Comments for Practicing Scales Routine

Are you telling that you were practicing scale?
by: cls

Are you telling that you were practicing scales only in that particular day? Did you say 12 weeks for each scale only?

Working in Small Steps will Get you There
by: David from www.piano-play-it.com

I'm going to answer both your answers in here.
That's why I combined your questions in one place.

The first thing you need to realize is that practicing piano exercises is a process.
That means that you're going to gain your fingers flexibility and improve your technique only if you work systematically.

So working every day for five minutes is important. You can do quite a lot in five minutes. However, everyone is different so I can't just give you one clear answer.

What I can do is recommend you to work in small steps. Divide you task to small steps and make sure you can achieve your goal in five minutes.
When you practice piano scales or any other piano exercises you should be relaxed and focused so don't do too much in one day. It's simply not effective.

Take piano scales for example. Let's say you'd like to learn to practice all major piano scales. There are twelve of them. When playing an E.D exercise (Every Day) you should work on each hand apart, then in a contrary and parallel movement.

What I'd do is actually divide my work to 12 weeks. I'd focus on one scale in a week.
I'd start with C major scale (The simplest one since it has white keys only).
During the first day I'd play only the right hand, watch my fingers, my posture, and make sure I perform the cross over correctly. (Maybe I'd start with only one octave and then go to two octaves.)

In the next day I'd repeat the right hand and watch for new aspects I didn't notice the day before. If I'm feeling content I'd start playing the scale with the left hand. The left hand is always more difficult so it might take longer to master it. I'd give it two days and maybe more.

Only then I'd go for the contrary movement which is easier then the parallel movement since you have to play the same fingers and to perform the cross over at the same time. If I did a good job on practicing the left hand the contrary movement might not take such a long time but that depends of course on each and every one of us.

Finally I'd play the parallel movement. This is where you should take a deep breath. Start with only one octave and take your time to learn to switch your fingers correctly in a different timing.

During the next week I'd repeat the process with a new scale. You'll realize that by staying persistent you'll improve your technique faster then you thought.

Moving Slowly Brings you there Faster!

Maybe after a while you'll find this exercise easier and then you should spend less time with it. Moving on is important as well. Try to evaluate your situation. That's the hardest for us all I guess...

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