Lesson 6: Playing Scales

• Lesson 6: Playing Scales

  • If you are at all familiar with playing the piano, you will know that a "Scale" is a group of musical notes that are played one after the other in either an ascending or descending order. There are many different types of scales, each with their own unique characteristics, note patterns and musical qualities. Here we will learn about a few of the most common scales (in Western Music) and how to use them to improve your guitar playing. Although playing and practicing scales can often be a tiresome and relatively unexciting process, don't be afraid! They will help strengthen your fingers, improve your hand-eye coordination, and greatly improve your ability to learn more advanced guitar techniques, such as soloing!
  • 
    NOTE: The diagrams that are used in this lesson show which notes should be played in each scale and which fingers should be used to play each note. Notes with a 1 should be played with the index finger, a 2 with the middle finger, a 3 with your ring finger, and a 4 with your pinkie. An O means that the string should be played "Open."
  • 
    We will start with the most basic guitar scales in music:

• The Chromatic Scale

  1. Start, as we did in the lesson on playing notes, by playing the 6th string "Open."
  2. Next, take the index finger on your fretting hand and hold down the first fret on the 6th string. Pluck the 6th string again.
  3. Using your middle finger, hold down the second fret of the 6th string and play it again.
  4. Use your ring finger to hold down the third fret and play the string again.
  5. Use your pinkie finger to hold down the fourth fret and play it once more.
  6. Repeat these steps for each of the subsequent strings (except the 3rd string — only play the first three frets on that one).

  • Voila! You've just played your first scale. Not the most awe-inspiring experience of your life, I'm sure. But truly a monumental first step in your transition from ordinary citizen to Guitar God (or Goddess).

• The Major Scale

  The E Major Scale:

  
  

  1. Play the 6th string "Open"
  2. Play the 6th string, 2nd fret
  3. Play the 6th string, 4th fret
  4. Play the 5th string "Open"
  5. Play the 5th string, 2nd fret
  6. Play the 5th string, 4th fret
  7. Play the 4th string, 1st fret
  8. To finish the scale, continue playing the rest of the notes in the diagram.

  
  The Major Scale is one of the most important and useful scales to know when playing guitar. Try playing the Major Scale using different root notes.

• The Minor Pentatonic Scale

  The E Pentatonic Minor Scale

  
  

  1. Play the 6th string, 3rd fret
  2. Play the 5th string "Open"
  3. Play the 5th string, 2nd fret
  4. Play the 4th string "Open"
  5. Play the 4th string, 2nd fret
  6. Play the 3rd string "Open"
  7. To finish the scale, continue playing the rest of the notes in the diagram.

  
  Often known as the "Blues" scale, the minor pentatonic is a popular scale for soloing in the Blues and Rock genres. Try playing the minor pentatonic from different root notes.

  
  NOTE: All of the scale examples above use E as the root note. All of these scales can be played using any note as the root.

• Practice Lessons

  1. Practice each of these scales for at least 15 minutes or until you are confident enough to move on to the next one.
  2. Once you have mastered playing each scale from top to bottom, try playing it backwards by starting on the last note of the scale and playing in reverse order back to the first note.