Scales are a fundamental part of music, so learning and practicing them is absolutely vital to becoming a successful guitar player. If you are like me when I started, then you may find the task of learning and practicing scales a bit daunting. This blog post will be dedicated to offering some ideas of what you can do to help you master the scales. First things first, for those of you who don’t know, a scale is a succession of notes arranged in a pattern of whole steps (the distance of two frets on the fretboard) and half steps (the distance of one fret on the fretboard). ). ), (eg major scale: WWH WWWH). Using the notes of a scale you can create an infinite number of melodies and chords. Ok, now that it’s fixed, let’s get started!
Learn the notes on the fretboard
It’s important to know where all the notes are on the fretboard, especially on the 6th and 5th strings, since the root of most scales starts on those strings. There are dozens of ways you could do this. I highly recommend heading over to Ricci Adams’s musictheory.net. If you go to where it says coaches and click on guitar coach, you will find a program that will help you learn your notes. It’s a great little program and I’ve found it helps immensely. Try to practice learning your notes a little every day.
Learn more than one scale form for each scale
Being able to play a scale in multiple positions on the fretboard can mean the difference between being a great player and a mediocre one. Learning lots of different scale shapes in different positions will help open up the fretboard and give you more options and offer more flexibility when soloing.
Learn the individual notes that make up a scale
This is a much more effective way to learn scales than just learning the various scale forms. Knowing exactly what notes make up a scale and knowing how those notes relate to the chord they’re played over will give you much more control over what you’re playing. This is especially true when improvising. A great way to do this is to take a scale you’re learning and play it very slowly, going up and down, naming each note as you go. You can also do this by replacing note names with the scale degree of each note (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Then you can start making up little melodies and name the notes (or scale degrees) you are using.
Get yourself a scale reference guide
It’s always a good idea to have a way to look up scales, and there are dozens of books that do just that. Personally, I use Hal Leonard’s Incredible Scale Finder. It has over 1,300 scales and is designed to make them all easy to find. But really any book that lists scales should do.
Make sure to practice using a metronome
I cannot stress enough the importance of a metronome. Practicing scales and other technical exercises while using a metronome allows you to develop a strong sense of timing and helps you keep scales at a slow tempo until you can play faster.
Makeshift
Creating impromptu solos is a great way to practice scales. Choose a scale and play along with the radio or your favorite CD. You can also visit jamcenter.com, which is a great site that offers a variety of backing tracks in different keys and styles so you can jam.
