Today I am reviewing a scale book you can find at the Music Teacher Store called Scales & Stuff.

Scales & Stuff is created by Jane Calder. Jane writes in the preface to this book that she wanted a scale book that not only had scales, but other exercise including primary chords, triads, inversions and arpeggios. This book has these things and more.

Upon receiving a copy of Scales & Stuff I was impressed by the size and quality of the book. It is coil bound and big enough to really fit in everything a student would need.

Upon opening the book, students will find a nice layout. Covering both Major and Minor  (harmonic, natural and melodic), each unit in this book includes the scales, chords, chord progressions, (Major, minor, augmented and diminished) inversions, and one and two-octave arpeggios. There is also a helpful keyboard diagram in addition to the staff notation.

Once you go through all of those exercise you will find a nice surprise at the end of the unit. An additional scale page that includes “red-note” scales, showing all of the keys that should be sharp or flat. Some students need that extra help when learning a new scale. I love that each unit includes both with red notes and without. 

For beginning students, you can find 5 finger scales in each of the major keys along with their relative minor keys in the back of the book. These are shown as a keyboard diagram.

As you can see this book can last a student many years throughout their lesson years. You can find Scales & Stuff at the MusicTeacherStore both as a hardcopy purchase or a downloadable purchase.

Here is a short video of Jane giving a brief run down of what you can find in this book.

Jane Harrison Calder grew up in the beautiful little town of Springville, Utah, fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. She received her music degree at BYU and has created games to teach her students about famous composers, counting, key signatures, musical terms and other aspects of theory. In 1993 she published several of her games and teaching aids and launched her new business, Making Music Fun. She is one of the authors you can find on MusicTeacherStore.com.