Why you need to "Play your Scales"

Priya Thiagarajan of Tata Interactive systems pleads for bringing Fun back into Learning.

Purposefully, pushing an opposite view while Not disagreeing with any attempts to bring fun into how we learn- I can't help but refer to

"You gotta pay your dues if you want to sing the Blues and babe it don't come easy".

B.B. King

Having studied music and recently watching my son study music and also learning swimming (now in his 3rd year of learning these), I have begun to see some parallels. In music, sports, art and actually all of life, "playing your scales, doing your finger exercises on the piano or violin or whichever instrument, doing your drills, etc" is the way one develops technique - the platform upon which one can then stand and begin to express oneself with one's unique style.

Mastering technique is the key to full expression. Technique gets in the way. Getting technique right is difficult and can be boring. Often, music, or a picture or doing a difficult feat is easily visualized internally but it's hard to express it exactly as one sees it in their inner mind because there's not enough technique to do so.

Unfortunately, its hard to bring "Fun" into doing scales endlessly or doing swimming drills up and down the pool endlessly or doing your morning voice exercises endlessly if you're a singer. But guess what? You skip that and you just don't get too be good enough.

I recently had occasion to realise this even with yound managers who are in a hurry to become CEOs. They're looking for a quick short-cut to the top. We don't want to practice our scales.

I'm simply offering this thought: How does one bring "fun" into doing one's scales, doing the necessary drills?