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M
MUUSSIIC
C

HOW TO WORK YOUR

SCALES EFFICIENTLY
Working on scales can easily turn into a
nightmare... it's long, it's hard to find satisfaction
and to see progression... Sylvie explains her
secrets to make the work more interesting and
satisfying!

Last month, a student of mine told me that he was rushing

through his scales and long tones, "the boring stuff you
see", before transcribing solos, i.e the fun stuff. I totally
understand, having gone through the same phase, but
then I started thinking about it. I too was bored of
practicing my scales, not seeing any interest in it and also
not seeing any progress in my playing. But nowadays, if I
don't play any scales for a couple of days I feel like
something is lacking... What happened?

THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT

PRACTICING SCALES
INFLUENCES THE WAY WE
PRACTICE. SO ALL WE
NEED TO DO IT'S CHANGE
OUR MIND, AND DECIDE
THAT WE ARE GOING TO
FALL BACK IN LOVE WITH
SCALES!
I was lucky to study with an amazing teacher who helped
me revolutionnize my way of thinking about practice and
music in general. His methods were so simple, rather than
prescribing me textbook rules, he listened. Therefore,
every time I had encountered difficultes he helped me to
find a solution, as a result I really listened to the advice I
was given, without questionning the reason. He told me
"practicing scales and technique is awesome, just do it and
don't worry about whether is it good or bad, just practice.
Some days it'll be better than others, but that's not what's
important. All that matters is that you do it, because you
won't progress without practice".

His perspective changed my way of thinking about scales

from "it's boring, it's useless, so I played them quickly,
poorly and adopted a lot of bad habits" to "I'm going to
take this serisouly, because they are essential to me
improving. And I'm going to love doing it!!". Because
when we practice scales and technique, we don't only
practice the fingering, but we also practice our tone,
embouchure, focus and general dexterity.

PROGRESS DOES NOT

HAPPEN OVERNIGHT:
METRONOME, PATIENCE,
REGULARITY
I realized I was not making any progress because I did not
spend enough time on each exercise before moving onto
the next. I was impatient to play better, but in order to play
better you have to invest the time, it does not happen
overnight. Now, after warming up with long tones,
overtones and 5ths/8ves, I practice between 45 minutes
and one hour for each key, repeating the same exercises
for several months. So of course you cannot practice all
keys in one practice session (I mean, maybe if you have 12-
hour practice sessions, which is amazing, congrats!) but
you can organize yourself in order to practice all of them in
rotation.

So I practice the same exercise one a key a few months,

until I can apply it to all the tunes I'm currently working on.
Or some old ones I know well.

These intense exercises require patience and an ability to

block out the outside world, just as with long tones.
Working up to one hour on the same key with a 40 bpm
beat is a real challenge compared to the speed we're
used to nowadays.

DIRECTIONS
There are eight ways we can work on scales. The sheet
music is included below as it's far clearer to read musically
than to explain.

This is also a very good way to work on the higher register

and altissimos. Start from the bottom of the horn and go up
until you reach your limit, watch your embouchure and
your tuning, go very slow and pay attention to fingering.
The brain remembers mistakes very well, too well. If you
make a mistake, slow down, focus and do the exercise
right 3 times in order to erase the memory of the mistake.
That way you will increase your register day after day,
semi-tone by semi-tone. Be patient and careful.

ENJOY!
NB: I only wrote the two first bars in each direction. For
example, put the metronome at 40 bpm, play a scale in 8th
notes, go up with 1a until you cannot anymore, go down
with 1b to the bottom of the horn, then go up again until
the root. Do the same with 2a and 2b, 3a and 3b, 4a and 4b.
Then do the same with intervals, the 3rds as a start, the 4ths
if you're hot, save the 5ths, 6ths and 7ths for winter and start
with the triads, all directions, and arpeggios to finish. As a
bonus, you can also practice inversions.

2 comments

TTA
AGGSS Music

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2 COMMENTS

Maxime
Maxime Luc
Luc de
de Syos
Syos
February 13, 2023 at 9:44 am

Bonjour Sue, nous sommes ravis que notre article

puisse vous aider dans votre progression ;) Nous
allons essayer d’en écrire d’autres si ce dernier
vous a plu ! N’hésitez pas à nous faire part de vos
progrès.

Maxime Luc de Syos

Sue Sue
Sue
February 13, 2023 at 9:41 am

Merci pour ces exercices ! Je débute (1 an et demi

de saxo alto) et j’avais du mal à trouver des
exercices d’échauffement dignes de ce nom. c’est
chose faire !

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