[JohnnyDes]

I guess it all depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want to start improvising riffs within your playing, then by all means, I guess you'll need to start with the major scale.

However, there are other things to work on as well. More interesting rhythm patterns, for one. Also, palm muting and other effects. Hammer-ons to add flavor to your chords. Or fingerstyle, as another poster mentioned.

I guess I'm a willing-to-be-convinced skeptic of too much scale work. I see a lot of people and books obsessing with scales, but I wonder how often all that practice actually works its way into the music.

JD