Opinion: Practising scales in sequential order

A few years ago I heard an audition by a cellist who had been a long-time student of the principal cellist of a major orchestra. I was excited, thinking this student would be playing at a high level, having studied with such a wonderful performing musician. Unfortunately his playing was a disaster. He played the first movement of the Haydn C major Concerto. When I asked him what technique he had studied, what etudes he had worked on, and what scale systems he used, he answered that he had only studied repertoire…