4 Scales You Should Know
When it comes to guitar soloing, there are four scales that can be applied more often than any others. They are the Minor Pentatonic Scale, the Natural Minor Scale, the Major Scale and the Major Pentatonic Scale. Following are the most common patterns for each type. They include an easy-to-find root note on the heaviest (6th) string. These examples are all in the key of A.
Practice these patterns from the lowest-pitch root note to the highest note. Then descend from the highest note to the original root. This teaches both your ears and your fingers the full range of the pattern. Once you can do this, wander through and explore the sound of each scale. Or try them over appropriate jam tracks.
Naming Guitar Strings
Naming the guitar strings is a fundamental that no beginner should overlook. There are two ways that we can name the string being played.
The first way simply numbers the strings from skinniest to heaviest, 1 through 6. The second names the string by the pitch it is tuned to. Standard guitar tuning is from heaviest to skinniest, E-A-D-G-B-E. A good memory device is the phrase, Every Guitarist Digs Guitar Back East.
Notice that there are two E strings. The heaviest string is referred to as ‘Low E’ and the skinniest ‘High E’. This references their pitch not their position in relation to the floor.
Beginning ‘Arpeggio’ Picking Lesson
I believe arpeggios to be some of the most beautiful sounds we can produce on the guitar. The word ‘arpeggio’ simply means broken chord. On the guitar, the notes of a chord can be played in a melodic fashion (think of the beginning melody to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’) or in a chordal fashion where the notes overlap and ring together. The latter is common in guitar accompaniment and is used in this lesson over the chord progression to ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, made famous by the Animals. Take a look.
The part is played with a pick. Accompaniment arpeggios can also be played finger-style, which we explore in an upcoming lesson.
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‘Spider’ Guitar Warmup
Hey Axemen & Axewomen,
Here is a warm-up drill on guitar that is a simple and elegant way to get both right and left hands working together.
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Like any physical activity, warming up when playing guitar is important. A common mistake I see among students is putting favorite songs first in their practicing as a warm-ups. It is better to warm-up on a simple drill, such as ‘the spider’, so mistakes that inevitably happen when warming up don’t creep their way into the rehearsed performance of those songs.
Aim to keep an even time between all notes for this exercise, particularly when changing strings.
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Storm
GuitarTeacher.com
Parts Of The Guitar
Learning the parts of the guitar is fundamental. The most common guitars used today can be classified as either Acoustic Guitars or Electric Guitars. Both types share the same three basic areas in common: Head, Neck and Body.
The head of the guitar (or ‘headstock’ as some prefer) is where the tuning keys are found. Where the guitar head and neck meet is the nut. The nut slots the strings and provides string height in relation to the neck. The neck has frets to shorten the depressed string by defined distances. The fingerboard (not the frets) is where we press down the strings. Not all guitars have position markers but they are used to help number the frets.
The body of the guitar defines the difference between Acoustic and Electric guitars. Acoustic guitars have a soundhole to focus the acoustic energy of vibrating strings. Electric guitar have pickups, which are small magnets that sit underneath the strings. When a vibrating steel string moves against the magnet a small electrical signal is produced and sent throught the output jack. Electric guitars can have various combinations of pickups, some type of pickup selector switch to choose the pickup used and volume and/or tone controls for those pickups.
The bridge of the guitar is where the strings attach to the body. The saddle is the part of the bridge the string passes over.
Your basic six-string guitar. Play yours today!
Storm Stenvold
GuitarTeacher.com
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My name is Storm Stenvold. Welcome to my online lesson studio, Guitar Teacher.com!
I teach individual and group guitar lessons online (since 2001) and have taught guitar for 17 years. I was a founding faculty member of ...read more