Guitar scales?

[Chas007]

Is there any need as a self teaching/learning beginner to learn and practice guitar scales?

[dwasifar]

Well, I didn't, and most people say I play pretty well today.

However, I did almost everything wrong and backwards getting where I am, which I suspect made my progress a lot slower and more haphazard than it would otherwise have been. So I guess I would say, use me as a bad example of the exception that tests the rule, and learn your scales.

At worst, it's better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

[hubcapsc]

Look at this shape. Notice, in my made-up terminology, the
straight line is on the second fret.



Pick any song. Put on a CD. Whatever. Move the straight line
to different frets until playing the notes in that shape "sound
right" with the song you picked.

Probably want to pick some pop song you like, not Mozart.

You'll always be able to use this and build on it for the rest of
the time you play guitar

When you find the place where that shape sounds right, the
red dots are often reasonable places to start and stop whatever
thing you're noodling out with the music.

-Mike

[donlyn]

Is there any need as a self teaching/learning beginner to learn and practice guitar scales?

Chas007,

Yes! You will not regret it. Not one bit.

Let's say you are just starting with basic chords. Let's say a C chord. And maybe an F chord and a G chord. There are musical reasons for the other 2 chords, but let's not get too complicated.

So start with a C chord. Learn all the notes and where they are for the key of C within the first 3 frets of the guitar. That will allow you to have a full octave plus a few extra notes at both ends in your tool belt.

It's up to you if you want to find a tool for this on-line or in a book.

Once you get the C chord and the C scale down, play around with the scale. Don't just go up and down, but play notes in any order. Just learn where they are. Then expand to the G chord and the G scale. 7 of the 8 notes in a full octave are the same. You just have to play an F# instead of an F.

Edit> There was a recent poll on this forum that asked how many people were self-taught guitar players. Most had at least some percentage of self-learning; many are mostly self taught. You are in good company here.

Good luck, and good hunting.

Don
.

[kcboy]

You can learn all chord strumming songs without knowing any scales. And yes, you can learn very advanced fingerpicking songs without knowing any scales.

However, it is highly recommended to learn at least the basic C-major scale shape, and finding that scale all over the fretboard. So you at least know where your C-D-E-F-G-A-B-Cs are. It helps understand chords, and movable chord shapes. Understand rather than memorize. Without that, its like a piano student who starts learning songs without knowing their basic C major scale, which is literally all the white keys.

Beyond that, it depends on where you envisage your guitar journey would take you. Scales are useful for improvisation, composing, learning licks (understanding licks), etc...

Without scales, as soon as you try to compose even very short licks off something that you hear or pops up in your mind, you will be lost on the fretboard.

From personal experience as someone who is fully self taught.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Chas007

Is there any need as a self teaching/learning beginner to learn and practice guitar scales?

It depends upon what you want from your playing of the guitar.

Lots of players know a handful of chords, strum them and happily sing a variety of songs while doing so and are quite pleased to do so.

Other players want more from their playing.

Depending upon what YOU want, learning scales is either a waste of time or absolutely essential to get you where you want to go. A starting point is to develop some awareness of what you want from your playing. Knowing where you want to go can help identify what you need to do to get there. Depending upon the destination, that might, or might not, include learning scales.

[Keith G50]

Pretty much any time someone asks “Should I learn ____?”, my answer is always “Sure, all learning is good.”

[zephystar]

I highly recommend at least learning a two octave major scale. Doing so not only teaches you the scale itself becomes the base for so many other things you may want to learn.

Learning where all the intervals in the scale are will make it a lot easier for you to find chord progressions and will teach you a lot about how chords are formed. It will help you learn the fretboard and will help you learn how to play in different keys.

And once you learn the major scale, it's a lot easier to branch out and learn other patterns.

It's worth the investment.

[rick-slo]

Excluding playing scales with open strings included there is the same pattern for all the major scales and the same pattern for all the minor scales.
Just depends on the note you start on (for example A scale on sixth string fifth fret and B scale sixth string seventh fret). Given that there's not really
much to memorize unless you get into playing a variety of scales that use other intervals.

[rllink]

I was self taught and didn't learn to play scales. I started taking lessons and the first thing I was told was that I needed to play scales. Everything I've learned since is easier because I can play scales. It isn't just the notes, it has tremendously improved my dexterity and speed up and down the neck. It is about teaching your fingers to go where you want them to go with purpose. I'm a believer.

Learning riffs come quicker knowing scales than when I was trying to do it by trial and error.

[Jobe]

Starting out I was taught a basic chromatic scale where you start on the low E and play open first note then run each finger to the fourth fret. Proceed up each string the same way with the G string only going up three frets. Then go backwards after reaching the fourth fret of the high E. Your right hand picking is down up/down up for each forthcoming note. This did not teach me "theory" but it was very beneficial in getting my left hand used to the fretboard while teaching my right hand to play along. You shoot for clean notes and even timing. You will find yourself getting faster and faster. If you try to go too fast and start fudging notes then back off and think about if it is your left or right hand that is holding you back. You want your hands to be a good team. It's always a good way to warm up too.

[zmf]

If you play for 20 years, your fingers know where to go. Even if you don't know what the notes are. Explicit knowledge of the fretboard is highly overrated.

[Kyle215]

I played for years before I bothered to learn scales. Wish I had done it sooner. Once you get a feel for how scales and melodies work, everything else comes much easier.

Just take 10-20 minutes at the start of each practice session and work on one scale at a time, starting with C major. Then watch yourself start to figure out songs on your own without relying on someone else’s tabs... whatever song you want to play, the notes are there in a scale, somewhere.

Most important thing - sing the notes while you play them. Just do it.

[Sax Player Guy]

If you want to get better more quickly, practice scales.

Begin with just one scale. If you practice just, say, the G major scale, two octaves, and stick with it for a few weeks you will begin to notice things. Like, for example,

Your time isn't steady and even, moving from note to note.
Some of the notes are slightly out of tune.
Some notes are noticeably louder or softer than other notes.
Sometimes a note doesn't speak cleanly.
Your pick hand and fretting hand aren't always synced like they should be.
Etc., etc.

...and you will begin to fix these things, thereby improving your playing mightily.

Practicing scales is one of the best bang-for-your-buck exercises you can engage in, because it simultaneously makes you work on rhythm, tone, phrasing, intonation, syncing left and right hands, clean technique, learning the fret board, and more.

Also, as you branch out into playing other scales, you'll start to realize that when you practice scales, you are actually practicing music (songs) that you haven't learned yet. This is because melodies often include scales of various sorts. Then, when you hear a lick or a melody that you want to learn, you're already halfway there (sometimes more), because you recognize it from the scale work you've put in.

I am a big fan of scales and chords.

[NormanKliman]

Hi Chas,

Wow, look at all the different responses! Tell us what kind of music you want to play, whether you use pick or fingers, etc. That’ll probably help us to respond more specifically.

Learning scales will develop your hands and your head. At this point, I’ll say go ahead and learn them and spend as much time as you want on it, as long as you’re not neglecting other things that require lots of dedication, like barre chords, arpeggios, etc.