Cutting down the amount of information

When first practicing scales i find students always have problems with the amount of information they can take in. I have learnt from other teachers to lessen the amount of information by splitting scales into bitesize chunks.

The simplest way to do this is to chop a scale in half.

If we are in C major we practice:

C-D-E-F

When we are comfortable playing up and down with this shape we then play:

G-A-B-C

Soon the student will gain confidence because these tasks are much easier. The brain reacts really well to a small amount of information, especially with pupils of a young age. I then ask the pupil to put the two halves of the scale together. I find this process much quicker and effective than practising the scale as a whole.

When practicing these halves of the scale i will ask the pupil to play with a certain notated rhythm. This way they will learn rhythmic shapes and the scale at the same time.