GUITAR SCALES

Guitar scales are important "tools" musicians use to understand chords, increase speed, develop a good ear, play licks and riffs, transpose keys, improvise, and play lead guitar. As you can see, scales are pretty important and they can help you gain a better understanding of your instrument!

This lesson will focus on the C Major Scale, which is foundational to an understanding of music in general.

Like the A Minor Scale in the previous lesson, C Major uses NATURAL notes (tones). The difference being that you will now start on the letter C (instead of A) and move up alphabetically until you again reach the letter C. But before you begin, let me explain a few more things about guitar scales and how they work.

There are 8 degrees (or tones) in a Major Scale:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Notice that the letter name of the 8th degree is C, the same letter name as the 1st degree. The 8th degree of a scale is called an OCTAVE, which simply means eight. The 1st degree is called the ROOT or TONIC and it establishes the Key Note (name) of the scale. The distance from one tone to the next is called an INTERVAL.

Major scales always follow a consistant pattern of whole steps and half-steps. Here is the pattern of a Major Scale:

W W 1/2 W W W 1/2

You can see this pattern clearly on the guitar when you play the scale up the neck using only one string.

E--------------------------------------------

B--1----3----5--6----8----10----12--13------

G--------------------------------------------

D--------------------------------------------

A--------------------------------------------

E--------------------------------------------

Using your first finger, play the C MAJOR SCALE by following the tablature and moving up the neck along the 2nd string. Notice the series of WHOLE STEPS AND HALF-STEPS as you move up the neck toward the 13th fret. If you play it correctly you will hear the familiar sound:

Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do

Now play the scale in FIRST POSITION. Remember that "first position" means you will only play notes within the first 4 frets of the guitar. Begin at the ROOT and ascend to the OCTAVE, moving across the strings. It will be harder to see the whole steps and half-steps, but it"s still very easy to do.

Now, starting at the Octave, go down the scale until you reach the Root.