I was taught to start my music practice by playing my scales. Starting with your scales:
- Grounds you in the practice. The basic relationship between you and the instrument and the sound you can make
- Reinforces and enhances the automatic movements that become how you play.
- Takes you through the full range of motions of play.
- Removes the barrier to knowing where to start because where to start is always the same. You pick up your instrument, you play a scale and you have begun.
Starting with your scales doesn’t just apply to instruments. It applies to any work where you develop a practice, be that a practice of design, facilitation or performance.
In the technique I call Professional Palette in our training on how to have ideas , I encourage participants to warm up to a design exercise by quickly drawing through all the common typologies for the project they are working on.
It applies whether you are designing a bridge span, an investigation, a workshop or a dance performance.
Make it your default to start with your scales: go through the range of motions, get all the pens out and put them on the table, familiarise yourself with the full breadth of your tools, and then begin.
(This post originally appeared on eiffelover.com in September 2024).