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Yay! I'm glad you figured it out! I like minor scales, too, especially the harmonic minors (as opposed to the natural or melodic).

I have to admit i have read this thread many times and i am really tempted by the adventure The thing is i only have 2 lessons since i started and i haven't really worked on scales yet. I think i should wait a bit maybe a month or so... what do you guys think?

What does your teacher suggest? S/he may have a way to introduce you to scales with good mechanics, retention, and music theoretical understanding.

I think it's never too early to start on scales. Not from a rote/mechanical perspective, but actually seeing the scale on the piano. Done slowly and correctly, it can really give your playing an edge.

If you have a teacher, definitely ask about it. I love when my students want to learn more theory.

Managed to get AM Grand Tour done and the Thrice is Nice thing done too. I'm growing a wonderful appreciation for Am as i work this scale. I'm really listening to every note individually. Each one is so beautiful even on its own.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the Ten Times thing done, I hope.

I just love ticking off those little boxes. I feel so solid like I really accomplished something. Works better for me than gold stars did as a kid.

I'm thinking of using something along the lines of those boxes and tick marks for other pieces I'm working on. I find it's a great incentive... all those lovely little tick marks, yeah!

I like doing the work that's required for these scales It's a good organized way of working, nice to know what to do next.

:thumbsup:

I do hashmarks in my practice journal for other pieces, too, so I don't lose track and underwork a section initially, and because it helps me see how my times spent and what sections or voices, comparatively, give me more or less trouble. It's really helpful to me, along with writing out the scale and its' theory at the beginning of learning a new one.

Hello, all. I've been lurking for a while and this thread has motivated me to post.

I am new to piano and have been studying with a teacher for around six months. During the early days of lessons she would introduce scales and cadences and ask me to practice them. After the fourth or fifth time I 'forgot' to work on them, she relented a bit. She still asks me to play them every now and then during the lesson (which I do poorly), but mostly we focus on pieces.

Recently, I've been more motivated to improve my playing. I've had a scales book all along, but really could not get motivated to crack it very often. It traveled to the bottom of the music pile on the piano, and rarely surfaced. Out of sight and out of mind, at least until I fumbled through a hands-together scale at my lesson.

I heard about Scales Bootcamp in this thread and did a little investigating. I watched the videos and read what others had to say both here and elsewhere. I'm typically pretty skeptical of learning from method books (never really helped me in my guitar playing), but for $25 I decided I could afford to be disappointed one more time.

My book arrived on Tuesday and I started that night (after getting home from my lesson). I started on C major and got up to Intermediate that night. Wednesday I worked on G major and got it to Intermediate. Thursday was for A minor - Intermediate. And then today I got all three (the 'very easy' scales) up to Advanced. I haven't tried any Twists yet, just the Core and Tempo sections.

Gotta say, the main thing I've learned is that I absolutely love checking off little boxes. I think there's a little endorphin rush each time I complete an achievement. Whatever is happening in my brain, it's keeping me motivated and practicing scales. So I guess what I'm saying is that this book is doing exactly what it advertised. I wouldn't exactly say that I like playing scales, but I'm trying to decide which one to start next.

A few observations so far:

• I thought C major would be the easiest of the three (CMaj, GMaj, AMin) but is the trickiest as there are no black key landmarks.
• Contrary motion is easy compared to parallel motion, contrary to my expectations.
• My left hand is slightly behind my right, development-wise, but not nearly as much as I feared.
• I wish there was a way to reveal the next tempo goal only after completing the current one. I don't believe that any human can play hands together at MM=140 with four notes to a beat. Inconceivable!

Anyway, kind of a long message. Thanks everybody for posting your experiences with this book as the positive reviews in this thread were a big factor in my investing in it.

Tip. I uses the iPad app "Piano scales" a lot. Simple app that gives you the fingering and you can choose different scales in all keys simply by selec from the circle of fifths. You find the app in Apples AppStore or using link below.

http://web.comhem.se/pianoscales/

Still working on 10 times a row for Am I manage to keep it going for maybe five times then get tangled aagain always on the downward part.

More slow practice is the only way I can see to fix this. I'm not racing at all but clearly it got to be even slower.

Slower S l o w e r S l o w e r ... ... ... and so on.

It's coming together I'm sure and I feel/think that once I have cracked this for one scale I'll have proven to myself can do it and I won't have this problem in quite the same way again. I hope.

I think also that this is like other things I do and just suddenly everything clicks and falls into place. All struggling falls a way.

On the other hand what is already coming out of this is I am striking the keys with so much more confidence, smoother legato so I'm definitely ahead of the game in that sense. I am also getting much more evenness which is a prime goal for me and that is really what I"m after.

In the meantime Slower S l o w e r S l o w e r ..

pg2, I have the same problem of getting muddled coming down. I think I need to discipline myself to practice just down scales for a while, to really suss out what's confusing me in that motion.

Congratulations on your increase in fluency and technique.

After my initial sprint for 150 ticks in a week, I've slacked off. I'm picking up again now. Doing a lot of just playing scales for fluency, before aiming for actually achieving more ticks. Am currently working on scales that are coming up in my Technique book for lessons. That means a, d, e; then Ab, Db, Eb. Farther down the pike are Gb, Bb, and B, but I find those much easier than Ab and Eb, so I'm not so concerned with pre-prepping them.

Hi PianoStudent88

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, I needed it.

I did try a bunch of the first R/L hands separate and the H/T for the first time . It was a great confidence builder to tick off those boxes.

I'm choosing to ignore the difficulty rating so i don't set myself up to be mentally beaten before I start them. I also have an That Was Easy button which I hit for everything I do that is correct and musical and fluid too.

I"m for doing anything that builds my confidence and is rewarding in some way like the tick marks and this luscious male voice who says "that was easy". If it were an either or thing I'd go with the ticks they are so satisfying. but the two
together really set me up.

Also am going to try giving myself permission to fail. I read about that in a book I think it's "The Perfect Wrong Note". At least I think that's where I read it.

I've gotten up to Db in the exercise book I'm using in my lessons, so it gives my teacher the first chance to notice the altered end points that Boot Camp uses. E.g. Db LH starts with 3 on Db but alters that to end with 2 on Db when going up (turning around to come down) for an easier crossover when you're not continuing up the scale. My teacher wants me to play the unaltered fingering (3 for Db), as if I were going to continue up the scale, to get maximum practice at that fingering.

Next week I'll try pointing out that we always bookend the white-key scales with 5, not crossing for a lone 1, so why should the black-key scales not benefit from similar shortcuts. I don't think I'm going to get anywhere, though.

In Boot Camp I'm currently focusing on Eb and Ab, to be ready for when they show up in my lesson exercise book next week. I'm improving. When I first started Boot Camp, I could barely get the three tick marks for playing with the fingering in front of me, and couldn't play contrary motion at all. Now I can play them from memory, and contrary too.

Great going, everyone! PS88, let us know what your teacher says to your suggestion about fingering. I do find that Johnston really worked to make everything as intuitive as possible and haven't found any of his choices to be awkward or bad form, but your teacher may have a reason for the altered fingering he/she uses.

I'm improving a ton as well, though I had to dial back doing the scales exclusively as I was getting bored. I am working on six tickmarks per practice session now, instead of spending about an hour a day on scales, alone. It makes the improvement slower, but I don't get brain fatigue quite so fast

It is interesting you all have more difficulty descending the scale, in terms of errors. I'm the opposite - my fingerings just fall into place descending, but ascending I have to watch myself or I come up short on notes. It is something in the way I move my wrist, I think.

We're all so different! I think we all do agree on one thing, though - the achievements system is much more motivating than just being assigned a scale to perfect

I still can not play the 10 in a row for Am or now for CMaj, I can make it to about 7 in a row and then somehow tangle myself up. I haven't given up and i believe that if i can crack this once. it'll break the mental barrier.

But 7 times is better than 6 times. Hooray for me.

I can do this... I can do this...

whew...at least the scales are getting smoother and more even all the time

pg2, great accomplishment to get to six and seven in a row. I haven't tried that challenge at all yet; three in a row is monumental enough for me.

Thanks for those kind words.

I've been all over myself for not making it to 10 times. It just seems to be taking forever.

I'm pretty sure when I crack the 10 times barrier once I will have broken a glass ceiling for myself. Ah well back to the keyboard...

I've been reading the Piano Teachers' Forum archives, and came upon this post by Kreisler, which links to a document giving several ways of practicing scales musically -- that is, for best musical application.

Of interest to anyone practicing scales. It doesn't give fingering; rather it gives several ideas of how (and why) to practice scales.

Just out of curiosity, does the Scale Bootcamp book accommodate 'natural' fingering in LH for G, D and A major (4th finger on F#) or just the C major fingering?

Thanks for re-posting, PianoStudent88. Useful.