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Todd
French 
Moderator
Posts: 236
(8/14/01 10:52:37 pm)
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Poll - amateurs
and pros alike - regarding scales
So, how many of you still practice scales? I, of all people, really
should practice them as I would benefit highly and never spent much
time with them, but of course, it's no fun so I plow through maybe
one scale a day perhaps 3-4 times until it's pretty much in tune,
then move on to the repetoire.
Any other confessions??
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Bobbie
Registered User
Posts: 584
(8/14/01 10:54:25 pm)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I practice them but it isn't exactly voluntary since I am taking
lessons. Only one or at most two at a time, four octaves from the C
string and 3 from the G string.
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ekifri
Registered User
Posts: 217
(8/14/01 10:58:13 pm)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Sure, I practise them, (all 5 octaves) but only when I'm feeling
totally unco-ordinated or un- musical or perhaps
anti-musical.
Usually around 5 am when my eyes are still closing,
and my hands shaking before finishing the first cup of
coffee.
-eva
Edited by: ekifri
at: 8/16/01 12:23:23 am
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CelloTron
Registered User
Posts: 6
(8/15/01 12:36:30 am)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Well, I guess you might say that I practice scales. Every time I
practice, I warm up by playing the Squire Tarantella several times,
followed by a cadenza from [some piece that I've forgotten by
Popper] that's chock full of double stops and arpeggios, and finish
up with one of those horrid multi-octave runs from the Elgar. It's
more fun than plain, boring, vanilla scales, and it's useful, too.
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ashley
Registered User
Posts: 44
(8/15/01 1:48:57 am)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Hmm, this could be a dangerous post. Let's not get started on how
many octaves again...... (although I'm still stickin' to my 4-octave
arpeggios!!! oops, I wasn't going to say that  )
Yes, I
practice scales. Sometimes four a day. But I find if I try to
practice too many, the quality goes downhill. And I figure that it's
more important to play scales well than to play as many as
possible.
Anyways, that's what I do. And I practice arpeggios
(sometimes... )
By the
way, my biggest problem (yeah, it's a BIG problem! no joke) is
playing scales really really fast. ...Oh no, correction: playing
scales fast and IN TUNE! There we go. That's the problem. What can I
do???
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drcello
Registered User
Posts: 572
(8/15/01 2:25:14 am)
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| Edit
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Scales and real
music
Just play Bach's third cello suite to start the morning. It is
scales, and as Casals said, it sanctifies the day.
Marshall C. St. John
drcello@vei.net
Wayside Presbyterian Church
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Laura
Wichers
Moderator
Posts: 1095
(8/15/01 3:34:18 am)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I'm supposed to practice scales/arpeggios/3rds & 6ths for at
least an hour a day, but that rarely happens. At Encore I managed at
least that every day, but the rest of the year I aim for 30-45min,
all different bowings/tempi/etc. Usually focus on just one key per
day, sometimes two if I have time.
I hereby declare playing
open strings as THE BEST relaxation/warm-up technique for string
players. My teachers always told me to practice open strings and I
never did until a few months ago when I started getting irritated
about my sound. Now I always start with 20min of open strings,
setting the metronome to 48 and playing 8 beats per bow, then 6, 4,
3, 2, and 1, on each string. I find this helps me improve not only
my overall tone but provides time to sit back and analyze the
physical motions of bowing. The right arm is already in place when I
start on the next warm-up category, scales, so I can focus almost
entirely on the left hand. If I become tense when practicing
pieces/etudes, I stop and spend 5min doing open bows. It's almost
meditative.
Laura
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CelloTron
Registered User
Posts: 7
(8/15/01 3:53:15 am)
Reply
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Warm-up
pieces
Does anyone else have a particular piece or pieces that they use to
warm up? Any recommendations?
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harriclay
Registered User
Posts: 18
(8/15/01 8:37:58 am)
Reply
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Re: Warm-up
pieces
I used to use Popper #6, a variety of bowings (separate, slurred,
mixed) at tip, middle, and frog, forte (as recommended by David
Soyer).
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MaryK
Registered
User
Posts: 677
(8/15/01 11:42:02
am)
Reply
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I always dig into scales if I haven't been practicing/playing
regularly, which seems to be most of the time these
days...
MaryK
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Betsy
C 
Registered
User
Posts: 392
(8/15/01 12:21:05
pm)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I kind of like scales; I find that they help me with intonation
quite a lot. I play around with different things, see how fast I can
go and how good it can sound. I am still a beginning cellist, so I
try to keep in mind always that things that can seem mundane at
times are for my own good ultimately.
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sarah
schenkman
Registered
User
Posts: 450
(8/15/01 12:48:39
pm)
Reply
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Time permitting, I do a regular warm-up with scales and exercises -
something like Feuilliard or Klengel technical studies - and then
some long tones.
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David
Sanders 
Registered
User
Posts: 651
(8/15/01 9:29:38
pm)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Nelsova always said to do open strings, fortissimo. If you can do
that without cracking the sound, you're in great shape!
David
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 Steve
Drake
Registered
User
Posts: 429
(8/15/01 10:01:02
pm)
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Community Supporter
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I'm so out of shape that I can only play a subset of scales -
notes. I played a really nifty E today. Sometimes I can do F's. When
I really get back in shape, I'll do D's. Don't ask me what octave
I'm playing them in - it's way up in the squeaky range.
Ignore the above stuff - it was a joke.
Ok, now I'm
in major restructuring mode - after a summer of relative sloth.
Trying to get the muscles and callouses up to speed in advance of
the onslought. I've found myself doing tons of scales - 4 octave
from the C string, 3 octave from A flat up. Arpeggios all over the
place. Many different bowing patterns depending on the speed.
Probably 20-30 minutes of this stuff a day. And I do lots of really
fast scales - these are the things you need to be able to do lots of
in the real world.
My MP3's
My Cello
Homepage Edited by: Steve
Drake at: 8/20/01 3:22:59 pm
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Ellen
G 
Registered
User
Posts: 851
(8/15/01 10:12:46
pm)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Heh heh. Having infiltrated the PPE board, I know what you're
talking about.
As for scales, I plead the Fifth.
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zambocello
Registered User
Posts: 733
(8/15/01 11:45:20 pm)
Reply
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
For the sake of warming up and being discreet, I practice scales
for 5-15 minutes at work. Just wait 'til I get tenure; I'm sure my
colleagues will be glad to hear me warming up on Dvorak Concerto and
Hindemith Solo Sonata! 
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Laura
Wichers
Moderator
Posts: 1096
(8/16/01 11:10:07 am)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
That darn C string doesn't like to cooperate. My goal one of these
days is to play a solid up and down bow, metronome at 60 and one
click per bow, without cracking the C string.
Laura
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Laura
Wichers
Moderator
Posts: 1097
(8/16/01 11:14:15 am)
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Aaargh! I hate it when people warm up on difficult pieces for the
sole reason, or at least I can't think of another reason, of showing
off. One community orchestra I used to play in had a lot of UofMich
cellists in the section and this one kid would always warm up using
the fast parts in Dvorak. He would play one ~5measure section after
another, faster than necessary, louder than necessary, moving more
than necessary... Man, that's so irritating.
Laura
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Todd
French
Moderator
Posts: 241
(8/16/01 11:18:54 am)
Reply
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
Laura,
I, too, am annoyed by that type of 'warming up',
although it is much more accurately termed 'showing off'. It happens
all the time at audition and competition warmup times, even though
the concerto exerpt being played is not necessarily the one played
for the audition or competition. Even worse are those cellists who
warmup at orchestra rehearsal playing exerpts from violin concertos!
I really hated that - glad I don't hear that anymore.
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dennisw
Registered User
Posts: 239
(8/16/01 4:23:24 pm)
Reply
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I take a new scale every day and go through a 24-day cycle before
repeating. I always play them with the metronome on. Every 24
practice days the metronome is pushed up one notch. I will continue
doing that until it reaches 152. The speed is always just slightly
beyond my ability to play the scale well up & down at 4 notes to
the beat.
Every scale (3-octaves only) is played over and
over again at 2 beats per note, 1 beat per note then dotted
eighth-sixteenth rhythms and reverse dotted-eighth-sixteenth
rhythms, then eights+2sixteenths, then reversed, then triplets, then
sixteenths. I use slurred, detache, spiccato, up-bow staccato, and a
variety of mixtures of rhythms and bowings.
Each and every
exercise is always done with multiple reps. Each iteration improves
over the last until it is as good as it is going to get. Then I quit
and go on to the next one.
After that I move on to arpeggios
(4 octave up to A) and follow a similar pattern. Added on are 1st
and second inversions + plus stretches to 10ths in the top octave. I
use a different fingering on the way up than on the way down, just
for the fun of it.
Next comes broken 3rds (Klengel) with my
own rhythmic and bowing variations, then 3rds, 6ths, & octaves
(Grutzmacher) with variations, and double + triple stop scales ala
Yampolsky (@4 beats per note) and finally thumb-position exercises
(@4notes per beat) with lots of string crossings. I usually mix in
technical passages from solo pieces that augment or expand upon the
daily exercise routine.
All this takes at least 90 minutes
and is followed by an etude in the same key as the scale. Then comes
the solo work.
I do this every day I practice. No exceptions.
Over time, it works wonders for strength, flexibiliity,
coordination, and consistency.
Edited by: dennisw
at: 8/16/01 4:33:08 pm
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Corrina
Connor
Moderator
Posts: 738
(8/17/01 6:20:55 am)
Reply
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Re: Poll -
amateurs and pros alike - regarding scales
I find that starting practice with scales is a disaster for me,
because it takes awhile to 'tune into' the cello, especially if I've
just been playing violin. However, this year, or rather this
semester, since July, I have been really dutiful. I start with a
Dotzauer Etude, No. 32, from the Shroeder Book I think - it starts
with descending 4 notes on the D-string. I do lots of different
bowing patterns, and speeds, and it helps warm up both arms. Then I
play Popper I and II
Then I start scales - at the moment I'm
starting on E, on the C string and playing 4 octaves. I play all the
scales with E in them, starting on E, i.e. E maj, F maj, G maj, A
maj etc.
I try different bowing patterns for these as well,
with a beat of 72 per note.
Then various appeggio patterns.
Then I'm ready to start practice.
It takes about 45 minutes
altogether.
Whatever certain people in this forum say, I
think that 4 octave scales are vital, for working out 'muscle
memory' all over the cello in the upper register. Equally as
valuable as appeggios.
Recently, my new violin teacher has
introduced a new scale system for me. It used to be that I had 1 hr
scales/appegg. per day, but now I am only permitted to spend 10
minutes per day on scales etc.
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