# The continuous scale exercise - anyone know it?



## Blackrg (Dec 18, 2007)

hey

I was reading in another forum about the continuous scale exercise, apparently it involves alternating between two scales and is very good for learning what notes are where in each position.

I read its a term coined by Mark Levine, but I dont have his book, and I also can't read notation if I did

Can someone explain the continuous scale exercise for an idiot? or point me in the direction of that web resource that exists but I couldn't find?

thanks in advance


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 18, 2007)

I've not heard this term before, but from your description I'm guessing it means ascending the scale in one position, then shifting up or down a position and descending. For instance, ascend an A major scale, but then shift up one position and descend with B Dorian, and so on.


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## stubhead (Dec 18, 2007)

Perpetuum mobile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are any number of exercises which repeat after returning to their starting point. Nicolo Paganini even wrote a piece called "Moto Perpetuo." When I encounter a picking or fingering problem, I try to make a circular exercise out of it with some rhythmic content so I can metronome it without getting too bored. It doesn't look like Mark Levine is trying to give anything away for free:
Mark Levine

It's an interesting question, I'm always looking for something new for myself and to keep my mosquito-attention-span students going. Identifying notes is a good thing.


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## Mastodon (Dec 18, 2007)

Moto-perpetuo is an awesome thing to learn. My teacher started me on it after I had been playing for about 4 months and it improved my playing like crazy.


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## JBroll (Dec 18, 2007)

If you're going to try to play Moto Perpetuo, get the full version from a proper transcription. I've seen everything from 'Pagini's Molto Perpeto' to a two-page transcription claiming to be the entirety of 'the baroqe [sic] violin masterpiece' - the 'real' one should be about six pages long and take about four minutes to play the whole way through. I keep meaning to transcribe it, but because my note choice is eccentric at best and it's fucking long I still haven't lived up to that promise, so look up the actual sheet music (at most you'll pay maybe two dollars for it online) and learn it from that.

Jeff


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## stubhead (Dec 18, 2007)

Guitar Pro has Paganini's Moto Perpetuo in two different tab versions, but I agree if you're going to go to all the trouble, you might as well learn to read real music too while you're at it.....  
Nobody's ever really going to hire you to play Paganini licks on your guitar, but you might get a wedding (or funeral ) gig or something if you can read a melody chart.  

I bought one of these CD's from this guy and it has all the violin music you'll ever need for the rest of your entire life - _billions and billions_ of notes.... 

VIOLIN SHEET MUSIC CD Bach Mozart Paganini Wieniawski - (eBay item 120199831468 end time Dec-24-07 17:23:03 PST)


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## JBroll (Dec 18, 2007)

This isn't the kind of thing you'll play for people not already interested in faster stuff like this, but it 'opens the box' with ideas that aren't heard too often - and it's a fucking insane exercise at that.

Jeff


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 18, 2007)

I think I've got a transcription Andy James did of MP, or at least part of it, on my laptop, although I agree that if you were serious about learning and performing a piece like that it would be far better to just get the original score.


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## Uber Mega (Dec 18, 2007)

Don't some parts go out of guitar range?


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## JBroll (Dec 18, 2007)

No. It's a violin piece, so the lowest note is the G a whole step down from our A, and the highest note in this one is A880.

Jeff


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## Blackrg (Dec 18, 2007)

Back from Moto Perpetuo land

Does anyone konw the Mark Levine continuous scale exercise?


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## JBroll (Dec 18, 2007)

First link from Googling "Mark Levine continuous scale exercise" for the win.

Dorian Guitar Scale

Scroll down a bit.

Jeff


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## Uber Mega (Dec 18, 2007)

JBroll said:


> No. It's a violin piece, so the lowest note is the G a whole step down from our A, and the highest note in this one is A880.
> 
> Jeff



Ah ok, it's just i saw a live performance of it and one of the notes sounded uber mega high. Cheers.


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## Blackrg (Dec 18, 2007)

JBroll said:


> First link from Googling "Mark Levine continuous scale exercise" for the win.
> 
> Dorian Guitar Scale
> 
> ...



Thanks for the USA Google work

Ok, more questions..i did say at the start this was to explain... for an idiot..

i think this exercise could be well useful, so if any one can hook a brother up here..

(quote)

'll set my BIAB to play 5 bars of Abmaj7 and 5 bars of Cmaj7. I'll play whole notes for each scale at a tempo that's comfortable, yet not boring-180 was where I started. Mark Levine calls this the continuous scale exercise. 

So I start at Ab on the E string up the scale 5 notes to Eb over Abmaj 7. 

Then I start at the next available note in the C major scale, which would be B, and run that up 5 notes to F, switch back to the Ab Major scale, etc. When you get to the end of the position, switch directions. Make sense? 

(quote)


;;Then I start at the next available note in the C major scale, which would be B, ;;

Does this mean B on the G string at fret 4?

when he says' switch directions', - does he mean descend?

eh oh well..

Thanks for the Paganini links anyways


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## Jongpil Yun (Dec 19, 2007)

BTW the Racer X song Y.R.O. (Yngwie Ripoff) has Paul Gilbert doing a little section from Moto Perpetuo (rather poorly I thought).

There are a lot of different ways to arrange it for the guitar too. Great exercise.


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## JBroll (Dec 19, 2007)

Jongpil Yun said:


> BTW the Racer X song Y.R.O. (Yngwie Ripoff) has Paul Gilbert doing a little section from Moto Perpetuo (rather poorly I thought).



How is it 'rather poorly'? It's accurate and clean, what more do you want? On top of that, it's one of the only reasons why guitarists know of its existence. I'm missing the problem, here.

Jeff


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