Learn Your Guitar Scales in These 4 Steps!

As Guitarist we need to know our scales from multiple perspectives and how they correlate… doing this “connects the dots.”

1. Know your scales by Sound.
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Be able to recognize if it’s a major, natural minor, chromatic, and pentatonic.
2. Know your scales by Number (Scale Degrees, Formula, Intervals)
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Relate the notes to the scale as “scale degrees,” or “numbers.”
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Understand the interval and find the formula or pattern associated with that scale.
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Expand your intervals from steps to distance of the scale degree.
3. Know your scales by Shape.

I say “Guitar is Easy” because we have a bunch of moveable shapes.

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When it comes to our essential scales, there are only 13 Shapes that you need to learn.
4. Know your scales by Notes/Accidentals
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Guitar is one of the few instruments that can get away knowing your scales by (1) Sound, (2) Numbers or (3) Shape and NOT Necessarily Learn the Notes…
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The easiest way to learn the letter names of notes in a scale is to use the Circle of 4ths/5ths and learn ONE scale at a time.

Although this may take some time to learn, once you master these concepts this knowledge is not something that will be taken away from you. It will become engrained in your mind and you’ll develop a muscle memory in your hands. Every melody that you learn from here on out will be 1000x easier just from having this knowledge!