Guitar Scales Lesson

Why bother with a guitar scales lesson?

      Learning guitar scales is probably the hardest aspect of learning guitar. But if you want to become an accomplished guitar player you need to invest the time in learning and understanding guitar scales. Guitar scales can serve a few different purposes.

1. They are great exercises for your fingers. You should start every practice session by playing the scales that you know.

2. Playing scales provides great ear training. This will help you when you are playing lead (improvising) on the guitar.

3. Knowing scales will help you understand how chords are constructed. This will allow you to be able to play chords in different places on the guitar neck.

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If you are serious about learning guitar, I highly recommend checking out Learn and Master Guitar. This course doesn't just show you how to play guitar, it teaches you all the theory involved. It is definitely worth checking out.

"Music is what feelings sound like"~ Anonymous

Guitar scales lesson- The Major Scale:

The first and most important guitar scale to learn is the major scale. Everything else is derived from the major scale. Here are two major scale patterns. The first one starts with the root note on the sixth string. The second one is with the root note on the fifth string. The root note determines what key you are in.

  The "O" in these diagrams indicates the root note. So if pattern one was started on the third fret, this would be the G major scale.

  Both these scale patterns should be practiced in all keys 

Guitar scales lesson- The Minor Scale: 

 The minor scale is constructed by flatting the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes of the major scale. This means they are being lowered a half step, or 1 fret. Here are patterns one and two for the minor scale.

The patterns for the major and minor scales shown here cover two full octaves or more. To play one octave of a scale play from the root note to the next root note.

Guitar scales lesson- How are scales constructed: 

There are only twelve musical notes:

C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B

Scales are built on a certain pattern of whole and half steps.

 The formula for a major scale is:

whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half    

A whole step= 2 frets
A half step= 1 fret

To find any major scale you will start on the root note and follow the formula. So for the C major scale you would start on C, then go a whole step which would be a D, then another whole step which would be an E, and so on. The C major scale would end up with these notes:

C D E F G A B and then C again

Now let's see what we get if we start with a D:

D
whole step-E
whole step-F#
half step-   G
whole step-A
whole step-B
whole step-C#
half step-   D

So the notes for the D major scale would be:

D E F# A B C# D

Memorizing scale patterns is one method to learn a guitar scales lesson. Knowing the formula for a type of scale will allow you to play a scale from any point on the fret board.

The formula for a minor scale:

whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole

So following this pattern the A minor scale would contain the notes:

A
whole step-B
half step-   C
whole step-D
whole step-E
half step-   F
whole step-G 
whole step-A

For a guitar scales lesson on the pentatonic guitar scale see learn the pentatonic guitar scale. The pentatonic scale is the most common scale used by guitar players as it is the easiest to use.

For a guitar scales lesson on the blues scale see how to play the blues.

Guitar scales lessons can be very confusing as there is a lot to learn when it comes to music theory, but it is well worth the time as it will make you a proficient guitar player. If you are serious about learning and understanding the guitar I would recommend checking out Learn and Master Guitar. This is the most comprehensive guitar course I have come across.

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