 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: stellaroja
Date: 2005-09-13 01:02
im a sophmore in high school, so along with school starting it means audition season has come along once again. Although i know all of my major scales cold, and have them memorized easily....my minors are a different story. My fingers know them fairly well and i practice them A LOT, but this whole memorization thing isnt coming to me. I know how there constructed and everything (im talking about melodic minors here) but i was just wondering if anyone had any small fun, tricky ways that helps it stick in there head? All advice would be GREATLY appreciated. THANK YOU!
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Author: Clarinetgirl06
Date: 2005-09-13 01:28
Practice the major scale, then practice its relative minor (E Major/C# minor). That will help you a lot on what it is going down the scale... any specific questions you have?
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Author: Markael
Date: 2005-09-13 02:27
Do you play piano?
The piano keyboard is a great visual reference for intervals, scales, and chords.
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Author: stellaroja
Date: 2005-09-13 03:01
no sadly i dont play piano.....
um not really any specific questions i just need patterns! they help me but i cant really see many.
o but i do practice them with the major and the relative minor and that does seem to help.
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Author: allencole
Date: 2005-09-13 06:36
I've found that it's best to learn them as a physical behavior. You can do this by simply playing them over and over, or try building them one note at a time.
For a C major scale, the sequence would be C-D-C, C-D-E-D-C, C-D-E-F-E-D-C, C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C, and so forth. Works like a charm, and avoids most of the common pitfalls.
Allen Cole
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2005-09-13 11:38
What's worked for me and for my young student is to forget about reading the scales, right from the beginning. HEAR them.
The circle of fifths is attached to the back of my Baermann III book, and is one of the posters on my studio walls. If you know how the minor relates to the major, you've got it licked.
The third of each minor is exactly the same note as the first note of it's related major. So the A minor melodic begins on A and is played as an A scale with the exception of the third - it's a C natural instead of a C#, just as the related major begins with a C natural - that's on the way up. On the way down, the notes are all the same as the C major scale except you start on A and end on A. (The harmonic scale is played the same both up and down.)
Remembering this has helped my student figure out the notes every time. But the matter of hearing them has helped her know when it sounds right - if not, she needs to remember the scale she's reproducing and then she can correct it so it sounds right again.
So having the circle of fifths there in front of you - and later on only visualizing it - makes a huge difference to memorizing scales.
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Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-09-13 14:30
Yes, you need to be able to hear if the intervals are right in order to evaluate your own practice. One of the nice things about piano scales is that the placement of the half steps and whole steps is much more visual than it is on the clarinet. When you are memorizing scales, play them slowly enough that you can hear the intervals.
Also, if you are practicing melodic minors it helps to relate them to the parallel major scale, since the raised notes on the ascending melodic minor make the top half of the scale look and sound like the major key with the same starting note.
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Author: Markael
Date: 2005-09-13 14:35
These are good tips from Brenda and clarinet wife.
The trouble with this, and other theory related subjects, is that the concepts are simple but hard to put in a few words.
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Author: Tyler
Date: 2005-09-14 01:20
Everyone on BBoard should learn how to play the piano...music theory is made so much simpler when one is familiar with chords and scales and intervals, etc.
-Tyler
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Author: Ken Mills
Date: 2005-09-14 02:28
Dear Stellaroja; I think that clarinetgirl has it right. Just play the C major scale-arpeggio up and down for two octaves followed by its relative A harmonic minor the same way. Then repeat that with F and its relative D harmonic minor and keep going through that cycle of fourths so that it will not matter what key you are in after you master this. Do not just practice the scales one by one in their patterns, but play sequences like I said. Improvise your own varied patterns when playing from one to another scale. Here is an example of almost everything: Play the C major scale followed by the F melodic minor which is the dominant scale of A harmonic minor. In other words, the E7 altered chord is that dominant chord and it uses the F melodic minor scale. Or instead of playing the A harmonic minor use the A natural minor because it has the same notes as C major, whew! That way you can just stick in that F melodic minor in the middle and go around the cycle of fourths to see how that harmony keeps developing. In fact, after starting at C major by the time you get out to Eb or Ab major and their relative minors then you can flip straight back to C. It will sound like you were in C all the time but with the tonic moving around so that people will hear something. Please forward this, it took too long to write for a small audiance. After all, I am a performer you know, Ken
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