By Mike W. Huff


Many guitarists all over the world do not know the secrets of becoming a complete guitarist. They struggle through the years, copying licks and solos, but the never really understand what they are doing with their instrument. If you are one of those guys wanting to understand what you play, guitar scale practice is totally essential for you.

Some Background Information About Scales

Musical scales have been around for hundreds of years, and they are the foundation for musical styles. The most common is the Western Style Music, where all the pop and rock fit in e.g. Typical scales in this genre of music are diatonic, natural minor, pentatonic, chromatic, whole tone and diminished scales. These are also the scales to be used on the guitar.

What Can Guitar Scale Practice Do For You Playing?

If you practice scales on your guitar on a regular basis, you will soon start to note your playing improve tremendously. You will feel more free when you are improvising along with CD's or when jamming with others in a band. It will become much easier for you to learn licks and solos, when you suddenly see the system they are built upon. You will also get a better understanding for chords and arpeggios, when you can see them in context to scales. You will actually become a better guitarist in every area of your playing.

So, Where Do You Start Your Guitar Scale Practice?

There are many scales in music, which are all great to know. But you can't learn them all at once. You need to begin with the simple things, so I recommend you start out with either the diatonic scales, or major scales as they are usually called, or with the pentatonic scales.

Both of these are a great starting point, and are also the basis for all the other scales you can learn at a later time. Start learning these two scales, and learn them in and out, in all the different positions and possible fingerings/patterns, all over your fretboard. Don't just play them in one key, but try to learn them in all different keys from C to B.

The 2 Scales to Start With in Your Guitar Scale Practice

Here are a couple of examples of what the patterns could look like at your guitar fretboard, try to learn them slowly, until you have the fingerings correct and nailed down in your mind and fingers.

- This is the A Major Scale or A Diatonic Scale, in the 5th position, pattern 1/6:

E---------------------------------------------------------------------5--7--9--
B-------------------------------------------------------5--7--9-----------------
G----------------------------------------------6--7--------------------------------
D--------------------------------6--7--9-----------------------------------------
A------------------5--7--9--------------------------------------------------------
E---5--7--9------------------------------------------------------------------------

- And this is the A Minor Pentatonic Scale, in the 5th position, pattern 1/6:

E------------------------------------------------5--8----
B---------------------------------------5--8--------------
G------------------------------5--7-----------------------
D---------------------5--7---------------------------------
A------------5--7-------------------------------------------
E---5--8-----------------------------------------------------

These scales are perfect to start with if you are a beginner, but you could also benefit from learning them if you are an intermediate guitarist, without great knowledge about scales and different scale fingerings.

Incorporate these scales into your daily guitar scale practice and you will definitely see some results quite soon.

By Craig Bassett


To start off this guitar scales practice tip, let me ask you a quick question. When was the last time you learnt a guitar scale to mastery? What I mean "to mastery" is this...

• You can play the scale anywhere on your fretboard.
• You know exactly what each note of the guitar scale sounds like.
• You can see the scale over your entire fretboard.
• You have memorized the notes and scales degrees of the scale. And you can see these notes and scale degrees over the entire fretboard.
• You can solo using the guitar scale without having to think.
• You have a large vocabulary of licks that you can play using the scale.

I'm guessing that you probably said something along the lines of "Never". And that's fine! Most guitarists never completely master the guitar scales that they learn. They just learn scales on a very superficial level.

And that is the number one reason why they struggle to use scales in a musical way when they improvise solos.

Try this experiment for a minute. Start talking about a subject that you know a lot about. It could be about anything. There are no rules! Pretend that you are explaining the subject to a friend. Keep on doing this for a few minutes. After you have finished, please read the rest of the article.

So what did you notice as you did it? Did you notice how you were thinking about the IDEAS that you were trying to convey and NOT the actual words themselves? I can almost guarantee that you didn't think about the spelling of all of the words that you said. If you did, you would find it impossible to speak fluently...
Why is this? Why are you able to use those words without having to think?

You have imprinted those words into your brain so much that now you don't consciously have to think when you use them. You spent countless hours learning, practicing, and mastering those words when you were young. Now you can use those words without thought. And do you know what?

It MUST be this way with the guitar scales that you learn!

You need to learn them so well that you don't have to think when you play them. It must become as easy as tying your shoelaces. Sure...you might think about the IDEAS you want to convey when you solo, but you don't want to be thinking about the scale itself. If you do, then fluent and creative improvisation will be impossible.

So what's the answer? It's pretty simple. Keep practicing that scale until you don't have to think when you play it! If it takes a month...great! If it takes six months...no problem! Just stick at that one scale until it has been totally mastered.