Treasury of Scales for Band and Orchestra: Baritone T.C. Book

Smith constructed these 96 harmonized scales to serve a real pedagogical purpose: they're not abstract exercises but fully voiced passages that demand attention to blend, intonation, and sectional balance. Because multiple instruments play identical lines, conductors can hear the collective sound immediately and adjust without the distraction of complex counterpoint. It's the kind of tool that earns a permanent spot in your warm-up routine because it delivers results.

Clean, focused, and purposeful. These aren't flashy exercises; they're solid, unadorned harmonic explorations that let the acoustic properties of the instrument and the blend of voices become the main event. Each scale feels grounded and complete, giving players the sense that they're part of something larger than a single line.

Band and orchestra directors who want a reliable, flexible warm-up resource that builds intonation and sectional blend without consuming rehearsal time on extraneous material. Baritone players benefit from the harmonic context and the opportunity to develop listening skills within a full ensemble sound. The book's simplicity makes it accessible for players across all ability levels within a section.

• Match tone quality across the section by listening for uniformity in each harmonized scale rather than relying on individual part listening.
• Adjust tempo to suit the intonation challenges of each scale; slower tempos often expose pitch problems that faster passages mask.
• Direct attention to the harmonized voices as a single blended unit, not as separate parts, so baritones lock into the harmonic function rather than playing their line in isolation.
• Use the varied tempos and harmonic contexts to address specific balance issues in your band or orchestra tuning exercises.

Open every rehearsal with one or two scales from the book, rotating through keys and tempos to keep the routine fresh and address intonation challenges specific to your repertoire. If your concert program includes pieces in less common keys, select scales from those keys during the week leading up to the performance.

• Matching tone quality across a harmonic section
• Fine-tuning intonation within harmonized intervals
• Listening to and blending with multiple voice parts
• Understanding harmonic function through scale degrees
• Building consistency of tone across major and minor scales