Quote:
|
Originally Posted by blackcat
.....do i actually need to learn scales or just how they work.
There are so many sites , and if like me you are continually searching for info, the advice on those sites differ greatly. For beginners it is a minefield of right or wrong.
Or is it, as i suspect, a matter of what you find easier for you.
|
+1 to what Fretsource said about learning scales. It certainly useful to understand what scales are and how they can be used musically, but there's certainly no need to bash your way through heaps of them just for the sake of it. (Unless you enjoy doing set exercises - and some people do, some don't. Some students work best with a very formal and structured approach and find it very off-putting if everything is too open ended and free-form, but others are the exact opposite and find too much structure oppressive. So it's probably good to try both and settle for something that suits our own individual character).
Drilling your fingers through scales and exercises is a bit like drilling a squad of soldiers. There can certainly be some disciplinary spin-offs in marching up and down a parade ground in formation, but the real work of soldiers is to go into battle. And battle doesn't bear much resemblance to parade ground drill - it doesn't happen neatly in line order.
My approach to scales is that I'm prepared to run through a few in 'line order' only for as long as it takes me to start getting a feel for where the notes in the group are located. Then I'm straight into experimenting with what I can actually DO with them - what they sound like in various arrangements or combinations, etc.
Scales are just another line of possible ingredients on a shelf. It's what you cook with them that matters.
Sorry, that's enough mixed metaphors for one post!
Cheers,
Chris