Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Scales Bootcamp

I'm just competitive enough that, say, trying to do ten perfect scales in a row with no errors or changing up the dynamics and tempo distracts me from the clock. A shocking amount of time can pass when you're trying to pass just *one more* achievement

You can even collect achievements while practicing?! (Thinking about online flash games... )

It is based off of computer games, actually. Each scale begins with a diagram of the fingering, then a list of ways to practice it to earn achievement tick marks and levels of skill. It goes from completely basic to brain meltingly tricky, depending on how far you want to go (and how well you want to learn it, if you do them all you know the scale for life, literally. You HAVE to know it well to do some of the twists).

It is simple, necessary, logical scales practice, but done in such a way that I WANT to keep practicing and perfecting them. That is almost unheard of, for me. You can play them casually or do as I am - an intensive study course. It is easily modifiable to however you want to practice them.

I'm sold. I'll start saving money for the book.

Yay! Let us know what you think of it when it arrives

Arctic Mama, congratulations on your two Masters. I see you're taking the depth-first approach in contrast to my breadth-first approach.

Breadth doesn't work well for me, because I feel like I am relearning the same things over and over as I forget them, due to not knowing or understanding them well enough to begin with. I am terrible at survey studies! We probably learn differently, and I think it is a testament to Johnston's manual that two completely different approaches can be taken and still net wonderful results

I am now working on C major thumb under legato playing, and going right to left right hand 3 to 4 is tricky getting up to reasonable speed. Smooth and precise transitions is difficult no matter how you play the scales, so I have found that it is smart to give lots of attention to that.

Do take a look at the thumb over method as well. Though I can do thumb unders like butter, even at speed, there is a certain logic to the thumb over method for almost all scale work, unless it is legato at an andante pace

Arctic Mama, I do practice thumb over too, and dont have problems with that. But your fingers are probably in better shape than mine, and I am improving.
I just read your post about buying an acoustic, and I wonder if you have considered finding one used locally. I just bought a 90 year old upright in good condition at a nice price, and at least it sounds awfully much better than any DP I have tried. I got the best sounding piano in the shop, and saved about 10k against the next best.
Hope you will get a good piano no matter how you do it.

I don't mind buying one locally, used or new, but I absolutely love Walters in general and much of the local used inventory is junk that is warped, won't hold a tune, or has plate cracks and the like. Much of the new inventory is Japanese and Chinese uprights whose tone I am less than fond of, or grands I WILL look to buy one day, but won't fit in our current home. It is quite the conundrum

I am very happy with my digital right now and only really window shopping and planning budgetary stuff. I do keep an eye on my local Craiglist every week or two, though!

Whew!

When he classes a sharp/b flat minor as a 'highest difficulty' scale, he isn't kidding! Contrary motion on that one is breaking my brain!

Mine was on the doormat when I came home from holiday yesterday, so that is less than two weeks to the UK and no custom charges, for a change.

Not impressed with the daft angle of the written notes though......

He did that to fit the entire exercise on the page without a line break, and since the point is the chart and not the notes, I think the gamble was that it wouldn't bother too many users

I'm one of those peeps who likes things in a logical order and I can't stop myself from twisting my whole body to the same angle as the written notes.. lol
book now removed from music stand while playing...

At master level of C major and starting F major.
Playing fifty times in a row was hilarious, the playing was easy enough, but I kept losing count.

Hi,

noobie here... First post. Have been following this thread. I'm so excited I bravely ordered both Scales Boot Camp and Practicoepedia late last night.

Will be watching the mail box with bated breath...

Good luck, PG2!

Dulcetta, I actually know how fast I do a scale, so a set a timer for the approximate time it would take me to do 50-60 scales and go for it. I cannot keep track of them otherwise, and I make errors in my fingers when trying to keep the count that I wouldn't be making otherwise. Thus, I just do my thing for six minutes at about 140 BPM and if I can make it with no errors I'm good!

Hi Pg2 , hope your book arrives soon.

Thanks Arctic Mama, it is what I resorted to also. Glad I'm not the only one.

Although , if you have to stop at around the 44th time because of an incredibly itching nose, does starting again where you left off still count, or is it back to the beginning ?

If my nose itches, my kids call for me, or the phone rings, I just pause the timer and go deal with it, then come back and continue. I only count it against myself when an error occurs, as that is what I am trying to work against is fingering issues or the wrong notes. I'm no merciless perfectionist

lol , that is good to hear because my nose keeps doing that , as if answering the 70th question of the day beginning with "mummy why ....?" wasn't difficult enough,

Pleased with my progress though.
Day five and I have reached Master level of C major and Advanced level of F, Bb and Eb Major. Working on Ab today. I'm going round the circle of fifths backwards for the major scales then will start the minors. Achieving the majority of the core challenges, leaving the Octave collector count until I have learnt all the scales ( I intend using this for revision), and I never see 6 people, just my boyfriend once a month, my toddler everyday and the rest of my family twice a year, and not within the vicinity of a piano, so I can forget that one lol.

I'm practising 3rd and 6th apart, but will leave the rest of the twists until all scales learnt and then use it to advance and improve.
Tempo wise I can get to 135-150 , 2 notes per beat, before it starts to get muddy sounding and I suspect one hand is faster than the other.

The book is definitely a good way of organising my practice, reassuring me I am making steady progress and good motivation to stick to my plan.