Why Do Music Students Hate Scales So Much?
- Music Room
- Jul 16
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 11
This is not a cut-and-dry question and answer, but a deep psychological dive.
I’ll fully admit to something embarrassing. I had to learn my major scales on piano four times. I learned them once around fourth or fifth grade, again for a competition in eighth grade, again for college auditions, and then AGAIN in college, because our piano studio’s professor wanted to make sure we all were doing them correctly. I learned the most information the final time, and let’s not forget I had already been teaching for about three years by this point!
Why was it like that? There were so many reasons. I was first taught to memorize from notated scale sheets, which, for me, was already a huge hardship. I wasn’t taught how anything related to one another, so I couldn’t rely on any patterns. And third, I wasn’t given a very solid way to remember fingerings, so I was playing the game of hiding hiccups from bad fingering choices.
After re-learning them in college, I was given some really good fingering strategies that I still use to this day for my students. Also, once I had the circle of fifths memorized, I taught myself the patterns, which made me very able to instantly learn scales on all of the other new instruments I was learning in music school. “Hey, I just learned how to play the flute! B scale? No problem!”
Gone were the days of lack of knowledge of scales limiting me. Now my students will never have to go down these paths, because no matter how young I try to teach them, they understand how the patterns all work, which gives them beginner theory knowledge at a very young age.
A Different Experience for the Next Generation
Whenever I pick up a student that has some previous experience, or if I mention to a parent that we are learning scales, and that parent has played an instrument before, the reaction is always the same. “Uuuggghhhh… scales...” If it’s a parent, I love it when a child shoots them a confused look afterward, “Like, why? What’s the matter with them?” It makes me giggle inside.
You see, to my students that never had previous experience, or to the students that re-learned them the fun way, scales are dessert. They’re easy, a great mental break, and those that finish learning most or all of the one-octave major scales, they are the gateway to literally decoding how music, chords and harmony all work. Students then have a bigger curiosity in how chords are formed and named, in creating music and seeking out answers as to why things are written in certain ways. They understand that there’s patterns and reasons for everything, and they are, sometimes even at age ten or so, already curious to figure it all out. Because scales are attainable and interesting, so is the world of music theory.
So Why Do Some Musicians Hate Scales So Much?
I just noted that scales are like dessert and my reasons for the analogy. But most of the time, scales are treated like vegetables. They’re good for you, but boring, bitter, tedious and not as fun as repertoire. Who is causing this opinion? The teacher. Even young children can read instructional tone instantly. If the teacher isn't excited about teaching scales, and only teaching them because they have to, or it's for the students’ own good, then that is exactly how the students are going to view them. They will be a chore, an afterthought, forgotten about and tedious because they have to keep being relearned.
It doesn't have to be that way. Even if it is fake, teachers can get students excited about scales. Or they don't have to be fake about it. I mean, who wouldn't get excited about their music students unlocking the musical secrets of the world? I am. Every single time.
So What About the Instruction?
That doesn't have to be dry. I gamify every step of the way, from the introduction to the expansion into more advanced scales. I guess I just happen to like cheesy garlic and butter sauce with my vegetables. It makes them taste like dessert.
See the analogy now? By decorating up your tedious chores to become games, and framing your students’ opinions to look forward to it! It’s up to you to make their learning of scales a positive experience.
What’s Wrong With How Scales are Taught Today to Music Students?
It almost makes me mad when my students come to lessons with a scale sheet that has notation on it and they are told to memorize them. It makes me even more livid when their scale sheet doesn’t even have notation on it, but it has the scales spelled out by letters. What is that even teaching them? To regurgitate a pattern for a few weeks before forgetting it again? When students are told to memorize a pattern, no connections are made between how the scales and keys are related and no information is internalized. These teachers are doing students a huge injustice.
So How Can Music Teachers Do Better?
Music teachers can start by staying positive about the whole experience. Make it seem like learning the major scales is the path to the Holy Grail, or like finishing an escape room. It’s a quest that unlocks the divine power of music. Anything that makes it sound valuable… because it is.
Also, don’t make the process sound impossible. Anyone can do this. Just keep the instruction to a system, and introduce a little at a time, celebrating their small victories. Practicing scales should not be approached as a chore either.
Gamify the entire progress of teaching scales to your music students.
Celebrate the achievement of the goal somehow.
Uplevel U: Music has released a scale resource that aligns with this method exactly. For a limited time upon release, it is free! You can find it at: Helping Students to Love and Appreciate Scales. Check it out today and enjoy a totally new mindset for music scale pedagogy for you and your students!
This article was written by Music Room/Uplevel U: Music's owner and creator, Karen (Kay) Janiszewski.
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