English - Guitar Scales: A Practical Guide to Understanding the Guitar Fretboard

Scales For Guitar is a unique approach to learning scales. It is presented in a logical step-by-step format leading to a "practical" understanding of one area of guitar study by building a solid foundation, both in practical hands-on application and an understanding of the theory behind it.

This approach can be used for self-guided study or as a teaching method for instructors. Each page is presented as a lesson and is visually clear with tips and background.

A scale is a group of related notes organized in an ascending or descending order from a starting note, in other words, a ladder of notes. The two most common scale sounds are called major and minor. The difference between these two scale sounds is in the distances between the notes. In this book, we will be dealing with both major and minor scale sounds.

The most common scale sound is the do re mi fa so la ti do scale, the major scale. In order to come to a more complete understanding of what that means we must examine the notes' relationships to each other, for example, from do to re, or from ti to do.

Let's write down a representation of the scale in music notation, starting on the "root" note C.

C to D on the guitar fretboard is 2 frets, this distance is referred to as a "tone." D to E is also 2 frets, also a "tone." E to F is only a single fret distance. This is a "semi-tone" or half a tone. F to G is a tone, G to A is a tone, A to B is a tone and once again, B to C is a semi-tone.

Therefore, a major scale is made up of the following distances between the notes.

Tone, Tone, Semi-tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-tone

So this can be said about a major scale; it is a tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semi-tone scale. This pattern of distances can start from any given note. If we start on a C note (TTSTTTS) we call that scale C major. If we begin those same distances starting on a G note, G major, from D, D major and so on. The notes will be different but the distances between the notes will be the same.

This can be illustrated by playing a major scale on a single string. Starting on the open high E string, play the TTSTTTS relationship. Don't worry about fingering for now. Just use finger 1, the index finger.

This is an E major scale. It is not all that practical, but it does demonstrate the principle of constructing a scale. Do the same exercise starting on any note. Remember that the starting note names the scale. Two common names for the starting note are "root" and "tonic."

The starting note or root note is the gravitational centre of the scale, and the other notes are attracted to the tonic or "key" centre. The C scale is said to be in the "key of C." The E scale, in the "key of E" and so on.

I hope this helps to clear up in your mind what a scale is: a group of notes organized by distances in an ascending or descending order from a starting note or tonal centre or "key" centre.

Let's examine how these relationships of notes are expressed on the guitar fretboard.

First, there are only seven different notes in this scale with the repeat of the first note completing the scale; this distance of eight notes is called an "octave."

These notes can be continued through several octaves depending on the range of the instrument. Notice that the notes have the same letter names, but are played in different octaves.

Scales are often practiced starting on the root note, then ascending through 1 or 2 or 3 octaves and then descending in the same order back to the tonic. This is good practice and will be discussed in greater detail later.

What we will examine now is the location of all the notes of the C major scale on the fretboard. But first, a few questions.