Playing major scales

Chrisinfp

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 29, 2012
Messages
60
Reaction score
0
I know how to play D and C major scales but have no real music background and trying to figure out how to play other major scales. Are there any basic diagrams that show what to play in order like the do, re, me etc?
 
Major scales are easy.
Half step (1 fret) between the 3rd & 4th notes and the 7th & 8th.
All the others are full steps (2 frets).
Start on any note and you can build the major scale.
 
It's helpful to learn scales but don't let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that you're learning to play by playing a lot of scales. Play real songs. Practice the scales so you learn your fretboard and come to instinctively realize where you can find a grace note, for example, but learn songs first. Scales get really boring (and drive your family nuts). Again, they're important, but it's more important to learn songs, first.

As always, just my $0.20 (not a typo, I'm allowing for inflation) :)

John
 
I like the scales presented on the blog Uke Hunt. He has some post on major scales but adds to that with posts on pentatonic scales, and has some crazy scales that sound very middle eastern and flamenco-ish. Lots of fun. Good luck!
 
I have been playing for a year and have a good handle on a few songs-however I have next to no knowledge of music theory. I strum well and finger pick pretty well. I like the grateful dead and similar bands but never understood how a lead guitarist knew how to solo/"jam" and have it sound different but similar to the song. I still don't exactly know the guidelines for that beyond knowing that if a song is in a key of A you then solo in A scale.
 
I have been playing for a year and have a good handle on a few songs-however I have next to no knowledge of music theory. I strum well and finger pick pretty well. I like the grateful dead and similar bands but never understood how a lead guitarist knew how to solo/"jam" and have it sound different but similar to the song. I still don't exactly know the guidelines for that beyond knowing that if a song is in a key of A you then solo in A scale.

Heh, heh. Actually, in most blues and blues-influenced rock if the song is in A you are more likely to solo using the relative minor key F#m. This is the same notes as in the A major scale but "homes" on the F# - this adds tension to the solo. The easy "rule of thumb" that can help you make a presentable, if not particularly exciting, lead is simply to solo using the pentatonic minor scale that begins on the sixth of the key. In the case of A, the F# is the sixth. An even easier way to remember it is to solo using the minor pentatonic scale that beings on the note one full step above the V chord. In A, the V chord is the E so the note a full step above that is the F#.

The pentatonic scales (major or minor) are "safe" to solo with because the five notes in that scale all sound ok over any of the primary and secondary chords in the key. I.e. you can play any of the notes from the F#m scale over the chords of the song without worrying about a dissonant note. That said, remember that safe is usually boring so you want to get off the pentatonic and into some diatonic (full scale) or even chromatic (borrowing notes from outside the key completely). That takes a little more skill and experience (you're now using notes that can sound bad over some of the chords so you have to figure out what chord is being played and make sure you pick diatonic or chromatic notes that work with it). Still, it's worth doing. Probably 80% or more of the most memorable "hooks" owe their memorability to those notes outside the pentatonic.

John
 
Last edited:
The pentatonic scales (major or minor) are "safe" to solo with because the five notes in that scale all sound ok over any of the primary and secondary chords in the key. I.e. you can play any of the notes from the F#m scale over the chords of the song without worrying about a dissonant note. That said, remember that safe is usually boring so you want to get off the pentatonic and into some diatonic (full scale) or even chromatic (borrowing notes from outside the key completely). That takes a little more skill and experience (you're now using notes that can sound bad over some of the chords so you have to figure out what chord is being played and make sure you pick diatonic or chromatic notes that work with it). Still, it's worth doing. Probably 80% or more of the most memorable "hooks" owe their memorability to those notes outside the pentatonic.

John

Correct me if I am wrong: The song "My Girl" -- you know, I've got sunshine on a cloudy day? The start to that doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo? That's just a pentatonic C major scale, isn't it? I've been practicing that scale and found I was playing the song without trying! C D E G A C.
 
Top Bottom