Archive for the ‘Guitar Scales’ Category

Learning Major Scales in Open Position is a valuable exercise for all guitarists. Rhythm guitarists can use these guitar scale patterns for single note runs, adding notes to chord voicings and creating new chords. Lead guitarists can use the open strings in guitar licks and improvisation. Knowing open position scale patterns will enable you smoothly switch between rhythm and lead guitar. This guitar lesson shows the ... View Lesson

Exotic Guitar Scales are great for adding spice to your lead guitar playing. I wouldn't suggest learning any of the 12 scales shown in this lesson before learning the minor pentatonic scale, the natural minor or the major scale (see 4 Scales You Should Know) but they might be part of the sound and guitar style you are searching for. Each of these 5 ... View Lesson

In the following Dorian Mode Jam Track we use G major chords over a repeating A bass note. This keeps reinforcing that 'A' is the root note for our soloing. View Lesson

The chromatic scale is one of the easiest scales to understand and also one of the most incorrectly played by guitarists. Let's look at this, the "mother of all scales", and explore some useful chromatic scale patterns for the guitar. The chromatic scale is made up entirely of half-step or semi-tone intervals (the distance of one fret). Therefore, the chromatic scale includes every note within an ... View Lesson

Inside each individual major scale there are three different minor pentatonic scales. In the tradition of the "Secret" Pentatonics lesson let's continue looking for pentatonics in undiscovered places. Maybe our familiar, five-note friend has been 'hiding' under our noses, just waiting to be revealed in other familiar scale patterns? In fact, this is the case! I present (drum roll, please!): Hidden Pentatonics. We will start ... View Lesson

The Minor Pentatonic scale is one of the most widely used scales in improvisation in every musical style so it makes sense to know it well all over the guitar neck. When it comes to moving beyond the first pattern learned (see my lesson on 4 Scales You Should Know) the next step is usually to introduce five overlapping patterns, each staying strictly in ... View Lesson

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 ... View Lesson

Learning guitar scales often overwhelms beginning and intermediate guitarists. Entire phone-book sized manuals are devoted to the subject that intimidate with the volume of information. Actually learning and mastering guitar scales is not that difficult. The first step is to break down the neck into positions (patterns). Then realize that each of these patterns ... View Lesson