When Good Instruments Turn Tedious

       A few years back, I was more interested in playing music competitively than for fun of it, and I thought I might audition for All State one year. All State is a youth orchestra that plays really challenging music, and getting in is even more challenging. At your audition, you play selected excerpts from the piece, as well as a set of scales, referred to as the “All State Scales”, and for about a year it seemed that these scales along with shifting exercises consumed my playing completely. At the time, all that tedious practice seemed worthless. I was never going to make it to All State anyways, which is true, because to this day I haven’t even tried. But the skills I developed from all that scale and shifting practice proved to be all but worthless.

       Scales weren’t so bad. They were easy to practice and weren’t all that time consuming, and I could play them relatively easily. What I really got out of them was improved shifting technique and intonation. Going up the scale note by note trained my ear to recognize intervals, and three octave scales forced me to shift up so high that my fingers were only inches away from the bridge. I played with a tuner regularly, and eventually I became so familiar with the correct pitch that I could sing it in my head and match it on my instrument. When I would shift, I developed muscle memory, and now I can find third position without even thinking about it.

       Although I didn’t mind shifting in scales, shifting practice alone was torture. I played exercises out of a book called “Whistler” and I still hate it to this day. Whistler exercises did not shift up in convenient increments like scales did. Instead, they made your fingers jump all over the neck of your instrument, forcing you to shift from fourth to first position in a sixteenth of a beat. I can honestly say, I did NOT benefit from these exercises, mostly because I refused to practice them. That’s on me though. If I weren’t so stubborn I’d probably be a much better player now, but, alas, I refused to conform.

       Tedious practice of basic skills can seem like a waste, but those basic skills are what will make you great. After all, you can't run a marathon until you learn to walk. You can't be a culinary chef until you learn how to make cereal. And you can't be a principle violinist if you don't do your scales, and the god awful shifting exercises.