Skip to main content
By -

Scales

Check out this simple instructions for playing guitar scales that I use in playing lead and improv.  Don’t forget to check out the link on Tips and Tricks!
  1. Major Scales
  2. Major Pentatonic Scales
  3. Minor Pentatonic Scales
  4. Blues Scales
  5. Tips and Tricks (including Arpeggios and Sweep Picking)

  6. Major Scales

    Although, I don’t do much lead improv from these scale patterns, it is important to cover these major scale patterns.  These are all in the key of G and are movable to other positions for other keys. Practice and learn the shape/pattern of the scale, then move it up and down the fretboard to other keys. “*” Represent the root note.
    G Major Scale – E String Fret 3
       *             *             *             *             *
e:---------------------------2-3-2--------------------------|
B:-----------------------3-5-------5-3----------------------|
G:-----------------2-4-5---------------5-4-2----------------|
D:-----------2-4-5---------------------------5-4-2----------|
A:-----2-3-5---------------------------------------5-3-2----|
E:-3-5---------------------------------------------------5-3|
   G A B C D E F#G A B C D E F#G
    G Major Scale – A String Fret 10
    Practice this scale ascending and descending, and move it to other positions on the fretboard. The first group is the scale itself. The second group are additional notes in the scale below and above.
        *              *              *               *
e:-------------------|--------------------------------7-8-10|
B:---------------7-8-|--------------------------7-8-10------|
G:-----------7-9-----|----------------------7-9-------------|
D:----7-9-10---------|---------------7-9-10-----------------|
A:-10----------------|--------7-9-10------------------------|
E:-------------------|-7-8-10-------------------------------|
    G A B  C D E F# G
    G Major Scale – E String 15 Fret
    Practice this scale ascending and descending and then move it to different locations on the fretboard after familiarizing yourself with the shape.
       *                  *                       *
e:-------------------------------------12-14-15-------------|
B:----------------------------12-13-15----------------------|
G:-------------------11-12-14-------------------------------|
D:-------------12-14----------------------------------------|
A:----12-14-15----------------------------------------------|
E:-15-------------------------------------------------------|
    G  A  B  C  D  E  F# G  A  B  C  D  E  F# G
    Other Major Scale Shapes
    There are other major scale shapes, one commonly referred to as the diagnal form, but I prefer to show you this with the diagnal form of the pentatonic scale.
    As I mentioned previously, I do not do much lead improv from these scales, but knowing their positions, helps me when I’m playing lead across the fretboard.
    Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Major Pentatonic Scales

One of the easiest scales to begin using for lead guitar is the major pentatonic scale in its diagonal form. The pentatonic scale takes 5 notes from the major scale numbered 1-2-3-5-6. The 4th and 7th notes are omitted, and these five notes can be played virtually anywhere over the music of the song.
G Major Pentatonic Scale – E String 3rd Fret
This is perhaps one of the easiest and most valuable scales to learn in my opinion. As you can see in a few sections below, it is fairly easy to adapt this into the major scale.
Play this scale ascending and descending. Important: Use Pointer finger and Ring finger only!
Observe the pattern (3 notes a whole step apart on one string, then 2 notes a whole step apart on the next). Notice, too, once we get to the B-string, the notes shift up a fret. that is because the interval between the G- and the B-strings are 4 frets (2 whole steps), whereas all the other string intervals are 5 frets. The last note on the 15th fret is the root note (finishing the scale on the root).
Listen to this scale:
Audio Player
The ‘*’ denotes the root.
   *         *         *                   *
e:-----------------------------10-12-----(15)---------------|
B:---------------------8-10-12------------------------------|
G:-----------------7-9--------------------------------------|
D:-----------5-7-9------------------------------------------|
A:-------5-7------------------------------------------------|
E:-3-5-7----------------------------------------------------|
   G A B D E G A B D E G  A  B  D  E       G
Practice this ascending and descending. If you practice this scale using Pointer and Ring Finger, and use one pluck per string you will automatically be incorporating “hammer-ons”, “slides”, and “pull-offs”.
Then practice this moving to other positions on the fretboard.
G Major Pentatonic Scale – A String 10th Fret
Practice this similar pattern on the A string 10th fret, ascending and descending. Again, remember that the B string shifts notes up a fret. Practice in other positions up and down the fretboard.
Listen to this scale:
Audio Player 
    *              *              *
e:-------------------------------15-------------------------|
B:-------------------------15-17----------------------------|
G:----------------12-14-16----------------------------------|
D:----------12-14-------------------------------------------|
A:-10-12-14-------------------------------------------------|
E:----------------------------------------------------------|
    G  A  B  D  E  G  A  B  D  E  G
Building the Major Scale from the Pentatonic
Sometimes when playing lead, you will want more than the 5 notes of the Pentatonic scale. A quick trick for grabbing the two missing notes from the major scale (the 4 and the 7), is for every location where there are three notes a whole step apart, the missing notes will be one fret lower than the first note (the 7th note), and one fret higher than the third note (the 4th note).
Look at the scale below. Notice the notes in parentheses. They represent the F# and C notes in the G major scale, the two missing notes in the G Major Pentatonic Scale.
Listen to this scale:
Audio Player 
e:-------------------------------------------------------10-12-|
B:--------------------------------------(7)-8-10-12-(13)-------|
G:----------------------------------7-9------------------------|
D:-------------------(3)-5-7-9-(10)----------------------------|
A:---------------5-7-------------------------------------------|
E:-(2)-3-5-7-(8)-----------------------------------------------|
       G A B     D E     G A B      D E     G  A  B        D E
G Major Pentatonic Scale – Box Style
This is good to know, however, I do not use it much. But it is great for incorporating hammer-ons and pull-offs in different locations than the diagonal form. Notice this is taken from the G Major Scale in the previous section.
Listen to this scale:
Audio Player 
   *         *         *
e:---------------------3------------------------------------|
B:-----------------3-5--------------------------------------|
G:-------------2-4------------------------------------------|
D:---------2-5----------------------------------------------|
A:-----2-5--------------------------------------------------|
E:-3-5------------------------------------------------------|
   G A B D E G A B D E G




The Blues Scale

The Blues Scale is a very simple adaptation from the Minor Pentatonic Scale. Many times it can be used in place of the minor scale, or it can be used with any blues songs, as well as with songs with only the I, IV and V chords.
A-Blues Scale
Notice that the only difference between the A Blues Scale and the Am Pentatonic Scale is the added Eb notes on the A- and G-strings.
Listen to the A blues scale:
Audio Player 
e:-------------------------5-8-|
B:---------------------5-8-----|
G:---------------5-7-8---------|
D:-----------5-7---------------|
A:-----5-6-7-------------------|
E:-5-8-------------------------|
Practice this scale ascending and descending. Then move it up and down the fretboard to play the blues scale in other keys.
Modifying the Major Pentatonic Scale
Because Am Pentatonic scale is virtually the same as the C Major Pentatonic scale, we can incorporate this ‘blues note’ to the C Major Pentatonic Scale like this:
Listen to this scale:
Audio Player 
e:-----------------------------8-|
B:------------------------8-10---|
G:---------------5-7-8-9---------|
D:-----------5-7-----------------|
A:----3-5-6-7--------------------|
E:-------------------------------|
The blues note goes between the 2 and 3 notes of the Major Pentatonic scale. Thus this pattern is adaptable to and place we play a Major Pentatonic Scale pattern.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

By -
Image
Simple Bass Line Progressions A bass line progression is a progression where the bass note of a chord (“the lowest note played in a chord”) is changing and following a predetermined or predictable pattern. There are two generic types of bass line chord progressions: ascending (the bass line goes higher in pitch) and descending (the bass line goes lower in pitch). The bass line progressions can be pictured as going up or down a small set of stairs. Root Note is Usually the Bass Note One thing to understand first, is when any chord is being played, it’s bass note (or lowest note) is the root note of the chord (unless we are told otherwise). Thus the bass note of a G chord, a Gsus, a Gm7, a Gdim, etc. is a “G” note. If we need to change the bass note of a G major chord to a B, for example, we would write it kind of like a fraction: G/B. We often call these “slash” chords. The Dm7 chord with a C note in the bass would be written ‘Dm7/C’. An A7 with a C# note in the bass would be w
Read more
By -
Image
SO HOW TO FORM CHORDS FROM THE SCALES HOW TO CONVERT THEM,,HERE IS GUIDE ENJOY, Forming Chords From Scales Chords typically occur together in families. There are certain groups of chords that when used together, often sound good. The most common way of forming families of chords that sound good together is to form a set of chords from a scale. When you do this, you will have a number of chords that all belong to the same key. In this article, I’ll show you through how to form a family of chords from a scale. By understanding this, you will understand why certain chords work well together in a given key and be able to start to see these families of related chords being used in the music you learn. Lets start by forming triads (three note chords) from a major scale. To make things easy lets use C Major as our scale here. The notes of the C Major scale are as follows: C D E F G A B C Each of the notes of this scale can be used to build a chord on. In order to do this
Read more