Uke Scales - Three Notes Per String Method

This is some pretty cool stuff, and I think I have learned a lot in the last week. In the past I played quite complex stuff, but I played in "parrot" fashion. In future I'm going to make a list of all the notes in the chords of a piece and see what scales will fit. Awesome!
 
This is some pretty cool stuff, and I think I have learned a lot in the last week. In the past I played quite complex stuff, but I played in "parrot" fashion. In future I'm going to make a list of all the notes in the chords of a piece and see what scales will fit. Awesome!

You don't have to do that. You just need to understand Music Keys, and the Chord Progressions within the Keys.

For major scales the format would be:

Major Minor Minor Major Major Minor Diminished


For playing in Minor Keys it would be:

Minor Diminished Major Minor Minor Major Major

So for the Key of C Major you could play any of these chords, and it would sound good with the C Major scale:

Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj Amin Bdim

Just remember to start playing with the C major chord to maintain the key.

You might have noticed that the minor scale looks like the major scale, accept it starts on the sixth chord and follows the same chord progressions. That is because a minor scale is a variation of the major scale. In other words, A minor is the direct counterpart to the C major scale.

So the A minor chord progression would look like this:

Amin Bdim Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj

Here is a basic look at the "circle of fifths" wheel:
circle.gif
 
Hi guys. I edited the image and pdf links in the original post to redirect to my new website ( http://www.acousticmonster.com). I'm working on newer higher resolution versions of these patterns in Adobe Illustrator, and will be making those available at some point in the near future. I'll let you know when I have those completed.


Danny
 
Nice

Thanks for the work and post.
I did this for mandolin, and I used excel. It was pretty easy once I did the first one. Might save you some time as opposed to using Illustrator...
 
Thanks for the work and post.
I did this for mandolin, and I used excel. It was pretty easy once I did the first one. Might save you some time as opposed to using Illustrator...

See my email reply. I've got all the patterns done in illustrator, I'm trying to write some text to explain how they are used. I suck at writing so that's whats taking so long. :(

I also plan on making a ukulele chord bible at some point. I don't like most of the chord charts I've found on the net. They are either incomplete, or they don't show root notes, and etc.
 
See my email reply. I've got all the patterns done in illustrator, I'm trying to write some text to explain how they are used. I suck at writing so that's whats taking so long. :(

I also plan on making a ukulele chord bible at some point. I don't like most of the chord charts I've found on the net. They are either incomplete, or they don't show root notes, and etc.

Cool deal. Danny. Waiting with high anticipation. Great work thus far and an awesome site. Keep it up!

-Dan
 
Very nice thread. Extremely informative moving from guitar to Uke!

Sincere Thanks !
 
Monster, This looks like it was a lot of effort and has helped a bunch of people, thanks for putting it together! My question is, should I ditch the major scale pattern I learned for this one?

The one I learned matches the one aldrine talks about in uke minutes 103
http://ukuleleunderground.com/2010/10/uke-minutes-103-the-box-part-2/

I'd like to be able to improvise and I guess learning the scales from this thread are more flexible than the 'box' pattern right?
Thanks!
 
Monster, This looks like it was a lot of effort and has helped a bunch of people, thanks for putting it together! My question is, should I ditch the major scale pattern I learned for this one?

The one I learned matches the one aldrine talks about in uke minutes 103
http://ukuleleunderground.com/2010/10/uke-minutes-103-the-box-part-2/

I'd like to be able to improvise and I guess learning the scales from this thread are more flexible than the 'box' pattern right?
Thanks!


Hi Rerrett,

I looked at that video, and he is basically playing the same notes at the open position as in my 1st pattern; but for some reason he is not playing the notes on the G string. I'm not sure why though. I have to admit I've only watched a few of their videos. :(

The patterns are just a learning tool so you can figure out how the notes fall into place on the neck. Scales are made up of tones (some people, like me, call them steps). To play a "whole step" place your finger on the C note on the bottom string. Then move your finger up two frets and play the D note. That is called a "whole step". To play a "half step" place your finger back on the C note. Then move your finger down one fret to the B note. This is a "half step". That's all scales are, a series of half steps and whole steps.

In the case of the Major Scale the notes flow in this order: Whole Step, Whole Step, Half Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, Whole Step, and a Half Step. This is also represented by: W--W--H--W--W--W--H. In the case of C Major the notes would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C (the octave).

There really isn't a "best system" to playing scale patterns. Use whichever pattern system that helps you learn the easiest. I prefer the system I learned (the three note per sting method), but others may prefer Aldrine's box system. The important thing to learn is how the notes flow together in tones (or steps).

In the end, once you figure out the tones (or steps) your not going to use every single note within a certain position anyways. When soloing your going be jumping to different position on the neck - using three notes here, bending notes there, and etc. Hopefully my ramblings make sense, lol. Let me know if they don't.
 
Last edited:
these scales are the best!
I just learned some of them and would like to mess around with them.

Any tips?

maybe some cool blues solo tab or something like that?
 
Very cool for people that want to learn like that! I particularly don't play scales like that because going from c4 to c3 back to c4 sounds rather weird in my opinion. I think playing from the C string is a more fundamental way to play/understand a scale because you start on a lower root, and finish at the octave.

Example:
G
C
E
A

C Major Scale: (1 octave)

-------------------
-0-2--------------
-----0-1-3--------
------------0-2-3-

Also with this method, it is much easier to visual chords and intervals as well as soloing patterns because the C, E, and A strings go from lower to higher, thats why i normally don't touch the G string when it comes to soloing, its more of a "support note."

Hopefully my explanations weren't terribly hard to understand, i had trouble putting these ideas into words that people of all skill levels could take away from.
Thanks for listening
 
Last edited:
Very helpful post . but one question . GOT MORE SCALES ?
OH! And thanks tons for the .pdf file .
 
Me too, thanks for sharing
 
Hi, just found this thread through another post. When I click on the link for the PDF is just says, Page not found. Has the link been removed?
 
Top Bottom