When you do 30 days of Segovia Scale practice results may vary. But you WILL feel the difference in your playing if you’ve been diligent in your practice.
I recently did that and found some surprising effects that I had not expected.
Segovia Scale Charts & Notation
See the video below on my 30th day. Perhaps it doesn’t look too impressive to you, because it’s just me playing through a bunch of scales!
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But you may notice that as I go through the scales, my playing frees up and I’m able to play with greater control.
Keep reading below and I’ll tell you what I noticed. You might find some good reasons to try practicing Segovia Scales too!
Reasons to Play Segovia Scales
Whenever you play actual music (not scales), you usually focus on playing well and expressively as you can. But when you play scales, the focus is shifted away from the music so that you can develop your technique, accuracy, as well as expressions.
5-Line Music Staff Manuscript Notebook with Contents Pages – Standard 8-1/2″ x 11″ music notation book with numbered pages and blank Contents pages. Each page has 10 staff systems.
If you are not sure how you should be practicing scales and what you should be focused on, get tips on making goals for your scale practice on this page. That page also has a video about that topic.
Surprising Benefits of Scale Practice
When I set out to play the Segovia Scales for 30 days I made some determinations of what aspects of my technique to develop. I did accomplish those to a certain extent, but I also found other benefits in the process.
One benefit that I hadn’t considered, was that I could watch myself playing in the videos I was making. Making videos of yourself playing gives you the opportunity to observer your own technique and sound. That can reveal things that you may not have not noticed while playing.
Another surprise was that I actually got better at one of the goals I made and it became more natural to me. That was playing the high notes on the guitar neck.
Why is playing the high notes such a big deal? Most of our time, we tend to play close to the nut where there are big wide spaces between frets. That gives a nice wide tolerance zone to place our fingers.
But, the farther along the fretboard you go toward the bridge, the smaller those spaces become. That means that you need to be much more precise with your playing.
For me, the daily practice of those scales has improved the accuracy of my playing. Most music doesn’t take us to those higher frets, so the Segovia Scales provide that opportunity.
My past scale practices have typically been 2-octave scales. Many of the Segovia scales are 3 octaves and include shifts in hand position that we also may not often encounter in our playing.
Why not make Segovia Scales a part of your routine?