Scales for beginners

[Paranoid]

I'm a beginner guitarist and I was wondering what would be some good scales to practice with. Thanks.

[david taub]

Hi - its David Taub - As far as scales to start with I start my students off with Minor Pentatonic scales. Then just to give you a good batting order that really works well is after minor pentatonic we then make them into the blues scales. Then we flip minor pentatonic into major pentatonic, next comes major scales and then we tackle the modes of the major scale. Soon we will have on the site beginner lessons on minor pentatonic and making them into the blues scales. We have a bunch of intermediate lessons on scales and lead playing and we are working on connecting the two - we are just getting rolling - lots more to come. In fact I just finished shooting more theory lessons this evening and more minor pent beginner lessons - will do the editing and get them on the site soon.

Minor pentatonic is so widely used and across so many musical genres it is one of the most commonly used scales in music. You see it in rock, metal, alternative, country, jazz, swing, blues, - just about all genres - except for classical music. And it works over so many chords, progressions, and songs you will be using it all the time. But don't limit yourself just to minor pent - there is so much more to learn as listed above - as a guitarist you want to have a lot of tools in your musical toolbox. So please check back for our full on beginner lessons to minor pent and blues as well as the written lessons with diagrams coming to our "written lessons section" - coming very soon! AND ROCK ON!
-David

[AriadOr]

You should begin being familiar with Major and minor scales.

-Major Scale:

C = C D E F G A B C
Intervals = R - 2M - 3M - 4 - 5 - 6M - 7M
Steps = W W H W W W (W= whole = 2 half steps) (H = half step)

-Minor Scale

A = A B C D E F G A
Intervals = R - 2M - 3m - 4 - 5 - 6m - 7m
Steps = W H W W H W

-Pentatonic Scales are nice scales too:

A = A C D E G
Intervals = R 3m 4 5 7m
Steps = WH W W WH (WH = 3 half steps)

and by adding a 4+ on the scale above you are creating a
-Blues minor Scales, great sound and nice for improvisation:

A = A C D D# E G
Intervals = R 3m 4 4+ 5 7m
Steps = WH W H H WH

Good Luck:cool:

[EShirazi]

I'm sorry, but I'm still a beginner, but...

Can someone explain in full detail what exactly a scale is?

(im such a newb)

[Whiskey]

The scales are simply the notes that climb from low to high to form the "Doe-Ray-Mi-Fa-So-La-Tea-Doe" that we all know. There are tons of places on the guitar fretboard where we can find this pattern, in different keys.
Once you pick a certain scale (the certain "do-ray-mi" pattern) you can move around in that chord playing the different notes in different orders and all of them will sound like they belong. You can tell right away if one of the notes you play don't quite belong.
Once you learn each of the scales by themselves and where they can be found, you will also find that they run into each other to form longer chains.

Check out Davids lessons on scales and you'll get a better idea of what scales are all about.

[AriadOr]

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id21_en.html

If you cant understand what is in that link, you should look for a professor.

Good luck

[jmm]

That was a great example of scales...thanks even though I didn't send the original message.

[Paranoid]

Yeah, thanks a lot for the info.

[Ozzmike]

http://www.cyberfret.com/scales/index.php :D

[Dennis]

Hi,

There is also a great program called guitar scales methode on the market.
This program uses a animated fretbar to show u where whe notes of the different scales are.(and u can even play along)

http://www.guitarscalesmethod.com/gsm/trial.asp

Check This SH*T!

Rock On! and stay Tuned.

CheerZ

Dennis

[rock_angel]

http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id21_en.html

If you cant understand what is in that link, you should look for a professor.

Good luck

this is an absolutely brilliant site, thanks for posting it. Even though at this point in time I'm feeling quite brain dead I can understand what they're going on about and with looking at it a couple more times I will actualy remember what they're talking about

so overall thanks :-)

[demz007]

i dont understand wat are intervals. can u explain it? give samples plss

[pdx_David]

Intervals are the difference in pitch between two notes.

Here is a link to the wiki that can explain it better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(music) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_%28music%29)

[BILLT]

Stick with a scale that goes to 300 lbs. Those little food scales are hard to stand on.