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While students getting a music education degree have to learn all the instruments, they typically have a primary instrument that may or not be piano. If piano isn't their primary instrument there's no reason they would know how to play all the scales before starting the degree.

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That's still concerning. If your mental model of a scale is via the notes, the piano has helpful colour coding. Not being able to use that implies that the scales have instead been memorised by how they're played - frets, valves, etc. - that will stop working when a more in-depth application of keys is needed.

The piano is not the canonical model of a scale - it’s just a bit more visual than some other instruments. I went to music school and primarily play guitar and violin but can sort of play some keys. I could definitely figure out pretty much any scale on a piano but couldn’t just sit down and immediately play most of them.

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