Hey...See...Most of the times when I see a guitarist at her early times, I find her struggling with playing scales!!! She usually learns a perticular scale at a time, like, A Major, C Minor etc. But you can easily turn her into pale and make her ears RED in fear, if you ask her to play that scale at a different place on the FretBoard! Even if you tell her the root note and where to find it, she struggles like hell!!! So I thought, " Lets put some tutorial for the begineers, so that they can PLAY ANY SCALE ANYWHERE ON THE FRETBOARD "! And this brings me to write this tutorial. What Do you learn after completely reading this tutorial? Ans. As I said, you will be able to play ANY SCALE ANYWHERE ON THE FRETBOARD. But before I start, I should make clear that EAR is all you will ever need to play music/sing music. If you can listen well, you can play well! For simplicity and unpredictability, I'm only posting the procedures for MAJOR scales(ANY MAJOR SCALE). If you like it, I'll be posting the MINOR and PENTATONIC(The one mostly used in ROCKS)! So here it goes: For playing any MAJOR scale on the guitar, all you need to know is where you are starting your ROOT NOTE from!!! The String is what we are concerned of, Frets won't matter!!! There are some general patterns for playing any scale from a perticular string! There are several ones to follow! I'm only giving the ones that I most generally use! We are considering the guitar to be in standard tuning that is: 1->High e 2->B 3->G 4->D 5->A 6->Low E If you find the below patterns a bit displaced and can't find which note to play, here's small aid that will help(but only for these tabs)! Start from the leftmost note on the top string(i.e., 5 from 5/4/3), keep going to the right on that string and then when you are done with that string, go to the leftmost note on the next highest string(i.e., 4 from 5/4/3) and go to the right and this way go on!!! Oked? ================== String 6/5 RuleIf you are starting to play from 6th or 5th string) ================== 4/3-------------------------------(x-1)--(x+1)--(x+2)-- 5/4--------------(x-1)--(x)--(x+2)----------------- 6/5--(x)--(x+2)----------------------------------- Here (x) represent the fret where you start playing. So if you start from 5th fret, (x+2) is 7th fret and (x-1) is 4th fret. If you start from 6th string follow strings on the left of the oblique("/") sign, and if you start from 5th string, follow the strings on the right of the oblique sign. So if you start from 5th fret sixth string, the pattern would look like: 4------------------------------(4)--(6)--(7)--- 5---------------(4)--(5)--(7)---------------- 6--(5)--(7)-------------------------------- Oked? Can we proceed to the next pattern? Yes? oked then let's go! =================== String 4 Rule: =================== 2------------------------------(x)--(x+2)--(x+3)-- 3---------------(x-1)--(x)--(x+2)--------------- 4--(x)--(x+2)--------------------------------- So if you start from 5th fret 4th string, you would play the following: 2------------------------------(5)--(7)--(8)--- 3---------------(4)--(5)--(7)---------------- 4--(5)--(7)-------------------------------- =================== String 3 Rule: =================== 1------------------------------(x)--(x+2)--(x+3)-- 2---------------(x)--(x+1)--(x+3)--------------- 3--(x)--(x+2)--------------------------------- So if you start from 5th fret 3th string, you would play the following: 1------------------------------(5)--(7)--(8)--- 2---------------(5)--(6)--(8)---------------- 3--(5)--(7)-------------------------------- So lets move on to the last one!!! =================== String 2 Rule: =================== 1--------------------(x-1)--(x)--(x+2)--(x+4)--(x+6)--(x+7)--------- 2--(x)--(x+2)------------------------------------------------ So if you start from 5th fret 2th string, you would play the following: 1--------------------(4)--(5)--(7)--(9)--(11)--(12)---------- 2--(5)--(7)------------------------------------------- That's It!!! You've learnt all the MAJOR Scales!!!HOW??? Ok let's test!!! Can u play the MAJOR scale starting from fret 7 string 3??? Hell Ya!!! Follow pattern "String 3 rule and replace x by 7!!! And you played the D MAJOR scale!!! Practice just 3 days, 1 hour a day, and you won't have to look back to this tutorial; You'll have all of these in you Brain!!! And for the last treat, lets give you a pattern that starts from 6th string and follows down to 1st string while playing 2 consecutive octaves!!! So here it is: 1------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(x-1)-(x)- 2------------------------------------------------------------------------(x)-(x+2)----------- 3---------------------------------------------------(x-1)-(x+1)-(x+2)--------------------- 4-------------------------------(x-1)-(x+1)-(x+2)--------------------------------------- 5-------------(x-1)-(x)-(x+2)--------------------------------------------------------- 6--(x)-(x+2)------------------------------------------------------------------------- So if you start from 5th fret and 6th string i.e., a G MAJOR scale, you'll probably play the following: 1--------------------------------------------------------------------------(4)-(5)- 2----------------------------------------------------------------(5)-(7)----------- 3----------------------------------------------(4)-(6)-(7)------------------------- 4----------------------------(4)-(6)-(7)------------------------------------------- 5------------(4)-(5)-(7)----------------------------------------------------------- 6--(5)-(7)------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haha!!! Nice, isn't it??? So you see, now if I tell you to play a MAJOR scale from 9th fret and 2nd string, you really can!!! Ain't it wonderful??? You might be wondering what is a root note???(the beginners might not know) A root note is the note that give the name to your scale; Like in A MAJOR scale, your root note is A...Oked? A tip: ====== You might get into problem if you start from 1st or 2nd frets!!! But don't worry, if your (x) is (1), then your (x-1) is open string, right??? Dedicate a finger to a perticular fret, and you'll play things easily! Like, while playing the 2-octave pattern above, place your fore finger at 4th fret, middle finger at 5th fret, and so one...And play those frets only with those fingers. Oked??? This might help!!! So that was all for now!!! If you find it useful, just find a second to drop some replies! And if a thread like this exists anywhere else in IGT, feel free to delete this one!!! I checked most threads and didn't find any like this...so I posted this one! Oked??? Bye and Keep Rocking, Ankur :beer: :rock:
Sorry!!! I'm really sorry that I posted it here. But I tried several times to post it at the "Tutorial Forum"! But it was not posted, no error was shown but not posted also...So I posted it here! Sorry for the inconvenience!
There are many ways of playing a Major Scale. The one I prefer, though is teh 3-note-per-string method. Its quite simple n easy to remember. Let me show u: String 6 and 5: On these two strings, you go like this: A---------------------------x--(x+2)--(x+4)------------------------------ E------x--(x+2)--(x+4)--------------------------------------------------- So that for, lets say, A major scale, u start at 5th fret and go like: A--------------5--7--9------------------------------------------- E---5--7--9------------------------------------------------------ String 4 & 3: On these strings, we make a slight change. We go like G----------------------------(x+1)--(x+2)--(x+4)----------------------------- D--(x+1)--(x+2)--(x+4)------------------------------------------------------- So that A scale here goes like: G--------------6--7--9------------------------------------------- D---6--7--9------------------------------------------------------ String 2 & 1: Now here is another shift. We go like e----------------------------(x+2)--(x+4)--(x+5)----------------------------- B--(x+2)--(x+4)--(x+5)------------------------------------------------------- So that A scale becomes something like: e----------------7--9--10----------------------------------------- B---7--9--10------------------------------------------------------ Now if we put together the whole scale formula, it is something like this: e-----(x+2)--(x+4)--(x+5)----------------------------------------------- B-----(x+2)--(x+4)--(x+5)----------------------------------------------- G-----(x+1)--(x+2)--(x+4)----------------------------------------------- D-----(x+1)--(x+2)--(x+4)----------------------------------------------- A--------x-----(x+2)--(x+4)----------------------------------------------- E--------x-----(x+2)--(x+4)---------------------------------------------- If we apply it to A major scale, we something like this: e-----------7------9------10-------------------------------------------- B-----------7------9-----(10)------------------------------------------- G------6---7------9------------------------------------------------------ D------6--(7)-----9------------------------------------------------------ A---5------7------9------------------------------------------------------ E--(5)-----7------9------------------------------------------------------ The notes in the brackets are root notes, i.e., they all are A notes, but in the next octaves And you can even extend it on last string by the formula: e----(X-3)--(X-1)--(X)--(X+2)--(X+4)--(X+6)--(X+7)------- B--------------------(X)------------------------------------------- And X+7 is again the root note for the 4th octave. And remember! It is applicable to anywhere on teh WHOLE fretboard. Try it, and have fun. Just another point. Look at the left side of the base line of this message. Therez a Have-A-Nice-Day icon. Click it, and write some good words abt me in the next window that pops up. In other words, REP ME PLZZZZZZZ! :nw: :nw: :nw: :nw:
a good method is to link scales with barre chords shapes. there are three patterns corresponding to the three barre major shapes so you just have to know which pattern goes with which shape to play the scale. makes it easier.
gogol, the threads you submit in the Tutorial section are first verified by the mods and then posted so it takes a bit of time. By the way, do you learn from someone? Who?
in other words u just learn the C major scale n slide the whole pattern up/down the fretboard to get the other scales....
Thanks!!! Thanks for appreciating the post. bjr, I used to learn from a friend of mine! But now due to lack of time, I do it on my own! As Evo Guy posted, sure, there are several more ways to play...And I'll stick to what I said earlier, that Ear is all we need!!! And if anyone is from the moderator group, please do not allow the same post to be allowed in the Tutorial section! I did not know the drills!!!Sorry for that! Please stop it from being posted! Bya, Ankur(gogol)
@Mr. Singh: Thanks man! Its the appreciation that keeps my engine running. @Zing: U got it man! Its as simple as that. The pattern is same, you just slide it along. Just like barre chords.
hey gogol.... i am a begginer here....i had never thought that finding scales on the fretboard was this easy.....thatz a lot......it really helped me.. do post more tutorials like this...!!!!
