Cellists! Stop Playing Mindless Scales and Start Having More Fun! (you will play better when you do)
Cellists!
If you’re currently eating scales like musical kale, I want you to stop right now. That healthy stuff you’re consuming might be doing more harm than good.
You’ve likely been taught that scales will help you improve things like tuning and tone and while that is not wrong, it isn’t a complete answer. In fact, playing scales on their own will do nothing for these important aspects of your playing and may even introduce unhealthy tension into your body which will make you play worse….
It isn’t the scales that make you play better, it’s how you approach them.
FUN FACT: You don’t even NEED scales to learn any of the things we are about to talk about, So if you hate them, then that’s ok. There are creative alternatives.
Most of the time teachers assign scales to help a student with the following:
- Knowing the “geography” of the fingerboard
- Playing in tune
- Understanding Keys
- Steady Rhythm
- Bowing Patterns
- Playing Faster
Let’s look at these goals:
#1 Learning the Geography of the Fingerboard
Most cellists agree that scales help you learn where the notes “live” on your fingerboard. However, without a fundamental understanding of how the fingerboard is arranged, students often learn these patterns with a combination of listening and vague muscle memory and don’t really learn where the notes are at all. I have taught advanced students that are still guessing about what finger to use to play the next note ina scale.
We can fix this problem with a few seconds of logic:
There are no frets on the board like a guitar but the notes are still arranged in half steps along the length of the board. A half step in cello terms is roughly the distance between 2 fingers.
Whenever you are playing a scale or a technical pattern, be sure to name and sing the notes you are playing and understand their position on your fingerboard. If you don’t do this, your scale isn’t teaching you anything at all.
You should also be able to name all the notes in the position you are playing on all four strings. Here’s a fun exercise to figure out if you know what notes are across from one you are playing:
Play a note on the C string with any finger. Now play the note across from that note on the G, D, and A string. (Hint* This is always 5 notes up or down from the note you are playing) Name these notes and sing them out loud as you play them. Experiment with putting your fingers anywhere on any string and naming the notes adjacent to them.
Scales can be useful tools for knowing where notes are, but only if you consciously name those notes as you play them and understand if they are a whole step or half step (or sometimes whole + half) away from each other. This is how you will truly learn your fingerboard, not by memorizing finger patterns and sounds.
#2 Playing in Tune
Has your teacher told you that playing scales will help you play in tune? That’s partially correct but putting fingers down on the fingerboard in the order your think they go in will not improve your tuning.
You need to understand what the pattern sounds like and you need a flexible and responsive left hand if you are to truly develop great tuning.
It doesn’t matter if you’re playing scales or not.
How do you know what a scale sounds like? By listening to it and ideally singing along to it.
Do you know that all major scales have the same pattern of whole steps and half steps? If you do, then playing one major scale that you are familiar with before you play one that you don’t know as well will help you play the less familiar one more in tune. Knowing the pattern of whole steps and half steps will also help you with fingering if you want to experiment with choosing fingers without the help of a scale book. (I believe scale books can act as a crutch with students relying on memorized fingerings rather than “knowing “ the notes they are playing in the scale)
Learn the notes then choose the fingers.
If you can sing a whole step and a half step, you have all the tools you need to figure out if your scale is in tune or not.
Having a flexible left hand is really important as well…but that’s something for another article. If you want to learn more about developing flexibility in your left hand, I recommend you check out my Cello Yoga program at celloyoga.ca
#3 Understanding Keys
If your teacher hasn’t introduced you to the circle of fifths and how to use it to practice scales in a logical manner, then please ask them to do so at your very next lesson. If they don’t want to, then get a new teacher.
Classically trained musicians are notoriously poor at presenting scales in a way that makes sense. Many exam methods present scales in the order that they appear in beginner repertoire and don’t link these scales together in any kind of pattern.
When I first learned to play the cello, I learned D major and then G major and then C major and then A minor and then F major. While these are not inherently bad patterns to learn, nobody taught me how they were related to each other, so every time I learned a new scale it was like I was learning an alien language from scratch.
The Circle of Fifths clears up this ambiguity and sets the stage for mastering music theory and the relation of scales and keys from the beginning. It’s easy to use and understand and every major composer is familiar with it so players should be as well. It boggles my mind that students can play their instrument for years and not have at least a rudimentary understanding of how it works and how they can use it to improve their playing and creativity. If you want to learn to improvise, this is an important tool to have in your toolbox.
4. Steady Rhythm
If you are playing your scales up and down without a steady beat to accompany you, then you are missing their fundamental purpose; to improve your rhythm. Again, you really don’t need scales for this.
What you do need is something with repeating patterns of quarters, eighths, or sixteenths. If you are more inspired by a study, then go ahead and use one. If you’re working on rhythm, don’t complicate the matter by trying to learn notes. Find something you can play very easily and put a beat on in the background. If you hate metronomes…and most of us do, then use fun beats pre-recorded on a keyboard or synthesizer.
5. Bowing Patterns
You will find that scales and parts of scales are all over the songs you are playing. But often you will be required to play these using a variety of bowing patterns. If you are learning scales from a scale book, don’t feel you need to stick to the bowing pattern presented. If your scale book asks you to group your notes in four, also experiment with different groupings like 2, or 6, or 8. I personally enjoy grouping in order from 1 in a bow all the up to 16 in a bow. If you can play your scale with any bow pattern, you have truly achieved freedom and won’t get thrown off when you see a different bowing than what you’re used to in a piece of music.
6. Playing Faster
You most certainly do not need scales to learn to play faster. In fact, often when students try to play a scale they have learned to play faster, it often falls apart immediately. This is almost always to do with tension, improper bow holds and placement, arm movement, and failing to change the amount of speed, pressure, and bow length being used. As well, the students have not internalized the rhythm or sound of the scale before attempting to play it quickly.
Walk before you can run. If you have addressed all of the first 5 steps of the process I’ve laid out in this article, speeding up will not be too much of a leap but be honest with yourself. How well do you know this scale? Are you ready to go faster? And do you know how to create the relaxed atmosphere in your body that you need to increase speed?
Most cellists try to RUN before they can WALK. It’s natural to want to do this but in the end, it will hold you back.
Before you sit down to play a scale at your next practice, set an intention. What do you want to gain from playing this scale? Which of these 6 aspects are you working on?
Choose ONE of these to Focus on and ignore the rest. This is called One-Point Practice and it will help you improve your playing faster than any scale could.
To learn more about how to improve your focus, flexibility, and freedom on the cello at any level and to register for free training, visit www.celloyoga.ca/training.
I look forward to helping you more on your cello journey.
Mea the Creative Cellist
