- Melodic minor scales flute how to#
- Melodic minor scales flute full#
More isn’t always better, especially at the beginning. For many, learning all of their scales is complex endeavor and just getting the correct notes and fingerings at a moderate tempo is enough – the extended ranges only complicate the process and adds to the confusion of it all. (1) I wouldn’t have my first or second year undergraduate students do this. Having been through it all I feel that it’s a very good approach, but I believe that there are things that need to be considered a bit more if one decides to go this route. What’s there is exactly how I did my scales when I did my both of my degrees in clarinet.
Melodic minor scales flute full#
This is, to my ears, the least awkward way to play melodic minor scales full range, but of course a thorough technique-building regimen will ultimately require mastery of all possible turnarounds, regardless of awkwardness. My (admittedly somewhat arbitrary) solution, to give students a uniform way of approaching melodic minors, is that the highest note of the scale is taken from the descending version and the lowest is taken from the ascending version: For the ascending version of the scale, the extreme notes of the scale are low A-sharp and high B-sharp, but for the descending version the extreme notes are B and B. For example, consider C-sharp melodic minor on the bassoon, with an assumed upper limit of B-sharp.
Melodic minor scales flute how to#
One issue with this method is the question of how to handle the “turnarounds” in melodic minor scales. Articulation studies do of course have their place, but with scales and arpeggios I’m mostly looking for good finger movement and consistent tone, and tonguing can hide some problems. You’ll notice that I like everything slurred.
For instruments with smaller “standard” ranges, a full-range approach gets students playing scales in more than just a single octave, such as perhaps the G, A-flat, and A scales on saxophone and oboe. Using the full-range method, a clarinetist will reach that note in seven different scales, and will reach the nearby F-sharp in the other five. For example, a clarinetist playing major scales in octaves will likely play the altissimo G exactly once (in the G scale, assuming an upper range limit of G). Full-range scales develop tone, response, familiarity, and confidence in the instrument’s extreme ranges. (A more complete way of doing this would involve practicing scales and arpeggios in duple and triple rhythms and perhaps others, and starting the scale at different places in the metric pulse.) Full-range patterns in even rhythms encourage learning scale and arpeggio vocabulary in a more meter-agnostic way. Likewise, composers can’t be counted on to time a scalar passage so that the first scale degree always falls on a strong beat, nor to give that note an agogic accent. Composers, in my experience, don’t seem to be interested in restricting scalar or arpeggiated patterns to an instrument’s most convenient octaves. A major reason to practice scales and arpeggios is to condition fingering patterns that will appear frequently in music. It develops practical technical fluency. Here is why I insist on full-range scales: I also require arpeggios, following the same rules: So, for example, an oboe student’s E-flat major scale goes like this: Proceed back upward to the starting note. Proceed downward to the instrument’s lowest note that falls within the scale. Proceed upward in an even rhythm (such as even eighth notes) to the highest note in the instrument’s “range” that falls within the scale (according to an upper range limit that I set). Start on the first scale degree, in the instrument’s lowest octave. To the chagrin of my students (oboists/clarinetists/bassoonists/saxophonists), I require that they are played in this format: Most of the studios require scales to be played in octaves, but I prefer a different approach. The format of the scales, however, is left up to the individual studio professors. My students at the university are subject to a department-wide requirement to pass a scale exam, in which they must demonstrate mastery of major and minor scales.
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