Hi, LH V-2.
I reckon it's important to know what scales are ... and that's it. Most teachers advocate learning them in all positions and practicing them. I don't. The private PlaneTalkers' Forum (for people who have bought my book) is full of players who have learned and practiced them and are now desperate to forget them, to break out of the boring, restrictive, non-melodic traps they find themselves in. I personally haven't thought or worried about or wondered about scales since about 1975, and I've done a lot playing in that time, almost all of it improvised ... making it up as I go. If it's the art of soloing you're looking into, there is a better way, an easier way, a fool proof way of negotiating any tune, any chord progression.
So, no, it's not imperative that you practice scales endlessly, but at least know what they are. Despite their scary sounding Greek names, there's nothing complicated about them. They're just ways (too many ways) of organizing the 12 notes into batches. But don't be fooled into thinking that to play solos and improvise you need to know all your scales ... you don't. Chords are all you need to know.
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