Lynne,

Before you begin to practice, ask yourself practice what and why?

Many people spend meaningless hours practicing the wrong things.

The only reason to know scales is that they are the ABCs of music theory. Or they may help to attain virtuosity if you want to be a virtuoso like Charlie Parker. For someone who just wants to play and sing songs, they might be useless. I know so many good singers and pickers who don't know scales and it doesn't hurt their singing and playing one bit.

The "authoritarian" approach to music which has been touted by certain types of rigid personalities who favor a so-called "classical" approach to learning music doesn't free you up enough. It's counter-productive to the creative process.

OTOH, knowing scales is about knowing what they mean. In and of themselves, they mean nothing. But if you look at them as a stepping-stone to knowledge about the written "ideas" of music, then they might make some sense. Their knowledge can help you sight-sing music or sight-read but their value is only if you can use this information to internalize your music. A good exercise would be for musicianship to sing through the scales of #'s and b's both major and minor. It would open up your ears. Then you could learn how to transpose melodies and chords of songs quickly. If you were a vocalist, you could find the proper key for our song.

When you perform, however, it's advisable to throw away everything you "know" about music and just express yourself. As soon as you start concentrating on the mechanics of music, you are not focussed on the performance which is about conveying the feeling and meaning of the material.


Practicing and performing are different activities.

Frank Hamilton