practicing scales, keys, chords...?

[infraRed]

Hi. As I've mentioned in my previous posts, I've been teaching myself to play the flute (five or six months now, I think) from practice books, expert books I found at the library, and some online videos and articles. I have been learning alot, but I am wondering if there are any special practice techniques that "normal" flute students use to learns scales, keys, or chords, which I should be following, i.e., beyond simply learning what the key fingerings are and being able to play the notes.

Currently to practice the notes (aside from playing regular music pieces) I start at the C in the first octave and work my way up to G in the third octave, playing all the sharps (flats) along the way. I do some variations on this (play them in reverse , seconds and thirds, and such like). I've heard that there are "chromatic" scales and "diatonic" scales but I haven't had any education about them, so I'm not sure how they fit into actual practice technique.

[cflutist]

Go buy yourself the Taffanel and Gaubert 17 Daily Excercises for Flute book that has more
scales and arpeggios that you will ever want to know about.

Here are suggestions from Patricia George on how to use that book:
http://www.larrykrantz.com/taffanel.htm

[Phineas]

I've heard that there are "chromatic" scales and "diatonic" scales but I haven't had any education about them, so I'm not sure how they fit into actual practice technique.

A Chromatic scale is a 12 note scale with all half steps. Basically, you are play every note from C to C (C, C#/Dd, D, D#/Eb, Etc....)
A Diatonic scale is basically any scale that is not chromatic.

There are multitudes of books, videos, discussions, etc.. on this subject. I know some good players that practice scales. I know some good players that never practice scales. When you play melodies, the notes you play are elements of scales/chords, but are not scales as a whole. However, there are lots of patterns that are repeatable.

I am on the fence on this subject. I think scales are a good foundation for playing and understanding theory. In the beginning, scales are a good way to learn fingerings. I also think practicing scales are a good form of warmup. However, depending on your playing goals, I do not think they are absolutely necessary. You will do better learning, memorizing and listening to songs/tunes/pieces. Listening and memorization are the best ways to learn recognizable patterns that will repeat themselves in different pieces. You will see that after the first 10-20 pieces you learn, patterns will start repeating themselves.

I am sure others will chime in with their suggestion for study materials. There is a lot of material on the internet.

[gravelgertie]

Phineas, as always, your comments are most helpful. I sometimes like scales as a warmup, or I use Moyse warmups, but I hate the idea of having to memorize every scale, and if I tried to practice them all every day I'd never get to play anything else!