POETRY IN MOTION CREATIVE SCALE PRACTICE
Scale work is an ongoing process from the relatively beginning stages of piano study through to conservatory level and beyond. The advanced pianist will have mastered all major and minor scales in single as well as double notes, plus an array of different types of arpeggios, in all inversions. The result will be an intimate kinesthetic knowledge of the keyboard (how a particular scale feels under the hand) and of all tonalities and key relationships, acquired and honed over the course of time. Whether we continue to practise scales depends on the individual; the great virtuoso, Shura Cherkassky apparently practised scales and arpeggios in every key every day!
Some years ago I was invited to give a class on scales and arpeggios for a piano teachers’ association. There was one student who was really struggling with them, so I decided to try something a little unusual. I asked her if she knew Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, and she
