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I will play the scale, cadence, an arpeggio for the key a piece is written. I do this as a warm up. No rip roaring speed either. I am an absolute mess with both hands in parallel motion. Love contrary motion. Used to have to play scales in thirds. Not sure I remember how to do that but will give it a shot later.

I once met Hank Jones (of Hank Jones Trio fame) after one of his performances. He was 87 at the time I believe. He said he started every day trying to make his scales a little bit better. Good enough for him is good enough for me. (Best jazz performance I've ever seen live by the way).

Marcus

+1 rocket88

The nice thing about learning to practice scales, making them sound musical, clear, clean, with dynamics, you'll find the advantage applies directly to music you want to play, regardless of the genre. Your hands are like little athletes and doing a bit of drill work as part of your practice/warm-up only adds to your overall dexterity and abilities at the keyboard.

Glen

+2. Also, a vast amount of music is based on a pentatonic scale, 2 notes less than a major or minor scale and not boring at all. Blues is a big example of this. I guess some people consider the blues boring, but it's more proof that it's not just the scales but how you treat the notes. A good friend once said "After all, at most it's just 12 notes, right?"

Played with some scales last night. Thumb over is all I will do now, unless legato is required. Much better speed with thumb over.

Isabelle, you would be well-advised to forget about speed for now and concentrate on developing an even legato scale with good tone.

If you intend to play classical, most of the scale-like passages are going to be legato.

All IMO, so YMMV.

Jim

playing scales and arpeggios do wonders for dextery and, more importantly, to develop complete control of the keyboard: your hands will know each nook and crany of this once wild and uncharted territory instinctively

I get why we do scales. Scales exercise the fingers and reinforce key signatures. What I don't get is the need to do them in contrary motion like I need to do for my next exam. Seriously I really don't get the point.

1. It is easy for beginners and early intermediate players to play scales HT in contrary motion, because the fingering change occurs at the same time, and with the same fingers LH and RH, unlike scales done in parallel motion, which is more difficult.

2. Contrary motion reinforces Hands Together practice. Anything you (correctly) do HT builds on and strengthens your HT ability. Actually, most anything you do correctly at the piano builds upon your pianistic ability, and should be welcomed.

3. If done to the ends of the piano keyboard, it trains one to be comfortable playing in areas not always central.

I am sure there are more reasons, but those are what come to mind.

Rocket, I get that same fingers are playing in C major and A minor natural scale in contrary motion, and those you can start thumbs on the same key, but for other scales that won't happen. Am I missing something? Thanks

Sorry, my bad, I was thinking only about C major in contrary motion...I use that with early beginners for the reasons I wrote.

I have had new students at their second or third lesson be able to play it well.

Thanks, Rocket. I actually had to think about that for a few minutes before I posted.

Teacher I had years ago had me do scales in thirds hands together and seems I remember one hand being almost on top of the other to do that. Am I remembering right, or am I losing it??

The point of any variation on scales is hand independence. Try playing a tune in one hand while at the same time playing a scale in the other hand and see if you still know that scale.

Well, thirds are just three white keys apart so it makes sense for hands to overlap.