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Do you practice scales everyday?


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  • Members
Posted

Absolutely not! Can't remember when I last practiced scales to any extent, but don't reckon it was anytime in the last thirty years. Once you know them, you know them - bit like riding a bicycle.

Practice now takes the form of working on whatever stuff I'm currently trying to add to my repertoire.

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Posted

One could, and probably should, practice scales everyday for the rest of ones life. The trick is to not just run them up and down but play them in different patterns. First lean some basic patterns, then make up your own.

There is so much music in the major scale alone. It never ends.

Another important thing to do with scales is to learn them from the lowest to the highest note on your insturment and to be able to play that as seamlessly as possible.

Also, learning all your scales on each string is a great one, it will free up your playing. It's not a bad idea to do the same with arpeggios.

  • Members
Posted

One could, and probably should, practice scales everyday for the rest of ones life. The trick is to not just run them up and down but play them in different patterns. First lean some basic patterns, then make up your own.


There is so much music in the major scale alone. It never ends.


Another important thing to do with scales is to learn them from the lowest to the highest note on your insturment and to be able to play that as seamlessly as possible.


Also, learning all your scales on each string is a great one, it will free up your playing. It's not a bad idea to do the same with arpeggios.

 

 

Agreed. I have a short routine that includes scales; a few straight, then 21324354, then 123234345456, then pentatonic, then alt-picked arpeggios, chromatics, spiders, etc. Then some isolated passages that I need improve. I play these deliberately & every day

  • Moderators
Posted

Every single day I play through a series or exercises designed to integrate scales / arpeggios / voicings / fretboard visualization and ear training for various keys and chords. I've long ago memorized the basic patterns (decades ago), so I have to work a bit harder to design exercises that force me to think in terms of notes beyond the patterns. But this type of effort is an every day thing and as Terge said, I'll probably do this for the rest of my life.

cheers,

  • Members
Posted

The major scale and the melodic minor scale (with their modes) cover pretty much everything in our western music.

The thing to remember probably is that while you can keep playing the same major scales everyday of your life you don't necessarily benefit as much from playing the same patterns everyday.

Change the patterns, keep the scales.

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Posted

I used to. I don't any more or at least not in the conventional sense... I mostly concentrate on 'seeing' the notes around all the different chord shapes, arpeggios etc. and the main thing I work on now is playing what I hear regardless of the scales. I.e. I'll come up with ideas in my head and then try and reproduce them on the fretboard.

  • Members
Posted

I used to. I don't any more or at least not in the conventional sense... I mostly concentrate on 'seeing' the notes around all the different chord shapes, arpeggios etc. and the main thing I work on now is playing what I hear regardless of the scales. I.e. I'll come up with ideas in my head and then try and reproduce them on the fretboard.

 

 

me too!

  • Members
Posted

I used to practice scales every day too. What I find is that musicianship is much like a juggling act. Any time I spend nurturing one area means neglecting another. The more I learn and grow, the more I realize I can't do everything (damn!).

Scales are a very important element of musicianship. For us guitarists to wrap our heads around the endless possibilities is quite a daunting task!

My soution for figuring out to practice any given day is to look at my "playing profile" and ask myself which part of my playing needs the most attention:

Head: theory, ear training, focus, reading, harmony.... anything "intellectual"

Hands: chops, chords, bends, vibrato, picking.... anything "physical" about guitar.

Heart: feel, creativity, emotion, composition, comittment... anything to do with the "emotional/spiritual" side of my playing.

On any given day, one of those will be out balance with the others. If all three are pretty well balanced (although it's never perfect... damn!!!) then I'll sound as good as I can sound while knowing what I should do next!

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Posted

There's a set of scale patterns and arppegios I try to do every day. Some days I get further along in them than others, but I almost always get in 15 minutes. If nothing else, it's a good warmup.

I'm thinking 1,3,2,4 (or II, V, I w/ arps) but good Tone is more what I'm shooting for. An even, steady, consistently clamfree stream of notes. It's a pain but it pays off.

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Posted

Yep. Every day. With a metronome.

I find it builds precision in my fingering, speed in my picking and as I get into it deeper - I do not hit "bad" notes as often and I don't have to think about it so much.

  • Members
Posted

Short answer - Yes

Long answer:
I have developed a warm up that uses scales in all thier modes. I start with the major scale - any one (in 1st position - changing the starting key daily) and work my way up the neck through all modes then back down. Then I do the pentatonic versions of the same modes up and down. All starting in 8th notes with a metronome.

I then modulate the whole thing up a 5th and do it again. Once again starting in first position. But this time with triplet feel - up and back.

I continue to modulate through the circle of 5ths at the same time I increase my note breakdown with each new starting point to 16ths, then 5's, then 6's, then 7's.

By then I am nicely warmed up and ready to tackle whatever it is I need to do. I view it like stretching before a game, or eating vegetables I just do it cause its good for me. Once you get it your fingers just magically seem to know where to look for the next note.

All of a sudden my outside notes now are (for the most part) intentional.

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Posted

As far as running up and down a scale I can say I probably do it here an then as an exercise, and of course the notes we choose when we play are directly related to scales, but as far as approaching it as a "scale" when playing...I don't do that very much anymore since there's more to music that what my fingers can do in an exercise.

 

I definitely don't stick to a pattern but more of a much smaller group of notes that change through a solo or line.

 

I haven't had much use for the 3nps idea in a long time. I work more on string skipping, arps, Modal clusters, chromatically connecting notes in a line, etc...more harmonically, although still linearly at times, but whatever mix is needed at the time.

 

But, yes I do use the basic scales for warm up, technique work, but no I don't use those "fingerings" for solo'ing and creating a whole lot.

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Posted

 

I haven't had much use for the 3nps idea in a long time.

 

 

I agree with you that it is of limited application when playing melodically.

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Posted

I play scalic/melodic stuff usually foraging for the cool colors. I chip away until I get the accidentals and 'fit' right. That's the yes and no of it...

:snax:

  • Members
Posted

>> Do you practice scales everyday?

Not right now, but when I do practice scales I focus more on versatility that on perfection - to me being able to do more with the scales is more valuable than being able to do the scale perfectly in one position. With limited practice time you have to evaluate which of these things are most important and work on them - this is simply where I am at right now, and is subject to change any time, really.

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