Sunday 29 December 2013

What scale to learn

What are scales? What guitar scales should you study? If you are
  new to the guitar, and new to music, you are probably not even
  quite sure exactly what a scale actually is, which certainly adds
  to the aura of mystery that begins to surround the subject.

  Learning and practicing scales can become an obsession for many
  guitarists. Scales can "free your fingers and freeze your brain",
  if you're not careful. Always keep in mind that scales are part
  of the preparation work we do so we will be free to express
  ourselves musically.

  Scales are to the musician what skipping a rope is to a boxer,
  it's part of the preparation work. Scales are simply a means to
  an end. What guitar scales should you study depends on the type
  of music you want to play. It's far better to master a small
  number of scales and be able to apply these scales to many
  musical settings.

  The first thing to understand is that there are hundreds of
  scales, to give you an idea of what you're up against, here's a
  short sample of some of the names of scales starting with the
  letter "L".

  Leading Whole Tone
  Locrian
  Locrian #2
  Locrian b4
  Locrian Flat 4
  Locrian Minor
  Locrian natural 2
  Locrian Natural 2nd
  Locrian Sharp 2nd
  Lydian
  Lydian 7b
  Lydian Augmented
  Lydian b7
  Lydian contracted
  Lydian diminished
  Lydian Diminished 1
  Lydian Diminished 2
  Lydian Dominant
  Lydian dominant scale4
  Lydian Minor
  Lydian Sharp 2nd


  Keep in mind, this is only a sample from a very long list of
  scales. Each one of these scales can be played in 12 different
  keys as guitarists we have the added issue of multiple fingering
  options on the guitar fretboard. What guitar scales should we
  study is a very important question, to be honest five minutes
  thought deciding what to practice is much better than five hours
  of haphazard practice.

  Scales are the building blocks from which all music is created. we use 
scales to create melodies (horizontal structures), chords (vertical structures), 
arpeggios (oblique structures).          

  Scales in themselves are not music they are simply our musical
  alphabet. In the hands of a skilled musician they can create
  music.

  Three things to consider when learning scales:

  (a) there's the intellectual aspect, data memory information
  i.e., the names of the notes and their scale step numbers.

  (b) applying this knowledge to the guitar, in order to do this
  successfully we need to be able to identify all the notes on the
  fingerboard by name, not simply by a fingering pattern.

  (c) motor skill training i.e., speed is a byproduct of accuracy,
  with the right amount of accurate repetitions, scales will be
  stored in the brain as a reflex function, training very slowly to
  avoid mistakes.

  Where to start:

  The first scale guitar players should study would be the minor
  pentatonic scale. the minor pentatonic scale is a five note
  scale, (penta = five) found throughout the world.

  Example of the minor pentatonic scale in the key of A would be:

  A - C - D - E - G

  The second scale guitar players should study would be the blues
  scale. the blues scale is one of the most frequently used scales.
  It is also important because it is the first real scale of
  American origin.

  The blues scale is a six note scale, one way of thinking of this
  scale would be to treat the blues scale as a minor pentatonic
  scale with a flattened 5th.

  Example of the Blues scale in the key of A would be:

  A - C - D - Eb - E - G


  The third scale guitar players should study would be the major
  pentatonic scale. The major pentatonic scale is another five note
  scale.


  Example of the major pentatonic scale in the key of A would be:

  A - B - C# - E - F#


  It is thought that the pentatonic scales represent early stages
  of musical development, because it is found, in different forms,
  in most of the world's music. These two pentatonic scales
  together with the blues scale are used to create riffs, licks and
  solos on many popular recordings.

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