start my morning practice with about 10 minutes of scales and my evening practice (if there’s time with just a few minutes of scales). Either way, here’s what I do for both major scales and harmonic minor scales:
- 2 octaves in similar motion going up, and then
- 2 octaves in contrary motion, and then
- 2 octaves in similar motion going down
Using the metronome, as of last week, I could do all of the major scales in this way at about 80 bpm, and most of the harmonic minors at about 60, though some of them (a.k.a., the black-note keys) were giving me trouble.
(BTW, I don’t do scales in thirds or sixths. I don’t know why. I just never have.)
For the past month or so, I’ve been alternating my scale practice: all 12 major scales one day, all 12 harmonic minor scales the next day. My short(ish)-term goals were majors at 100 and harmonic minors at 80. And, eventually, everything at 100.
Breakthrough on the Horizon
Sometime last week, I watched this Josh Wright video on using rhythms in practicing. (His whole YouTube channel is a valuable resource!) I can’t remember if he talked about scales in particular, but his focus was fast-practicing passage in small groups of notes. I’m very familiar with rhythms as a tool for building speed, accuracy, and muscle memory, having practiced with rhythms of 2, 3, and 4 many times.
What was new to me, though, was what Josh said about practicing in rhythms of 5, 7, 9, 13, and even 15! He did clarify that you would rarely need to go all the way up to 15, and that such practicing will necessarily take a lot of time. All the same, the whole idea of practicing in groups greater than 4 just blew my mind.
(It was also another instance where I had to ask myself how I had never, ever considered going something so obvious and commonsensical).
On the Cusp of the Breakthrough
As I was playing through my major scales Saturday morning, I missed a few notes in D major and thought to myself (quite reluctantly), “This isn’t the first time I’ve missed notes in this scale. In fact, I nearly always miss notes in D major, but I never stop to fix them because, hello, it’s D major, and D major is easy.”
And then I had a thought.
What if I practiced D major in groups of five notes? Seven notes? Nine? More?
Well, what if I did?
So I did. And then, for good measure, I did the same thing with its relative harmonic minor (B).
Reader, it took nearly an hour. Yes, you read that right. I spent almost an hour on a lovely Saturday morning … practicing … scales.
And it was glorious.
The Breakthrough!
By the end of the practice, I had breezed past my modest goals of playing the contrary-motion scales in these two keys at 100 and 80, respectively. No, reader, “breezed” is not the right word. I was no mere breeze. I was an absolute gale. A squall. A veritable tempest of flying fingers.
I’ve practiced these same two scales every morning this week. And guess what.
I can play them really fast now.
Wanna hear?
(Drum Roll, Please)
(And a warning. I'm not a professional pianist. These scales aren't perfect. I'm also deaf and can't actually hear the metronome over the sound of my playing so I have to listen to a few clicks before I start, and just hope I remember everything correctly. I try to keep the flashing light in the corner of my eye, but I'm not always able to.)
B Harmonic Minor, Contrary Motion, 100
B Harmonic Minor, Parallel Motion, 110
D Major, Contrary Motion, 120
(This is the worst one, but I was late for work and wanted to finish these up. I may replace it with a better one later!)
D Major, Parallel Motion, 130
OK, That's Amazing. But What's Next?
At the end of all this, I had the thought of, “What if someone threatens my life and says they will kill me if I can’t play my B natural minor scale at 80?” Oh, horror. It sounds like the kind of nightmare I would have. So, just for good measure, I tried playing it at 80, and (whew) it sounded okay.
And I’m not even going to worry about melodic minors. They can go be melodic on their own.
Seriously , though … this Scales Breakthrough was actually one of the most exciting breakthroughs of weekend. I have always loved scales, and I have always loved playing them fast, but I’ve also always sacrificed clarity and accuracy for speed. And I’ve never, ever been able to play the contraries fast.
And now I can!
Next week (yes, it’s even on my calendar), I’m going to work on A major and F# harmonic minor.
If all goes according to plan, I’ll have done a deep-dive through each of the major/relative minor pairs by the end of June.
After that … a deep-dive into the dreaded arpeggios!
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