Scales are a musician’s vocabulary. Scales allow instrumentalists to connect with their instruments, just like learning to read connects the child to the world around them. The method I will be discussing for mastering scales is simple and effective, but is by no means innovative. It is just a different approach to the end result I hope to achieve for students to gain a comprehensive, deep knowledge of scales, key signatures, and fluency on their instruments.

A struggle I often face as a music educator is finding time in class to work on scale mastery. I would wrestle with the questions: Should I make them play scales faster? In thirds? As arpeggios? Technical aspects always seemed to get in the way, especially for the clarinets, or we would hit range issues for brass.

No matter what I had the students do to learn scales, we were faced with obstacles. I could see the proverbial gaps appearing, and the trajectory wasn’t leading to the desired outcomes, so I would quickly abandon the effort. The other issue was getting students to buy into memorizing their scales and getting their technique to a place where they no longer had to think about the finger patterns and could focus on tone.

This is when I decided to try something different. Instead of learning all 12 keys right away, I had students in 6th grade (2nd-year players) work on one scale, mastering it in-depth using modes.

Figure 1: This is a written-out example of what we took 6th Grade Clarinets through by rote. Note that we went down an octave for some of the scales. This was intentional to show that the octave they play in doesn’t impact the tonality of the scale. 

I had the students play their major scale slowly, covering the basics such as appropriate fingerings, key signatures, etc. We then started on the second mode, then the third mode, and so on. This opened their ears and improved their technical facility. The students quickly played seven modes across five key areas (Concerts C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab). They took off—that is 35 different scales!

Through this process, the students took ownership of mastering their scales right then and there, and all they needed to know were the rules:

1. The key signature stays constant.
2. Octaves do not matter; adjust for your instrument and range (use your fingering chart).
3. Go!

This work subsequently led to my favorite part as a music educator—TONS of content-specific questions! In my mind, student inquiry indicates that a student has truly learned and connected with the content. I was bombarded with questions about enharmonics, transposition (especially for Eb Alto Saxophones), names of modes, major, minor, diminished, and even augmented. (As a side note, showing them the “ever popular” Tritone and its use in popular music like “Maria” from West Side Story and The Simpsons Theme Song was a blast to see so many lightbulbs!)

While playing, their listening and adjusting to tonalities improved, as did their endurance. Here are other benefits of teaching modes alongside major scales based on my experience:

• Students deepen their connection with their instrument notes and ranges.
• Students learn to hold a key signature as a constant while the tonality shifts around it.
• Helps with memorizing and solidifying the note names that make up scales and the repetitive patterns of notes.
• Trains students’ ears to hear different cadences.
• Rehearses harmonic patterns that come up regularly in the repertoire.
• Keeps the practice of learning scales fresh and new without getting into intervals.
• Students learn their minor scales.
• Students learn to make decisions about which octave to play in, which can also promote working to extend one’s range (ie, altissimo)

I hope some of you will find this helpful if you are looking for a slightly different approach to working through scales with your students (any age). I would love to hear if there are other positive takeaways that help your students!

Want to try this with your students? It’s easy to use Compose in MakeMusic Cloud to create your own custom scale document. With the new Annotations feature, you can offer even more instruction to your students as they begin an independent learning journey! The Compose files that you create in MakeMusic Cloud can be shared or assigned for a seamless experience.

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