Question:

I’d love to practise on technique, blowing and notes. And I need someone to explain me those scales. What’s the point? Dooh, why are they so complex?

-Blazka

My response:

Basically music can be played in 12 different keys, each with a different root. And the keys have different variations – major, minor, etc.

Many songs also change key, sometimes multiple times and very quickly.

To be able to play music you need to be comfortable with, for instance, five sharps.

To become comfortable with music that has five sharps, playing the notes in a sequence with five sharps can help you practice. That sequence is a scale.

Playing the notes in that order has a specific sound characteristic of the type of scale. So all major scales have a certain sound. All Lydian scales have a certain sound.

The scale is going to be one of the simplest things you play in any given key.

Music will go in different directions and also include the rest of the elements of music – rhythm, articulation, space, dynamics, etc.

A scale can be practiced with a very regular rhythm.

Getting the movement between notes smooth is one of your first goals when playing scales. You don’t want any awkward transitions between notes or uneven rhythm.

It’s kind of like learning to draw and being able to draw straight lines. You’ll use straight lines when you draw sometimes, but your drawing will also have more complicated shapes, contours, texture, etc.

The skill in being able to draw a straight line will help you be able to draw other things.

Scales are kind of like straight lines in music. In their simplest form, they go straight up and straight down.

Real music sometimes has parts that move exactly like scales. It also has parts that move in different directions with jumps.

-Neal