Cosmic Guitar Academy: Beginner Lessons: Guitar Scales Part 3

This lesson follows on from parts one and two. If you haven't read these lessons yet, click here.

In the previous lessons I have introduced guitar scales and shown you the major and minor scales using both the Caged system and the three-notes-per-string method. Hopefully you have been practising these and can play them blindfolded! Now it's time to introduce another method which will allow you to expand your playing and move all over the neck.

The patterns I showed you before are rooted to one position on the neck. You may have noticed that there are many variations of these that can be played at different positions on the neck. Wouldn't it be great if you could link up all the positions? Well that's what we're going to do in this lesson.

You could of course write down all the notes in a scale and work out every possible place on the neck where you could play them, but this would be a lengthy and pointless exercise, as many of these notes would not be in a practical place on the neck to be played easily. Instead, we have another pattern called the horizontal pattern, which shows the notes of the scale distributed in such a way that you can easily use to move up or down the neck when you play them. This can then be used to connect up all the different positions you already know.

Here are two horizontal patterns for the major scale, with roots on the E and A strings respectively:

Practise going up and down each scale. You might find it useful to print these out. When you have learnt these, do the same for the minor scale:

Try playing the scales using a strict alternate picking technique. This is great for improving the synchronisation of both hands. You can also play them using a sliding technique which allows you to play much more smoothly and fluidly.

Once you know these variations, use them to link together the Caged and three-notes-per-fret patterns that you learnt previously.

Your homework until next time: Spend time learning these patterns thoroughly, but more importantly, spend time improvising using them. People often think learning scales is boring, and to a certain extent, it is. But if you make it fun you will enjoy your playing more, and learn much more efficiently. Get creative and have fun experimenting!