Scale practice.
Just those two words alone may sound either dreadful to one’s ears or exciting for that rare musician aiming to extend and improve their technique.
When I was growing up, a daily ritual in both my practice and lesson routine was playing all 12 of my major scales, first on paper and later by memory. As I entered college, I remember my teacher assigning me to memorize the Moyse method, not only with my major scales but also the minor keys (a whole new world of music I was rarely familiar with.)
With a lot of thought & practice, I eventually grew to love scales, and I challenged myself with them in a new exercise, book or passage in a piece. I stopped envisioning my scales as a chore and saw them more as a vital use in my playing since I perceived scales as the blood in music (aka. frequent patterns that bled everywhere in repertoire and were vital for music to thrive & grow.)
So where am I going with this?
As a flute teacher, I am surrounded in different classroom environments & attention spans when teaching sectionals, and I see a variety of skill sets & goals when it comes to my private students. Even though I teach certain curriculum's in each specific setting, that is both helpful & useful in the practice room, I remember feeling a sense of tediousness from those books or exercises I was assigned on a weekly basis. As great as these resources are, I want ALL of my students to feel excited, inspired and have a fresh breath of thinking when it comes to playing, so I decided to create some unique, practice resources!
It’s December (you know, the season of giving), and I am providing special freebies each week for all of you flutists out there!
This week is based on (you guessed it) scales! In honor of the last Star Wars movie coming out on the 20th, I am sharing Rey’s “special” scale theme!
Need to practice your major or minor scales? Lucky for YOU this week you are given 2 separate, downloadable PDF’S that will provide all 12 major and minor keys of Rey’s theme!
Remember how I said scales are the blood of music?
Have you noticed that Rey’s theme is based on arpeggiated figures?
See! There is a reason and purpose for us to practice these vital patterns, so stop dreading your practice and enjoy those whole & half step figures!
May the force be with you this week in practice!