But one of the reasons that scales are so important that I think a lot of people miss, is that scales are a big win for you! Scales should be incredibly encouraging for you. Scales should give you almost an instant satisfaction every single time you sit down at your instrument or show up to lessons. Because if you can sit down and play a scale that you have just learned or learned very recently, you’ve just demonstrated that you’ve learned something, that you can play something that you know! ew things on your instrument, and new things in music, and that’s a victory! That’s a win!

Compare that to say your method book or your current repertoire that you’re working on, and there’s a really good chance that something in your method book or one of the songs that you’re working on maybe really challenging and you may not have conquered yet and you may not for a while. It could potentially even take weeks or months, especially if you don’t practice much. And that’s okay.

But the scales will generally get better every week even if you don’t practice much at home. Again, you can practice at home and they can get WAY better and you can get amazing results! But even if you don’t, because they move in small increments and one new note at a time, you can learn them, you can nail them, and grow and get better at them every week.

 

Trust the scales. Practice scales. Take the wins.

 

By the way, pictured here is an amazing student of mine who knows literally every scale that I know. And obviously I’m quite the theory nerd. She’s also just an amazing person, and a beautiful piano player. Want to learn how scales and theory can open up the keys to all of music to you in Olympia? Drop us a line!