Ricardo -> RE: Scales and practising (May 13 2006 6:38:35)
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I get bugged by the "soul" in music or technique talk all the time. I mean, who is to say what you play with feeling or not? Can you not play ONE note with feeling? Why not a scale? If not, can you play ANY notes with feeling, or just some? I think you can practice your scale with "feeling" or expression or whatever you want, but you won't be doing your self much good unless you play in rhythm. Some folks think playing in strict time, running scales etc, is "cold" and mechanical. To me, simply playing IN rhythm, IS playing with feeling. At least rhythmic feeling. If you play with deliberate rhythmic control, even SILENCE has "feeling". I mean you play with feeling by playing NOTHING. It is relative to time. Anyway, running scales, no matter how much mental or physical effort you put, the idea is you are carving a "road" or path in the jungle of the fretboard. The point is to make your travel next time smoother, in that neck of the woods. Nothing wrong with roughing it either, but that is the hard way obviously. But I think it is real important to keep things "musical" by basing your scale practice on rhythms. I personally used sequences when I was younger, that were based on certain rhythmic groupings, rather than running up and down. It was a little more fun, and helped me "cut the path" even better. But the central arguement the conductor is making, I happen to appreciate. The techniques you need are in the music you want to play, SPECIFICALLY. You just need to be smart enough to know what you need to extract and practice. If you start off learning Gujiras de Lucia, you will discover the A major scale, a special fingering specific for that one passage. So by examining the piece you get the scale you need. But having run your A major scale for years, won't necessarily make Guajiras de Lucia "easy" for you. As Todd said there are many "paths" through the jungle that are leading to the same point. Ricardo
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