fellow sotw er Kelly Bucheger has an excellent instruction about how to learn scales on his site.
Follow these instructions and those scales will be with you for life.

 

For me, the two most important lessons I've learned as far as scales practice goes come from the Jackie McLean Daily Warm-up Exercises book and from Steve Neff.

1) Make sure to practice your scales in motion, moving from one tone-center to another, and not just up and down in one scale. (JM)
2) Practice scales with a passing tone (eg bebop major scale), emphasizing the chord tones (1-3-5-7) as starting/turning points for phrases. (SN)

I wish I had learned both of these a lot sooner than I did.

R.

 

This is great advice. I would also like to add its best to play the scale by ear not from the page. Practice one scale like this slowly, evenly and perfectly and really learn what it sounds like. Once you have the sound in your head of what the scale is supposed to sound like it gets a lot easier to play it in other keys. I also like the the idea of scale groupings of threes and fours. I do this a lot and it is a great way to isolate problem areas.

 

I am a big believer in playing scales in stepwise patterns, particularly in groups of three and four. (C-D-E, D-E-F, etc. or C-D-E-F, D-E-F-G, etc.). For evenness, odd-numbered groupings are very revealing as to where your weak points are. Quintuplets are a great diagnostic.

 

For me, repetition and a consistent practice schedule. I've been working on scales and arpeggios for about 10-15 min, 4-5 days a week for almost 4 years. It got a LOT easier after the first few months.

 

I like that way too. You can also do this:

C-C(one octave higher) B-C-A-C-G-C-F-C-E-C-D-C-C(you're back) then continue B-B(one octave higher)-A-B-G-B-F-B-E-B-D-B-C-B-B and so on and do this on evry note in every scale. You can also use that to practise your tone, do it slow and listen to how you sound. It's an great exercise because you can practise scales and tone on the same time

 

The most efficient way to practice scales is slowly. Once you have decided on a pattern to practice (all those mentioned are good, there are many others), play it at no more than 1/8th notes at 1/4 note = 60 BPM. While you are playing the scale, concentrate on several different things (start with one at a time...)

1) hearing the subdivision - that is, while playing 8th notes, you should be subdividing the beat in your head at 16th notes, two subdivisions per note

2) concentrate on making the transition from one note to the next instantaneous - you don't want to move your fingers violently, or jerk in any way, but the movement between, say, G and A is this - 3 fingers down -> 2 fingers down. Don't let the ring finger come up slowly, and don't let it snap up, just let it instantaneously move from down to up. And not too high up, either, it should be just over the key. Look at some u-tube videos of greats playing, you will see an amazing economy of finger movement.

3) concentrate on keeping your tone smooth, especially over jumps (i.e., C2 -> D2)

4) DO NOT GO TOO FAST TOO SOON - spend a week at 60 BPM, then go to 64 for the next week.

If you do this 30 minutes daily, in about 6 months you will have the most even, smooth, fast scales you can imagine. From that point on, keep doing it 15 - 20 minutes a day, slowing down if you are aware of any imperfections in timing or finger action.

Apply these same principles to other patterns you learn - diminished scales, pentatonics, 4 note patterns, etc. Once you have the basic approach down, you CAN progress in tempo a little more rapidly, but don't go TOO fast. (For example, go up 2 or 4 BPM every other day instead of every week.) If you are making ANY mistakes, slow down - otherwise you are practicing your mistakes, and you will certainly play them when you gig

Regarding the cycle you use, I think that's relatively unimportant - go by 1/2 steps, whole steps, minor thirds, 4ths, whatever. Just make sure you play every scale throughout the full range of the horn.

 

Longbtones
Transcribing
Harmonics
:bluewink:
:mrgreen:

 

I learn them starting with the first 4 notes and add 1 note when I know those.

 

Lots of good advice so far. There are countless patterns and ways to practice scales. I'll add one exercise I sometimes use to warm up. I think it's a good way to get ALL 12 key centers (major scales/minor scales) under your fingers. It works well with the major and minor scales, but I'll outline it for the 12 major scales:

Start with C major scale and play from low C up one octave and back down, then move right into C# major, up one octave and back down, then on to D major, D#, E, etc through all 12 scales. Don't stop between scales and keep everything in time. Start slowly and work up to faster tempo. Then start expanding the scales to cover the entire range of your instrument. Do this for a few minutes every day and soon you'll have all 12 keys 'equalized.'

This is a BASIC exercise that helps get the scales under your fingers. I like it for simplicity. But it doesn't replace playing scale patterns and other exercises.

Obviously you need to know all 12 major scales to some extent prior to doing this exercise, so start by learning each scale in turn. But this exercise will help get them into your subconscious and allow you to move from one to the next.

 

Also, to take a more classical approach, try different articulations (all slurred, all tongued, slur two tongue two, tongue one slur two...) and rhythms (straight eighths, dotted eighth sixteenth, sixteenth dotted eighth, and definitely swung eights for the jazzer). Adding something else to think about will make the whole process harder, but it will improve your familiarity with the scale and your articulation.

 

5 minutes before the gig?

 

Play all your scales 2 octaves. Use a metronome. Don't speed up until you can play all of them perfect at the current speed. And a personal suggestion; start on low Bb and proceed chromatically.

 

Play scales starting with a different note from the root. This will give you a new "mode".

 

Very slowly, a few notes at a time. You will soon be flying!

 

It's all vocabulary. What's the BEST way to learn to use a word? For most, it is using the word in several different contexts. The point. Don't limit yourself to only one way to approach a scale. Learn to use them in a cycle of fourths. Now, still working in a cycle of fourths, start each scale on the third or fifth. Another useful exercise is starting the scale on the lowest note in the scale that sounds on your horn and playing the scale the full length of the horn's range (e.g. start a C major scale on low B and play the scale all the way up to high F and then back down). Vary time - play eighth notes one time and triplets the next...

There is no ONE approach to learning them. You have LEARNED them when you can call on them and know them - from any point in the scale, up or down, in any time format, etc.

Most of all, practice making MUSIC with them and always play with a full tone. If you wear yourself out and persist playing a weak tone... Well, that is the tone that you are reinforcing.

 

What I find helps in learning scales or any new material for that matter is to break it into smaller pieces. Once I have the small pieces working I put them together until I have the whole scale. If you want your scales to really become a part of you you need to do them from memory. Also perform them through out the whole range of the saxophone. Then do remember to practice them so slow that you don't make mistakes. As you get more and more comfortable speed it up. My guide is if I can play the scale up and down perfectly six times in a row I speed it up.

One way to see how well you really have a scale internalized is to improvise on the scale. If you can do this smoothly, with no mistakes, and no challenges then the scale is a part of you.

 

Totally agree with your last point...better still, one should try improvising while moving from one key to the other. This really helps in feeling a progression too (but we are moving away from the discussion too) :TGNCHK:

Another important point...while practicing simple tunes, try analyzing their structure - usually there is a basic scale in there mostly Major or one of its modes. Then practice the same tune in all keys - you are basically practicing that scale on all keys and you are having much fun than doing mechanically up/down or via patterns.

 

Thanks for all the tips, everyone! Lots of great ideas and suggestions. These should keep me busy for a long while!

 

I learned them the old fashioned, boring way.
Play, repeat, repeat, repeat......
Then when you finished, start the whole thing over again.
That's probably why I dislike scales so much.

 

That's the way I used to practice (boring)....I don't practice scales anymore - I play tunes on all keys!!

 

I picked one scale a week and learned it in all of its modes (major, minor, diminished, etc.). If you have to read it to start, okay, but get off the page and do it by ear as quickly as you can. I learned all of my licks (II-V-I turnarounds, etc.) in that scale. Then I started playing around with it. By the end of a week, I internalized it and moved on to the next one in the cycle. If you do that, in 3months you'll have all of the scales in all of their modes in your fingers and be able to play all of you licks (and any new ones you learn) in all 12 keys. Good luck.

 

If you learn your major scale then practice it starting on different notes of the scale then you're conditioning your ear for the other scales.

In other words learn the scales as a group -- C Major = D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian, B Locrian.
Then study them in parallel, that is C Major, C Dorian, C Phrygian, C Lydian, C Mixolydian, C Aeolian, C Locrian (not necessarily in that order).
Then learn other scales you find interesting: C Blues, C Pentatonic, C Harmonic Minor, etc...

 

All great ideas here, but if you're getting a little overwhelmed with all the advice, just remember one thing: Joseph Viola's "Technique of the Saxophone, Vol. 1 -- Scale Studies." It's all there. Make that book your best friend for the next 3 to 6 months, and you can't go wrong.

 

A teacher could advise you on what scale patterns to use and when to vary them. But regardless of the patterns you use, play with a metronone, practice your scales daily, and play them slowly enough so that they are clean.

 

2) concentrate on making the transition from one note to the next instantaneous - you don't want to move your fingers violently, or jerk in any way, but the movement between, say, G and A is this - 3 fingers down -> 2 fingers down. Don't let the ring finger come up slowly, and don't let it snap up, just let it instantaneously move from down to up. And not too high up, either, it should be just over the key. Look at some u-tube videos of greats playing, you will see an amazing economy of finger movement.
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This is one of the very important points to me.

I am always a stickler for using the ear to learn the scales instead of the fingers. Also, playing arpeggios for the diatonic chords within the scales really helps lock down the notes. For example, in the key of C major:
Cmaj7 Dmin7 Emin7 Fmaj7 G7 Amin7 Bmin7b5

 

IMO the best way is to learn to sing them... that's the best way to internalize them. If you can sing merry had a little lamb than it's internalized, if you can sing the altered scale, than it's internalized.

 

It's quite hard for me. If i can play them it's easier for me to sing them but if i can sing them it's easier to play them.

 

whenever you play or practice, you must be committed to sound "good".
so that "sounding good" becomes your 2nd nature.
go for the tone!