Learning a variety of scales is essential for all successful instrumentalists. These are the building blocks of our music-making. It is never too early to start learning scales. In fact, it’s the perfect place to start! Why??

• Almost all music is created with a limited collection of pitches. When these are arranged in order you get a scale!
• Practicing scales builds the motor coordination needed to reliably produce pitches in musical time.
• Scales help our ears connect with the different roles that each pitch plays within the context of a key.
• Scales can be used to strategically extend range both higher and lower.
• Even young students are able to play in many more keys than most teachers realize. This builds confidence and prepares them to approach keys with more sharps or flats without fear.
• Once a student knows a scale, it can be used to develop any number of techniques when strategically varied, such as with articulation and dynamics.

In my teaching of beginning students, I start out with a five note scale from C to G. Once that is achieved, I add one note to the top, progressing slowly so as to develop a good sound and to discourage tension. It may take several weeks or months to play up to a full octave. That’s okay. I then use the Beginning Scale Sheet below to move students through several keys, developing both range and familiarity with different fingering combinations. 

A few other suggestions:

• A steady tempo, no matter how slow, is essential for learning scales. Playing them out of time indicates poor motor control and renders them useless when applied to real music.
• Pay attention to breathing. Encouraging students to play in one breath will promote reliable control of both the fingers and the air. This inevitably results in better sound production. At first, strive for just going up or just going down in one breath. Then, aim for up and down in one breath. Surprisingly simple goals like this provide excellent motivation for young students
• Practice scales, first slurred and then tongued. Slurring eliminates the challenge of coordinating the tongue along with everything else. But articulation should be added soon so as to develop an immediate release of the air and coordination between tongue and fingers.
• I use scales along with lip slurs to develop range in different ways. They also present two interrelated ways to approach the trumpet – one based on moving within a partial using valves and the other moving across partials with only the air and lips.

Unfortunately, many beginning band methods introduce only a narrow selection of keys and scales in the prioritization of other things. However, I find it incredibly empowering for students to learn multiple scales. It primes them for what is up next. If you really want to open up the doors for more repertoire, greater technique, and a true freedom of expression, scales are essential!