where
b means flat.
It's
not essential to know every note on the guitar
neck, but it is a great advantage and your playing
will benefit if you do. I'm not going to go
through the best ways to learn the fretboard
in this lesson, but you should make an effort
to do so as you progress.
Next
you need to understand the general methods used
to describe scales. There are three: Step patterns,
scale formulae and notes.
Starting
with the last one, this is simply where a list
of the notes in the scale is given. This is
fine for a particular scale, say C major, but
not very practical if you then want to change
that to say D major. Using this method you would
have to specify the notes for D major all over
again.
That's
why we use step patterns and scale formulae
to define scales. Step patterns tell you how
many steps to move from one note to the next
in a scale. Here is an example of a step pattern:
W
- H - W - W - H - W - W - W
where
W repesents a whole step (2 frets) and H represents
half a step (1 fret). More on this later.
Scale
formulae tell you which notes to play in relation
to the major scale, allowing you to easily define
any scale in any key.
For
example, the notes in the A major scale are:
A
- B - C# - D - E - F# - G# - A
(we'll cover this later). If we apply the following
formula:
1
- 2 - 3b - 4 - 5 - 6b - 7b - 8
we
get:
A
- B - C - D - E - F - G
(Remember
here I am using "b" to represent flat)
Make
sure you fully understand this before you move
on.
Right,
with all that out of the way, let's take a look
at our first scale, the Major Scale. This is
the most common scale so learn it, and learn
it well.
In
the key of C the major scale is C D E F G A
B C. This is easy to remember as it has no sharps
or flats in it. The scale formula for C major
is simply 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, and the step pattern
is W - W - H - W - W - W - H.
Scales
are represented using scale diagrams. These
are similar to chord diagrams. Here is the scale
diagram for F# Major:
The
black circles represent the root notes (i.e.
F# in this case). To form any other major scale,
simply shift the whole pattern up or down the
neck so that the root note matches the scale
you are trying to form. So to form A Major,
shift the whole lot up the neck so that the
root note is on the fifth fret on the low E
string.
Practise moving the scale around the neck to
form other major scales.
Note:
This is not the only possible fingering pattern
for the major scale. We will cover other patterns
in future lessons. In the mean time try working
out a few alternatives.
That's
the end of this lesson on scales. If this all
seems a bit fuzzy to you, don't worry! It will
become clearer when you start putting the theory
into practise. Stay tuned for the next installment!
Andy
Webber.
Part
2
