The major scale is easiest to see by looking at the white keys on the piano. The major scale in 7 positions terence wright guitar. Every major scale, regardless of key, has the same intervallic structure. Near the bottom of the page i also provide a pdf download of all harmonic minor keys in standard tuning. This pattern differs from the first in that it doesnt feature any open strings hence. Major scale forms 3 notes per string there are many ways to play major scales on the neck of the guitar. The white keys with a black key in between are a whole step apart and the ones without a black key in between are a half step. You will almost certainly know the sound of the scale if only from the sound of music song video of the famous song. The ebook contains the most important scales for beginners, such as major and minor, but shows also more advanced. If you become really familiar with major scales, you can figure out every other scale by modifying the major scale. Understanding minor scales in this brief tutorial we are going to try to demystify minor scales. The first c major scale guitar pattern were going to look at is ideal for beginners this is the.
The added bonus from learning these 2 altered minor scales well is that they both have their own series of 7 modes each. The above is meant to show you the intervals of the major scale. The major scale uses just seven notes from the twelve tone chromatic scale, which is what gives us its unique intervals the spaces between each note in the scale. C major scale positions on the fretboard online guitar books. The diagrams provide basic chords for a beginning guitarist. Use this major scale pattern to help complete the exercises. The major scale is used as the basic starting point for many scales and modes. If you are interested in learning about modes and guitar scales, it should be pointed out that the c major scale is effectively the same scale as the c ionian scale. On the diagrams above we have just seen a scale pattern with all the notes on one single string. In order to cycle through as many areas of scale practice as possible and not get bored it is important to have a plan. Also includes the five closed major scale patterns over the entire. Now, try playing the third fret on the sixth string of the guitar the note g with your first finger. Each different way has its advantages and disadvantages for different situations.
Finding the major scales on a guitar is not as hard as you might think. At first it will be easiest to start the scale or pattern on the sixth or fifth strings. Open position major scales for guitar lesson printout pdf dap if you would like to learn how these open position major scales for guitar are used to create different bass runs to connect chords, be sure and check out my rhythm guitar mastery course. Apr 28, 2016 books on bass guitar scales you can find plenty of bass guitar scale pdfs on the internet, and a good book on the subject will have bass guitar scale charts to study. Get your free instant download of the pdf version of this guide now. Since the root is on the e note open low e string, this is an e major scale. Apr 12, 2016 c major scales for classical guitar from my ebook see info below. The end goal is to fully memorize all of the 5 scale patterns as they come in handy during improvisation and soloing.
Once weve gotten to grips with the 1 octave open position version of the c major scale, we can move onto this next closed position c major scale guitar pattern. A beginners guide page 7 practicing here are a few notes about how to approach practicing with the best frame of mind. Clicking on the graphics will start playback of the integrated sound. Ill be working through a basic fingering for a c major scale, then showing you how to move that shape around the neck. Jul 31, 2015 major and minor pentatonic scales may seem to the untrained eye like they are the same scale, because they seem similar on the guitar fretboard. For example, as you practice in f, learn where f is all over the fretboard. Use the scale chart generator below to help you learn the harmonic minor scales in any key and just about any kind of guitar tuning. Each week, well supply you with essential information on music theory and delivery it in a way that is easily comprehensible. If you move the root to the 7th fret it becomes b major. Once we return to the root at fret 12, the e note one octave higher than the open e, the scale would start over again, so it can be viewed as a cycle. Then write the name of the scale and fill in its key signature. D major when writing key signatures the order of flats and sharps must always remain the same. The numerical name for a scale degree comes from its position in the order of the scale from low to high. For example if you take the g major scale above and move it to the 5th fret root, it becomes a major.
Scales are presented as fretboard diagrams, as well as in notation and tab. Chapter 6 major scales and key signatures 111 scale degrees and solfege because there are seven different notes in a major scale, there are seven scale degrees. So all five scale shapes see below are g major scale. G major e minor pentatonic scale guitar scales the pentatonic scale is a favorite of many guitarists and its easy to see why. This pdf contains the diagrams for all the major and minor pentatonic scales in all keys for guitar in standard tuning. There are 7 modes, but in this lesson well only have a look at 4, to keep things simple. Which you can find by taking the major pentatonic scale, for example the c major pentatonic scale, and playing the same notes but starting from the 5th note of the scale, in this case the a.
To derive the major pentatonic scale from the major scale well get to. When we are dealing strictly with major scales we really only have one scale to draw our notes and melodies from. So combined with the seven major scale modes we will have 21 scales sounds to choose from so stay tuned, this ride is just getting started. You can play the c major scale below in open position.
A scale is a very specific pattern of notes that is used to create the basic building blocks of music. A major scale, guitar theory explained with visual color coded notes showing octave ranges, root notes, and app for guitar and bass with scales, arpeggios and chords with sound. Pdf total guitar the ultimate scale book guilherme. Subscribe for more free jazz guitar lessons and videos. The blocks that are numbered are the tones that make up the major scale. The major scale formula is derived from the nature of the overtone series and is. The ebook contains the most important scales for beginners, such as major and minor. The major scale is the cornerstone of all western harmony, when we describe other scales it is always in relation to the major scale and the naming conventions for chords and all forms are harmony come from the major scale. Theres more than one way to play the c major scale on a guitar. Free printable guitar scales 14 most commonly used scales.
Get your guitar out of the guitar bag and put it on the guitar stand in absolutely clear sight. We will learn all of these shapes starting on the 5th fret of our low e string. Fit those chords into a harmonized major scale, better known as the i. Go to the 6th step of the major scale and build an 8 note scale in that key.
Positions of the major scale guitar lesson liveabout. How to apply the major scale on the guitar dummies. This is an a note, so we will be working with the a major scale. You can print out some or all of it, slap it in a 3ring. Major ii v i shell chords jazz guitar lesson here are examples of major ii v is. Download the 7 major scalesmodes for guitar pdf for the rest of the scale patterns. The first shape starts with your middle finger, the second with your index finger, and the third with your pinky. But to be honest, thats useless information to us in blues solos. The key of c is the simplest key to learn the scale because it contains no accidentals no sharps or flats. Guitar scale patterns in the pattern above, the tonic notes of the scale are represented by green circles. Aug 30, 2019 in other words, by learning a single major scale pattern for example the basic pattern shown below, youll be able to play any major scale, be it a c major, d major, e major, etc. Scales you can use in the real world, created by a human guitarist. In order to build a scale from the intervals of the octave we need a formula.
Play the scale forwards and backwards, staying in position throughout, using your fourth pinky finger to stretch. The shapes are sometimes also referred to as positions. The guitar major scale is happy upbeat and useful in a variety of styles of music. It contains the sections chord, scale and arpeggio. The major guitar scale has a upbeat happy sound to it. Your plan should cover several days and allow for varied work on each. The 7 scales on the chart below are a good place to start. Major scale caged harmonic minor scale caged melodic minor. Of course you can play all the major scales with these, as long as the tonic, aka the note that gives the name to the scale, sits in the red circles. And you can find the relative major pentatonic scale of a minor pentatonic scale by playing from the 2nd note of the minor scale, which is c. Here is an overview of the major scale in the key of c, using the 3 notes per string system.
You can get more diagrams in the tuning of your choice by using my interactive web app here. Clicking here and on the image below will open a pdf file of the guitar major scale chart that prints nicely. In this lesson we are going to take a look at a very common major scale system on the guitar. In other words, every note in the scale is associated with a chord. When applying the major scale to music on the guitar, you have to pick music thats drawn from the same scale. Major scales on the guitar follow the pattern shown below, playing the notes in the number order they appear below remember, the 8 of the first octave serves as the 1 of the second octave. With this i mean that the order in which the major and minor chords appear is always the same. Traditionally, guitarists think of the guitar neck as being broken up into blocks of four frets, and, depending on what key you want to play in, your hand is positioned over that block of four frets. First, dont hurt yourself, especially when youre just starting. These guitar scale illustrations use the familiar finger numbering pattern of. Relative major and minor scales there is a unique relationship between the keys of major scales and minor scales.
However, we have 3 different types of minor scales when working in minor keys. Remember its the process, not always the end result that you want. This grounds the scale very securely in the chord and leaves only so much room for getting lost. Relative major and minor scales share the same key signatures.
D major guitar scale pattern chart map these are great d major scales for playing blues, rock, metal, country and some jazz. With the accompanying audio files especially the wav file, the chords sample the harmonic palette of new standard tuning. Register on the site still free get pdf downloads for many lesson, your own dashboard to keep track of your practice, get help with lessons and make requests. Following are three books we especially suggest you consider. These scales are essential for beginning jazz guitarists and enable you to play over almost any jazz standard. If you want to download a pdf of the material i cover here then go to my website. Whatever method you have to use to find it is worth the time. For myself and my students, ive always thought of scales. The major scale uses onenote from each letter of the musical alphabet. Think of the guitar you are playing and what you want your practice space to look like. Understanding minor scales guitarlessons365 free guitar. For example, the key of c major corresponds to the c major scale. Pdf includes notation, tab, fingering, some diagrams, tips, and more. There are 12 such harmonic scales, one for each pair of relative keysmajor and.
Guitar scales printable charts of the most commonly used. Each scale is illustrated in more than one fretboard position, giving you a suitable scale pattern. Free guitar scales pdf 84 scale and arpeggios chart. How to play the blues arpeggio on guitar jazz guitar lessons. Next notice how each mode has one or two notes that makes it unique from the major or natural minor scale. This pdf method for guitar contains 40 ii v i jazz guitar lines with tab.
So the best way to practice is to choose a root, a string, a direction left or right, and major or minor. It is a very useful scale for improvising over major chords because, of the. The forth modes is a major mode that, in my opinion, is the most beautiful of all scales. Common open and closed scale patterns up to four sharps or flats, two octaves some three octaves, and examples of open string shifts. The example is in g major, like in the video, but as i. In the video below i perform this sessions exercise at three different tempos. It is used in quite a few types of music including. To play major scales on the guitar, you just move that pattern along the neck of the guitar to build whatever major scale. Guitar lovers manual is a digital book with sound in pdf format for printing purposes. Just switching the notes around gives it another sound and feel. Learning these d major fret board scale patterns will open up a whole new world when its time for you to play a guitar lead or solo. Jul 04, 2019 major scales for classical guitar pdf beginner to intermediate classical guitar.
For any minor key, the relative major is 3 frets up the neck. Nov 25, 2016 this is a simple bass lesson on the major scale for beginners. When indicating a major key, you can omit the word major. The major scale on guitar the major scale should be one of the first scales you learn on guitar, because its one of the most commonly referenced in music especially western music. Guitar lovers manual chord, arpeggio and scale pdf with. In this session i will introduce to you a version of the major scale that spans 2 octaves and all six strings. The chord structure for the major scale is the same for all keys. The guitar scales chart book features all of the widelyused guitar scales pentatonic, blues, etc. You simply move your fretting hand to the correct position on the guitar neck and play the notes as shown on the pattern. Bass guitar scales made easy learn guitar for free. The pdf for this session will be great to practice building speed.
Major scale fixed position patterns these are the famous 5 box movable patterns for the major scale. This lesson is all about three of the most common major scale shapes on the guitar. The chords associated with the c major scale are c major, d minor, e minor, f major, g major, a minor, b diminished. For each scale, you can learn a number of different shapes and patterns, depending on the zone of the fretboard youre working on. Each major pentatonic scale has a relative minor pentatonic scale attached to it. Major and minor bass guitar scales bass books and music. Below is a pattern for playing a c major scale starting at the 8 th fret of the low e string you can find out how to read scale patterns on this page. The 5 major scale caged shapes positions guitarhabits. The ionian aka major scale, dorian and mixolydian scales are called modes in music theory learn more about guitar modes here. For the purpose of the series of lessons on guitar modes, we are going to treat c ionian and c major as an identical scale. The major scale is the master scale, from which all other scales can be derived. Heres a free guitar scales pdf ebook 22 pages with plenty of scales and arpeggios patterns. These scales can also help you learn every note on the guitar. In this lesson youll examine and play through the 7 forms of the major scale on guitar.
Practice major scales like this and you will get more out of it. How to play the major scale on guitar complete guide. As you can see, even thought the fingerings are the same for both scales, the position of the root notes are different from each scale. They are distinguished by the fact that the tonic root or 1 st note of the scale. Nf when i grow up easy guitar lesson tabs easy chords.
Minor scales cheat sheet harmonic minor raise the 7 th scale degree melodic minor raise the 6 th and 7 th scale degree ascending, revert to. This guitar lesson explains how to mix minor and major triads in order to play. Meter, scales, and key signatures because the white keys running from c to the next c an octave higher form a sequence of notes that have minor 2nds only between ef the 3rd and 4th notes and bc the 7th and 8th notes, musicians call that series of notes a c major scale. The next thing to do is to put everything you need for practicing in the right place. Starting with the given note, complete each major scale. To determine what scale a song is drawn from, follow these simple steps. These patterns are the key to unlocking the power of the pentatonic scale on your guitar. Chaurette, december 2012 there are 5 different ways to play a major scale on the guitar. It also helps to think of modes as major 3 or minor b3, which depends on the third. Organizing major scales on the guitar in 7 forms is a worthy alternative to playing scales in 5 forms using the caged system the 7 form major scale system demands that you keep your index and ring finger on the same two frets as you play across the fretboard to maintain the same hand position. On the guitar, we have different options, as the same note exists on different strings unlike the piano keyboard, on which the notes. The root notes in this case a, are shown by the black dots, the other notes in the scale are shown by the red dots. Major scales for classical guitar pdf sheet music, tab. You can apply these scale shapes to all 12 keys by simply.
And you can find the relative major pentatonic scale of a minor. Chord progression chart user guide pdf how music really works. In this post we use the g major scale as an example. The most effective way of breaking down this formula is to see it in relation to the chromatic scale the entire twelve notes of the guitar. For a start, you should begin by committing patterns 1, 4 and 5 to your memory.
Major scales for classical guitar pdf beginner to intermediate classical guitar. Next, slide that finger up to the fifth fret, and play the pattern shown here. They each have a distinct pattern that can be played anywhere on the neck of the guitar. Mar 15, 2014 the five caged scale shapes c shape, a shape, g shape, e shape and d shape surround the entire fretboard. Even if this pattern is right, its also inefficient as we have to move our hand up and down the neck the get the note. As youll soon discover, its not just a scale for the purposes of soloing, but a system for organising other important musical elements. In this lesson i run through some common open and closed patterns for c major which are great for technique or to just build a foundation, and then i go over closed patterns for c major scales over the entire fretboard of the guitar. The major scale is used to solo over major family chords, especially tonic major chords, such as major, maj7, maj9, 6, and 69 chords. In reverse, the relative minor of any major key is 3 frets down. One of the first scales you encounter when learning how to play guitar is the major scale. High graphic resolution enables printing of best quality large format printouts.