Scales.....Beginner

[Athena's Dad]

Hi everyone....Can you guy's tell me what beginner scales would benefit me .....I am a beginner, but have confidence that I will better myself changing chords.....but I need to start playing basic scales .......I find it extremely hard to change chords at times.
Thanks Again

[JonPR]

The major scale, essentially.

I suggest starting with C major, and learning how it fits around a C chord, in open position.
Learn all the C major scale notes (ABCDEFG) in open position (frets 0-3). No need to look the scale pattern up, if you know your chords (see below*). But learn the note names as you go (easy enough to work out, if you know EADGBE ).

Play the scale (in any order) using index on fret 1, middle on 2, ring on 3. (So it's technical exercise - improving finger flexibility - as well as learning the fretboard.) Pinky is permissible on fret 3 on the top 2 strings.
Make sure you can hear how C (either one) sounds like the best note to end on when playing random phrases from the scale (especially if you started off by playing a C chord). (So it's about ear training as well the other stuff.)

Next, pick out the pentatonic from that scale. That's the notes ACDEG (skip the B and F). If you play a C chord first, noodle on those notes, and end on C, that's C major pentatonic. If you play an Am chord first, noodle on those notes and end on A, that's A minor pentatonic.
Hopefully you can see that if you strum a C chord, those additional notes (A and D) are quite easy to add now and then, by shifting your middle finger or adding pinky. You can, of course, make similar embellishments to an Am chord.
You should also notice that noodling at random on the pentatonic sounds more musical than noodling on the full major scale.

*Now play all the other open position chords in C major: F, G(7), Am, Dm, Em. Notice that all of them use a different selection of notes from the scale. In fact you can work out the scale (no need to look it up!) just by superimposing all those shapes on top of one another.

After all that, you will now be totally familiar with 1/5 of everything you need to know! There are only 4 other major scale patterns (based roughly on A, G, E and D shapes), and to get any of the 12 different major scales you just move the patterns up or down the fretboard.

Here's another C major scale pattern (based around the "E" shape at 8th fret, although you might like to see it as an "F" shape), that's a good finger exerciser. Remember to keep each finger on its own fret: index on 7, middle 8, ring 9, pinky 10.

  7   8   9   10
|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|
|---|-G-|---|-A-|
|-D-|---|-E-|-F-|
|-A-|---|-B-|-C-|
|-E-|-F-|---|-G-|
|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|

Treat it purely as finger exercise if you want - don't play too fast, make each note clear and crisp - but (once you know the positions) play around with it too:
As with the open position exercise, listen for how the C note "sounds like home"; pick out the pentatonic notes (ACDEG) and noodle on them; look for other chord shapes in the pattern - eg F = 8-8-10-10-10-8; G = x-10-9-7-8-7.

This is another 1/5 towards total fretboard mastery!

[amyFB]

^^^ jonpr gives good advice.

I would add that choosing a key you play a lot for starters may be more satisfying and motivating to work with.

And if that is C , you are all set to jump in!

For me, it is currently Dm


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