Guitar scale help

[Jackson dkvp]

Ok, so my guitar teacher gave me a list of scale positions a few months back. long story short I dont go to lessons anymore but I frogot how to know what scale number you start with for each key.

I know that you start with scale number 4 on the note f for the (c) scale but other then that I cant rmemeber how to figure the rest out... here is a picture of what the scales look like. I am refuring to the first 7 boxes... the scales next to them are the blues pentatonic.

thank you.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Guitar scale help

I know that you start with scale number 4 on the note f for the (c) scale

Where you start on the scale is up to you. When practicing a scale though most start on the tonic. So for a C pentatonic scale start on C.

 

[Jackson dkvp]

Re: Guitar scale help

Where you start on the scale is up to you. When practicing a scale though most start on the tonic. So for a C pentatonic scale start on C.

Yea..that i know but I am trying to learn the scales all the way up the neck.

 

[BigAlTheBird]

Re: Guitar scale help

I don't quite understand your question. Are you trying to learn major pentatonic or what? It makes a pretty big difference, as I'm sure you know.

 

[Matt Blackett]

Re: Guitar scale help

The first seven diagrams (going down vertically from the left hand side of the page) are the seven modes of the major scale. Whatever note you start on would be your tonic or root. Let's assume it's C, at the 8th fret of the low E string. These diagrams would then give you C Ionian (same as a major scale). If you play the same tones but start at D at the 10th fret of your low E string you'll get D Dorian (a bluesy minor scale), then E Phrygian (Eastern-y minor mode), F Lydian (cool angular major mode), G Mixolydian (great bluesy pop major mode), A Aeolian (true minor scale), and finally B Locrian.
Another thing you can do to really hear the differences between these modes is play each of these shapes starting on C, for C Ionian, C Dorian, etc.
Good luck. Hope that helps.

 

[Osensei]

Re: Guitar scale help

What's wrong with just picking a scale and then practicing it by starting at the different degrees in series up and down the neck. Its just practicing modes. Why do you even need a diagram? If you can understand the structure of the scales from a theoretical standpoint then I don't really see the need for diagrams.

Personally, I wouldn't shy away from the keyboard. I studied my scales at least structurally on the keyboard first, where everything is in black and white. Once I understood the structure (where the whole steps and half steps are) I moved to the fretboard. In this way I never had to use diagrams since I understood the step-wise "formula" for constructing a given scale.

Therein is the rub! Maybe you should think in terms of constructing a scale rather than learning by rote. For me personally, diagrams are useful in identifying pivotal points in the scale where I can shift positions but thats about it.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: Guitar scale help

What you have here is a roadmap that you don't understand. Just learning these fingerings is not going to help you at all if you don't understand how they work, what exactly they are, and why they are what they are, you'll just be making noise up and down the fretboard in a pattern. lol

Most people don't know how to answer youre question because I'm not sure too many people know what you're asking. For any given key the tonic starts on the first scale degree. You can start on any scale degree, using that pattern of intervals and still be in the same key. Think range of notes and intervals rather than where to start.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Guitar scale help

I think he wants to play a scale starting in the first position then go through all 5 positions ending up higher in octaves and finishing on the high e string up the neck. I only know how to do this for a pentatonic scale but I don't have time to tab it for you. The Rock House Method DVD's have that technique.

 

[Osensei]

Re: Guitar scale help

I guess the problem is that so many use scales as a tool for learning to improvise. In order for this to work, the player must be prepared to transition to any given scale at any given moment as he/she tries to keep up with the music's harmonic progression.

In the heat of improv, it would be rediculous for a player to go "Ah! Fmaj ... FGABb ..., then Ah! Cmaj ... CDEF..." and so on. Instead the player has to be prepared to start on any note of any given scale, anywhere on the neck, at any time, while still remaining in the right key. To accommodate this type of spontaneous scale choice some people like to think in terms of modes. After all D dorian is really the C ionian starting on the second degree right? So by practicing modes you're really doing the same thing that the origanal poster is talking about right?

 

[Jackson dkvp]

Re: Guitar scale help

Thanks everyone,

I called my old guitar teacher and he explained what it ment. Your supposed to take what ever key your in and see wahter it has an F or an F# in it. then you count to the f and then you start with that number. on the f or f #

example.

if its the key of G you have and F# in the scale so you take your scale.. GABCDEF#G then you count to the F# which happens in theis key to be the # 7 so you start on the second fret of the low e string (F#) and you start with the 7th scale pattern and you workyour way up the neck trough the scale patterns.