Shostakovitch composed his second piano concerto in 1954, for his son to play at his audition for a place at the Moscow conservatoire. Earlier this week, PJ told me that Maxim would not practice his scales and that those rushing scale passages in the finale were a substitute. ;D
Irrelevant, but a nice story.
It really is pathetic; I've even set up a rota of what to practise:
Far from pathetic. What you have discovered is the effect of
more, better-disciplined practice.
Any working musician will confirm that an increase in the amount of practice time brings immediate, dramatic benefits. Take a "hobbyist" player doing 30 minutes a day. An increase to, say, 45 minutes a day does not sound much, but it is 50% of the original - one heck of a lot. You would derive as much benefit from the extra practice you are doing from playing almost anything.
Dedicated scale practice is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Once you can whizz up and down a couple of octaves of Bb melodic minor in contrary motion double thirds, you can do it; there is no further benefit derived from doing it, in terms of improving technique.
You are also enjoying the "happy hormone" effect that comes from any form of exercise - the release of these hormones into your blood stream makes us feel good. I get the same effect playing Mozart sonatas. ;D
When your enthusiasm for scales diminishes (and it will, I promise), consider substituting this little lot instead:
Bach: start learning the 48 (if you are not that advanced, then the 2 and 3 part inventions). As you learn new ones, play the one you are learning and revise an old one.
Haydn: there are umpteen sonatas of varying standards of difficulty. Work on quick movements.
Mozart: quick movements start at around grade 6.
Beethoven: harder (although there are a small handful of grade 6\7 movements), so these would represent a step up in technical development.
From the Bach you would derive the discipline of precise fingerwork.
Much more importantly, your horizons would be opened by the counterpoint. You would never approach a piano piece in the same way again - you would always be on the lookout for contrapuntal opportunities. Anybody who heard Andrew Brownells (guessing at the spelling) performance of Prok 3 at Leeds heard magnificent examples of this.
From the Haydn and Mozart you would derive dexterity and flexibility. You would also be playing divine music.
Your goal would be to tackle the ultimate in piano studies - the Chopin etudes. Play
them and you really do start do acquire a technique that will do anything.
Many teachers would include Scarlatti sonatas in a list of technical development work. The only reason I do not do so is that I do not play them myself.
Hmmmmm. Gone on a bit again. Sorry about that. ;D
