Starting Scale Positions??

[BadAspen]

Good morning all,

I'm a long time bass player, relatively new guitar player, but I want to transition fron music player to music creater. If I want to start by learning the scale positions of the major and minor scale where the root note is on the E string, as well as the Maj and Min scales on the A string, what positions are those? It's really easy for bass, I just needed to learn two simple shapes (R, 3rd, 5th, Oct) and then add in the other notes as I understood their sound.

I think I've got the A string down. Learning the C major scale up to the 7th fret helped with that. I guess G major would be where to go next?

I've tried looking at images online, but I must admit diagrams with a lot of info are tough for me.

[Mincer]

I start with F major, and learn the 7 shapes. From there, it is easy to move it to the key you need.

[GuitarStv]

Everything you know for bass will translate across to guitar - EADG is all the same and your root/3rd/5th/octave stuff is all still going to work. Really you should just need to focus on the two highest strings.

[Clint 55]

These are the major and minor scale positions starting on the E and A strings. The position labeled 1 is minor starting with your index finger on the E string. The position labeled 2 is major starting with your middle finger on the E string. The position labeled 4 is minor starting with your index finger on the A string. The position labeled 5 is major starting with your middle finger on the A string. These positions all connect and you should practice playing up a single string and shifting positions, not only playing in boxes. You should also learn these positions but as the pentatonic scale. Next is the blues scale positions and modes.

[Mincer]

^This is a strange way of looking at it to me.

But in the end, you can get used to all kinds of different ways of doing it. There really isn't one answer.

[Clint 55]

Do you mean them labeling 5 (pentatonic) positions instead of the 7 modes? I agree, but I was just looking for an image that showed the basic info he was looking for - box 1 of major and minor on the E and A strings.

[Mincer]

Do you mean them labeling 5 (pentatonic) positions instead of the 7 modes? I agree, but I was just looking for an image that showed the basic info he was looking for - box 1 of major and minor on the E and A strings.

Yeah, with some weir position shifts, and starting the bigger strings with the 2nd finger (I'd guess).

[Seashore]

Maybe a simpler 3-note-per-string pattern in one hand position would be an easier place to start? It gives you a bit over two octaves without having to slide your hand around. It's how I started learning scales, anyway.

This is one position of the A minor scale, looking across the fretboard as you would when you're holding it. I would try playing this from low to high, going index-middle-ring or index-middle-pinky depending on what's comfortable for you, and then going backwards. Tonics are in red.




It starts on the 3rd fret of the lowest string but you can see that it's somewhat "centered" around the 5th fret (which is A on the low and high strings). The cool thing about this is that if you want to play in E minor, you can just slide this whole pattern up so it's "centered" on the 12th fret instead - or any other key, depending on your starting place. And if you want to play an A Major scale, you can just shift this pattern down by 3 frets, which would again hold true for whatever key you happen to be in.

Easy enough to expand this and try different stuff after you get one pattern down.

[Clint 55]

Yeah, with some weird position shifts, and starting the bigger strings with the 2nd finger (I'd guess).

Starting with the root of the scale on the middle finger doesn't matter because in music you don't start all passages on the root. This just gives you the opportunity to use the 7th degree of the scale with your index finger.