Fwd: Re: [Harp-L] scales - thanks

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Pierre <slavio@xxxx> wrote:

<snip>

My question regarding when to stop was unclear; what I really want to 
know is when can you say you know a scale?

Do you know it when on any given note you can move to any other scale 
or arpeggio or interval from that note? I guess that means awareness. 
Is that what the exercises should be designed to obtain? an awareness 
of possible departure points?

========Winslow:

It's more than awareness. It's the ability to actually do it. 

You may be aware you can get to the next valley by following the 
creek through the forest. Actually doing it by cutting through the 
brush and making a trail is another matter.

Physical practice and its repetition are blazing the trails for your 
nervous system, ears, and muscles. The more different ways you want 
to be able to get between various points, the more trailblazing you 
have to do.

Or to quote Don Les, Harmonicats bass harmonicist and diatonic jazz 
whiz, "If you've been everywhere, you always know where you are."

Winslow