A Practical Plan Of Instruction On Guitar Scale Practice

I just cannot help myself from posting these great articles from the past! I just wish the guitar was more accepted at the time in the fine art concert and the amateur world at the time. This article focuses on scale practice on the piano but there is much that can be applied to all instruments, including guitar scale practice. I will add my input (in italics and bold) throughout to bring the material back to the guitar. I have also added some headers for clarity. This particular article (from The Musician: Vol. 21, No. 7) on scale practice is by George Henry Howard. I am still trying to locate information concerning this contributor.

Table of Contents

A Practical Plan Of Instruction In Scale Practice

In these days of rush and hurry the teacher of music, and especially the piano teacher, is very apt to push forward his work too rapidly. Rapid progress seems, too often, a thing to be highly commended, and the pupil who thus distinguishes herself is, in many instances, highly praised, petted, and perhaps even spoiled with vanity.

But, too frequently, such a hasty advance results in a superficial and wholly inadequate technic. In no one item of pianist training are such poor results to be more carefully guarded against by the earnest teacher than in instruction in scale playing. With this aim in view, we wish to present herewith a carefully detailed plan of procedure.

The “rush and hurry” is in every lesson. Living in a “microwave” society, the push is to not stay with something long enough to master it. In doing so, guitar students miss the joy of complete fluidity in whatever they are working towards.

Training Preparatory To The Scale

In any good plan for thorough training of the mind and fingers, the following items will be found essential at the beginning:

Table exercises for shaping hands and fingers and training them in the right conditions and motions. This is doing exercises on a table away from the piano. There are many such exercises available to guitarists as well.
Keyboard practice of location. This is akin to our sitting position with the guitar.
Single-finger exercises in six or more tonalities. This would be single-note playing of scales.
Two-finger exercises in the same number of tonalities; also three, four, and five-finger exercises. This might include playing scales in thirds, sixths, triads, and other finger gymnastics.
Little pieces in the compass of five notes, such as are found at the beginning in any piano method or in The Very Easiest Studies, Op. 190, by Kohler. Easy pieces for guitar.
Melodic analysis, that is, interval naming in these little pieces, for each hand alone.
Harmonic analysis, that is, interval naming for observing the intervals made by the hands together, so as to learn whether the two hands make an octave sixth, tenth, or other combination.
Exercises on the table and keys for the motions of (a), passing the thumb under the fingers, and (b) carrying the hand and arm over the loosely yielding thumb. The focus here is on the technical demands of playing the scales (i.e. the choreography).

These preliminaries will occupy, at least, five or six weeks, often more. Abilities vary so much that sometimes from eight to fourteen weeks will be well spent in this work.

Scale Study And Scale Practice

The following items are all indispensable for thorough instruction in scale playing: Instruction in the plan of fingering.

In this plan of fingering observe that the right hand, in going up (toward the right), and the left hand, in going down (toward the left) will have exactly the same finger successions. They are these: 1 2 3, 1 2 3 4. As we have only seven different letters in a scale we can always observe our fingering as consisting of a series of three fingers followed by four fingers. More simply, the plan of fingering is “threes and fours,”—three keys with the first three fingers, then four keys with the first four fingers. The little finger is only to be used for the very last key in going up with the R. H. or in going down with L. H.

Most piano teachers divide up the left and right hands in practice. This is very difficult to do on the guitar for an extended period of practice. The right and left hands are dependent on each other for the sound created. However, there are many exercises and times within pieces that require playing hands separately for various technical problem-solving. One such problem with scales is the string crossing of the right hand.

Separate Hand Scale Practice

Scales should never be taught both ascending and descending with the same hand at the same lesson. The right hand should practice ascending scales only, for three or four weeks until the motions have become well-controlled and the fingering very familiar. Likewise, the left hand should practice descending scales only until the motions are perfect and the fingering sure. These motions are passing the thumb under and carrying the hand and arm onward.

There may be some value in learning scales that change, like the melodic minor scale, on ascending and descending in two separate phases. This could also apply to major scales that change fingerings ascending and descending.

Return to Rudiments

(Good qualities of finger motion are not alluded to here; they should have been established in the exercises of the weeks preceding. Yet it may, of course, be necessary to remind the pupil of these requirements in scale work. If, however, the single-finger and two-finger exercises have been well done from the beginning the influence of the good habits thus formed will remain throughout the present tasks. The pupil and teacher can, therefore, give most of the attention to the passing under of the thumb and the carrying onward of the hand and arm.)

In too many instances, I have neglected the mundane teaching of preliminary exercises. This is, in part, due to the type of student that most teaching studios like mine encounter. I am constantly juggling the work I know from serious study with students that are learning just for enjoyment. How far can I push them and how much time do they have to devote to the preliminary work versus learning songs? The latter is what gives them a sense of accomplishment. One day I may be able to write more clearly on how to juggle this. For now, understand that rudimentary training is essential for long-term growth.

Quality of Work Over Quantity

In all learning, a little which is well done is worth ten times as much as that which is imperfectly done. The writer, in his experience as a teacher, is accustomed to make it absolutely sure that the scale of C is perfectly played before another scale is taken. Therefore he often allows from one to two weeks for this scale exclusively. But the short one-octave scale is to be played only a few times,—just enough to ensure the realization of the principles of motion (thumb-passing and hand-and-arm carrying in addition to the now-familiar good finger motions). This practice is in whole notes, that is, with four counts for each tone. The one-octave scale is extended in the very first lesson in scale playing, to a two-octave and perhaps a four-octave scale.

Here again, it is difficult to force the casual student to stay with a scale until it is perfectly played before moving on. I wish I could always enforce this without losing students, but I know it isn’t the case. But, the advice is solid.

Slow Work and Timetable

If this very slow practice in whole notes is continued through five or six weeks the following very desirable results can be secured;

The habit of prompt thumb passing;
The habit of elastic hand shifting at the exact instant (after the thumb stroke under the hand).
The habit of elastic and delicate poise of the arm in carrying it from one region to another.
The habit of true legato tone successions combined with these motions just mentioned. (Clearness and beauty of tone are ensured in the simpler exercises before scale work is begun.)
The first five major scales, C, G, D, A, and E, can be learned thoroughly in the use of a completely artistic touch.

I will not delve into the technical issues a guitarist would face with the above points.

The time allowance is as follows:

The first and second weeks for the scale of C.
The third week for scales of G and D.
The fourth week for scales of A and E.
The fifth week for the review of the scales of C, G, and D, this time using half notes (two counts for each tone) and ensuring greater elasticity in the thumb passing and hand shifting, with a specific drill on hand shifting. The whole keyboard should now be used.
The sixth week for the reviews of the other scales, A and E, in half notes as well as whole notes.

This timetable might be effective for the guitar as well.

Each Student is Different

Of course, students vary much inaptness. Some pupils will do thorough work in less time than this; others need double the time. Others need four times as much time.

The earnest teacher will need to devise many expedients to make the work interesting, so that however long extended it may be the needful zeal may not be lacking.

Scales are difficult to “devise many expedients” for those just learning them. There are a few, like rhythm variations, that come to mind. However, keeping it interesting is difficult for early students. If you want more in-depth work on scales, then check out Speeding Up Your Classical Guitar Scales online course.

All the scale practice thus far has been with each hand alone. This ensures ease, elasticity, finger independence, and many other needful qualities.

From The Musician: Vol. 21, No. 7 (July 1916)

Wrap Up.

I hope you’ve enjoyed “A Practical Plan Of Instruction On Guitar Scale Practice.” It is amazing that such wisdom has been with us since 1916 but we fail to follow it at times. No matter where you are in your playing of scales, the effort on them will always pay dividends in the future.

Check out some of our other articles on scales:

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Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.