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Guitar: Scales and Modes and the playing there of
rayofash
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I just got a book on scales (The Guitar Grimoire) and although it lists a lot of scales and I know how to read them, I don't know how to play scales or break down the patterns.
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php
Let's say I'm looking at the full pattern for E Major. How do I go about playing it (where do I start and where do I play to?), learning it, and breaking down the patterns?
Also, which scales should I go about learning first other then that Major and Pentatonic?
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php
Let's say I'm looking at the full pattern for E Major. How do I go about playing it (where do I start and where do I play to?), learning it, and breaking down the patterns?
Also, which scales should I go about learning first other then that Major and Pentatonic?
rayofash on
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I don't know how your book is set up, but on that sight if you're looking at the "Full" pattern for any scale, it's showing you all possible ways to play that scale for all octives of that scale. So Full isn't really a pattern.
Play with the selection settings.
Oh and a scale starts with the root note and ends with that note one octave higher. So using your E Major example you could start by playing the E string and finish at the 7th fret of the A string or 2nd fret of the D string.
Also, the minor scale is another good basic scale to learn.
Basically it looks like this:
The reason I got the book is so that I don't have to practice in front of a computer.
There's a lot of stuff in between, I just have no idea how to go about it. I guess what I'm saying is that when I look at these scales I don't really know what I'm supposed to be learning.
First position would be the scale going from E to e in between the 0 and 5th fret. Second is roughly between 5 and 8. Third is roughly between 8 and 13. If you know those they just start over after 12 so... ya then you can solo wherever you want on the guitar. Find a way to play those 3 positions will make soloing easy as you will always have a go to format to follow.
As far as modes go, they change based on what you name as the 1st root. This: http://musiced.about.com/od/beginnerstheory/f/modes.htm will give you an idea of how some modes change the scale. If I were you I would just pick a major scale I knew and then I would learn the mode of the scale I wanted. If you look at that link it tells you how the notes progress in each mode. There are many other modes besides the ones listed btw.
The other columns looks like they're only showing you 3 notes in that scale per string, starting at various frets.
to play a scale, look at one of those limited columns, start with the root note and play the next 7 notes shown for a total of 8 notes. The 8th note will be one octive higher than the root note.
For example, to play a complete A major scale, begin with your finger on the fifth fret of the low E string. From there, play the rest of the scale degrees up to the E at the seventh fret on the D string (A, B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G sharp, A). You can then continue up to the A at the fifth fret on the E string.
As far as other scales, its important to have a well rounded scale and chord vocabulary. However, to begin with, I would recommend major, the three forms of minor, the major pentatonic scale, the minor pentatonic scale, and then start looking into the "jazz scale".
There's a ton of number crunching, and mathematical analysis, in the guitar neck, as it's comprised of twelve notes to an octave over a six string map structure. Basically, if you play an open string on the Low E (holding no frets down), you'll get E major. If you hit the twelfth fret of the Low E string, you'll be at E major again, only an octave higher.
try to learn the modes of major scale first. Ionian, dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. If you have (for example) the C Major scale, your notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B. the first note being your ionian, your second note being the dorian...and so on. Learn what each mode consists of in terms of patterns and you can just move that pattern up and down the neck to change your key/scale. The mode pattern will never change (you will always do the same pattern with Ionian no matter where it is). When you change what fret you are on, that's what changes your scale/key. You start on the C note (8th fret low E string), do your ionian mode pattern and then for the next note in the C Major scale (which is D) you move up to that fret (2 frets past C on low E), then start your dorian mode pattern. Each pattern (done vertically) contains 2 octaves of the scale you are doing and goes all the way down to the last string. After dorian comes phrygian and so on (you'd do E for phrygian). By the time you've come full circle and finished with your last note (Locrian mode on B note), you will have done a C major scale, D minor scale, E minor scale, F Major scale, G Diminished I think, A minor scale and then a B major scale. The reason for this is because each mode represents a major or minor...etc of the key you are using.
I'm tired as fuck and can't sleep. forgive the long ass fucking rant.
This one?
What kind of music do you want to play? I would say the main scales you need are major/pentatonic, harmonic minor, melodic minor ascending/jazz minor. You can also throw in whole-tone and diminished. (this will kind of take forever, though)
I wouldn't worry about playing the modes necessarily...if you thoroughly practice the scales they're derived from you'll have already covered that territory.
I think the best thing to do is to learn the theory behind the scales (which is really very easy) so you can work them out on your own without needing a book. Then you can figure out any guitar pattern you want.
Mostly acoustic folk-like stuff, stuff like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8hjEYTpwE8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vq3zCFPjfk
I'll give you another one because I think this one is often overlooked and it was a very important approach for me:
Learn the scale up and down each individual string. So, if you're learning E major, you'd start on the first string and play 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23, and then back down.
Once you're pretty good at that, get yourself (or make) a loop with E major diatonic chords (E F#m G#m, A, B, C#m, D#m7b5), and practice playing around with that string. See what you can do with that.
Once you're comfortable with that, move on to the second string, and repeat. Maybe you'll want to get adventurous and play with both strings at the same time!
Rinse and repeat for all six strings.
If you spend about a month per scale (12 months, 12 different major scales. Works out to about three years of study if you want to do most of the really important scales), you'll really be able to open up the fretboard. Of course, then you need to learn how to apply them, for which I would really recommend a private teacher.