[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by usb_chord

Thanks, Doug. This helps to make my objectives a lot more clear. I'm hoping that by understanding scales better, it would aid me in coming up with creative little ornamentations for fingerstyle compositions that actually serve the music as oppose to merely sound "cool".

Hi Brian…
What Doug outlined is what we called 'etudes' in classical music.

I learned basic major and minor scales, and then arpeggios. Following that we had books full of etudes which are repeating patterns which are identical in interval, and begin on sequential notes of the scale (his C-D-E / D-E-F / E-F-G / example.

I’m not speaking here of actual guitar pieces which were named ''Etude in Em'' or such, but of actual practice exercises.

There simple ones that I learned like
1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1
2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2
3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3
4-5-6-7-8-7-6-5-4
etc. for the full ascending major scale - then reverses in descending order

And there is the familiar major etude which is a single octave exercise played as eighth notes until you reach the final measure which is held for an entire measure.

1-2-3-1 | 2-3-4-2 | 3-4-5-3 | 4-5-6-4 | 5-6-7-5 | 6-7-8-6 | 7-8-9-7 | 8 |
8-7-6-8 | 7-6-5-7 | 6-5-4-6 | 5-4-3-5 | 4-3-2-4 | 3-2-1-3 | 2-1-7-2 | 1 |

And the most basic major exercise involving scales is probably:
1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-5-7-6-8-7-9-8
8-6-7-5-6-4-5-3-4-2-3-1-2-7-1

Arpeggios, scales and etudes help players to recognize groups of notes in a 'family' group (scale) and help train the fingers and brain to work in sync (without thinking about it). I don't spell words in my head as I speak or type but if you ask me to, I can / s-p-e-l-l / w-o-r-d-s / f-o-r / y-o-u /.

We formulate thoughts and tell stories and hold conversations. Very much like playing music...etudes can help you not only have more fun but put those pesky memorized scales to work for you.

Wow that was more than in intended to share...