As I figure out how this whole internet thing works, though, I'll be starting with some of the basic material I've developed for my students. Most of this work is grounded in building strong fundamentals - scale and chord concepts and patterns, left and right hand technique, and an introduction to some of the core concepts of modern musicianship.
The Major Scale is one of the most important scales in Western music - it forms the basis for Diatonic harmony and is familiar to most everyone upon casual hearing. We'll discuss all the implications of the major scale at a later time; my intent at this point is simply to introduce the basic structure of the scale and offer a variety of positions in which the scale may be found on the guitar. I'll add the scales for bass shortly.
Western music is built upon a 12 tone system. The distance between each of the twelve tones is called a semitone or half-step. Two semitones make a whole tone; two half steps make a whole step. The major scale consists of a specific pattern of whole and half steps that give it its unique sound. The scale can built from any of the 12 tones. Whichever tone is the starting point is known as the tonic, the root or the one, depending on who you're talking to. Therefore, there are twelve possible major scales.
Note: There are actually more possible major scales than twelve by name. In fact, the accompanying pdf's for this lesson have more than twelve scales! They are included to familiarize the student with the common keys and to fulfill my OCD need to have equal sharp and flat key in an exercise....
However, there are only twelve distinct major scales by pitch. This is because sometimes the same things can have different names when seen in another context. The patterns are the same, but the name and reference is different. Scales (and chords/notes/etc) that have the same pitch or quality but different names are known as enharmonic equivalents. We'll discuss that later.
This is by no means an exhaustive scale listing - it is merely two different positions of each scale. The intent is give the student some basic options for playing each of the 12 major scales in 2 octaves. It also serves to introduce several of the common positions/patterns in which the scale appears on the neck of the guitar. The majority of these positions are closed patterns. This means that they do not contain any open string notes - they can moved up or down the neck to play a different scale using the same pattern fingering from a different starting fret/note. You will notice that several of the scales are merely previous patterns played on a different fret.
Learn and practice the major scale in all keys. For beginners, use this as an opportunity to develop familiarity with the sound of the scale in different registers and the feeling of playing in different places on the fingerboard - developing basic fingering and playing technique while becoming more familiar with the sound of the scale. This simple exercice will also serve as an easy scale warmup for the intermediate player.
One piece of advice I give to many of my students is to start associating the scale fingerings with numbers, or Scale Degrees. As you play the scale, say out loud the scale degree of the note you are playing. Starting from the root, or the 1 of the scale, the next note is 2, then 3, etc. until you reach the octave, which is 8 as you count but would be 1 again in terms of the scale degree. This is very helpful as you move forward and start learning to build chords and alter them. Each scale degree has a unique sound and relationship to the 1, and to the other degrees in the scale.
It is recommended that you work with a metronome, and start with the slowest setting at which you can execute the scale with precision, clarity of tone and complete control. You should aim to be able to execute the entire exercise with repeats cleanly at the suggested tempo of 120 bpm.
I hope you find it useful. Cheers!
Major Scales for Guitar (all pages) PDF
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