Guitar Scales

Anyone who has attempted to learn the guitar will confess to a period of time when all of those strings and frets were pretty intimidating. Those that still play will also tell you that as they stuck it out and kept practicing, it got easier to remember the scales and chord shapes that make up guitar playing. They will also tell you that it toughened up their fingers until they could play for hours.

Guitar scales are the building block for improvising, soloing, and lead guitar playing. Major chords, minor chords, major 7th chords, minor harmonic chords, and all of the rest come from the same basic understanding of the musical scale and its various groupings. Though at first it may seem complex, it is simple once you get used to it.

Every scale is made up of eight notes out of the 12 possible notes between the root (the lowest pitch) and the octave (the next highest sounding of the root pitch). The notes played determine the scale. The notes are called 1st (root), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, with the 8th being the octave. The differences between the major and minor versions of a scale come on the 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes. Other variations can then be added to form the other types of scales.

At DPR Technology, we have developed an interactive system that will help you learn and understand the building blocks of guitar playing to help you master the guitar quickly. Our 5-in-1 Value Pak will teach you several systems for learning scales and chords, learning music notation, memorizing the fretboard, and tuning your guitar. It is the perfect complement to private instruction that will leave your teacher impressed.