I’ve never liked scales. I hated practising them on the piano, and even though I knew they were the building blocks of music I thought of them as a necessary evil, like politicians. But only recently did it dawn on me how important they are in the construction of music. Some of my favourite moments were nothing more than scales that had been given the extra magic touch by a genius composer.

Scales are the reason some music can take us on a journey.  When a scale is happening, at whatever speed whether upwards or downwards, we know where we are going as surely as if we were plugged into a musical Google Maps. “In 15 bars, take the first left and continue in E Flat Major for 23 bars.”

Exhibit 1 – the Pas de Deux from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.

Such a romantic scale over one octave from G to G, the cellos singing so beautifully it almost makes you want to put on your pointe shoes and dance till your feet bleed. Well almost. It’s extraordinary how much passion can be squeezed out of a simple scale. I certainly don’t remember finding so much romance in G...