Yes, the anguish of practicing scales is brutally dulling. Thankfully my days of practicing multi-octave straight scale patterns are long past.

Not such pleasing memories!

It can be worth the time invested though, especially in song writing.

Every lick, riff or melody is based upon a scale, or combination of scales. Even if you literally play every half step, you are still playing a chromatic scale.

Add a bit of music theory knowledge to that and it can be really helpful when constructing melodies, harmonies or when you are looking for that next perfect chord.

Its basically, IMO, like: No Pain No Gain! :-)

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