Technique Challenge Winner!

Scales. Most of my students avoid them. And their triads. And arpeggios…

I personally loved playing scales as a child. They were predictable and followed a set pattern. And I was good at them! Not at first obviously, but after a while I was really good. Scales also sound impressive when you can play them fast.

I do understand why my students don’t like them though. Technique doesn’t really have much melody to it and it is always the same. As humans we crave variety and fun.

I read an interesting article by Dr. Noa Kageyama about how he wishes he’d spent more time practicing his scales. You can read his full article here. He calls scales the ‘building blocks of our technique’. Not only are they important elements of much of the repertoire that we play, they are also an excellent way to practice other concepts like dynamics and articulation.

In an effort to get my students playing their scales I started a Technique Challenge for the month prior to Christmas break. If all of the assigned technique was up to a certain standard then the student got to enter a ballot into the draw for an iTunes gift card! All of my students from conservatory grade 1 and up participated and I’m proud to say there was a ton of entries 🙂

When the contest closed on December 20th I drew the winning ticket and the winner is… Kate V.!

Congratulations to all of my students on a lot of hard work. Keep it up!