scales - why bother?

This post is inspired by a new student of mine. He's facing a dilemma that many people face in practicing. The bottom line is that he's not sure why he's practicing scales. What's the REAL benefit? To summarize an email from him, every teacher he's studied with has scale practice as part of the curriculum for learning to improvise, but he doesn't feel like he's getting better at it.


I can be a bit of a wise-ass teacher. I like to ask questions instead of giving answers whenever I can get away with it. I find that people learn more when they find their own answers. I'm mostly here to guide them in that search and point out some new places to look. Here's what I asked him:


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How often do you find yourself playing over non-diatonic changes, including things like secondary dominants?

How many different ways have you practiced a given scale? (C major in V position for example.)

How comfortable are you with key changes?

How often do key changes come up in the tunes you play?

What would say the components of a melodic idea really are?

What makes a solo a good one and what makes a solo suck?

What do you think theory is useful for?

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What are your answers to these questions? Feel free to comment away. I'll provide my own thoughts and my reflections on any comments in future posts.

Brant Grieshaber - guitarist
Guitar Teacher