Uke Scales - Three Notes Per String Method

Great stuff.
Does everyone memorize these or is there some other "short cut" way that I'm not understanding? Sorry... newbie here to music theory :)

Paul, don't worry about memorizing all the patterns right away. Just take one pattern and play it till you get use to it. Then learn a pattern which is next to the one you learned. Eventually you will get use to moving between the patterns by soloing, or playing melodies.

If you have a way of recording, I would record yourself playing some chords (in the key of the scales). Then play back the chords and play the scales over top of them.
 
Nice. I didn't use the three notes method. Looks easier than the way I did it though. I just learned the pentatonic boxes and later built the rest of the scale of out those boxes. What are Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales, though?
 
Nice. I didn't use the three notes method. Looks easier than the way I did it though. I just learned the pentatonic boxes and later built the rest of the scale of out those boxes. What are Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales, though?

They are used mainly in Jazz music. But, you can use them with various chord progressions to get a European/Gypsy sound. It just depends what chords you play in the background.

There are some other scales besides these, but I haven't had the time to work on them. The ones I have at the start of the thread are going to be your bread-and-butter scales. There are odd ones like Whole-tone, Diminished, Chromatic, etc. Then there is Modes...and that's a whole other animal to tackle. :D
 
AWSOME!!!

I just started learning the guitar (well its been almost a year). And I have been working on scales a bunch. Besides trying to learn all the scales I have been trying to learn 2nd's, 3rd's, 4th's, 5th's, etc, etc, up to 8th's.

I'm still in the whole "Oh My God there is too much to learn" mode. But once you do it over and over again you begin to see how it all relates and intertwines with itself.

Anyways. I was just thinking of asking about scales and here it is.

This place rocks :nana:
 
AWSOME!!!

I just started learning the guitar (well its been almost a year). And I have been working on scales a bunch. Besides trying to learn all the scales I have been trying to learn 2nd's, 3rd's, 4th's, 5th's, etc, etc, up to 8th's.

I'm still in the whole "Oh My God there is too much to learn" mode. But once you do it over and over again you begin to see how it all relates and intertwines with itself.

Anyways. I was just thinking of asking about scales and here it is.

This place rocks :nana:

Hi smoothice! Yes, just go to the first post. I've recorded a quick video on Youtube and the link is in the first post. You play scales on the ukulele just like you would on guitar. The patterns are just different.
 
I like your charts alot. Good work. My only input would be that when you start on a note that is not the root you are actually playing a mode. Like your 1st position scale start on G and continues to D. If you made it go to G you would have the G Mixolydian scale. I think when you explain the Major scale people don't realize all the modes are also there too! Like the 2nd position starting on A gives the A natural minor scale.
 
Once you learn all the notes in 1 major scale you've actually memorized 7 modes! So there is a cheat when you realize that the scales are related to each other(same notes).
The C major scale also contains; D dorian, E phrygian, F lydian, G mixolydian, A aeolian(minor) and B locrian. You've got to learn the major scale the hard way (practice) but the others come easily!
 
I like your charts alot. Good work. My only input would be that when you start on a note that is not the root you are actually playing a mode. Like your 1st position scale start on G and continues to D. If you made it go to G you would have the G Mixolydian scale. I think when you explain the Major scale people don't realize all the modes are also there too! Like the 2nd position starting on A gives the A natural minor scale.

Hi, yes I know modes. I just never covered that part. Thanks for explaining it for peeps!

By playing certain chord progressions this aids in modal sound as well.
 
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Those are fantastic charts, thanks. I've used the same thing for guitar and it really helps. For the folks just seeing these for the first time, my advice is to play the scales and watch how the chord notes fall within the scales. Maybe even play a chord then the scale that matches and then if you are starting on a note other than the root you can get the sound. You'll have to play them a bunch but you will get the tones in your head and then will not have to think about the patterns.
 
Hi all,

A couple people were asking me how to use the scales. So I made another quick tutorial on where to start. This is more for beginners, but hopefully it is informational for all! I added the video link my first post. Enjoy!

Danny
 
Alright, here's my disclaimer so you can understand where I'm coming from. My ADHD kills me when something looks "busy", I just cant do it. So understand that

**also it would help me if you explained the relation of all the modes to the major scale. I never learned scales until I played a mountain dulcimer, and thats only because its fretted diatonic in D major scale (I guess). So what is the cheat? I actually fine it easier to learn all the single string scales as it helps me understand the intervals and the box scales.

That WWHWWWH thing was the best thing ever for my finicky mind. So if someone took the various scales and said.
Major Scale: WWHWWWH
Minor Scale: blah blah blah
Pentatonic: blah blah blah

Then I could memorize them all pretty quickly on the single string and then move that to the box scales.

***also explain the reason for playing in different positions on the same scale
 
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