Learning scales for guitar over the entire fretboard is a lot easier than you think. It will also improve your lead guitar soloing and speed. This is only true if you use a method that you find interesting and easy to use.

Most methods I’ve tried present the scales on the guitar as a patterns of blocks on the neck of the guitar. You memorise one block pattern and then move up the fretboard and learn the next one.

I’ve always struggled to move up and down to different places on the fretboard using this method. It teaches you to move across the strings and you get stuck to one or two places.

So what if you do manage to memorise all the block patterns for a scale. You’ve then got to do it for all the other scales and keys. I learnt the G blues scale from a book years ago. I learnt the first two or three blocks by memory but found it boring to continue.

I’d struggle to change it to a different key. I could just about manage two blocks.

What Guitar Scale Mastery does is to show you how to learn guitar scales one string at a time, and it’s a lot faster and easier than you might think.

Once you’ve learnt where the notes of the scale are all the way up each string, those block patterns you tried to learn before just come naturally.

There’s theory in this, and again it’s set out in such an easy way that you will wonder why you struggled so much before.

There’s also a lot of practical exercises that reinforce your scale training. There’s single string, two string, and three string exercises that will have you playing guitar solos across and up and down the fretboard.

What you eventually get is a feeling for the notes in the scale and it just comes naturally to play them. Learning to play the scale in a different key then becomes so much easier. And you can then use the same techniques to learn a different scale.

What surprised me the most is the first scale you learn, E major. Now that scale has four sharps in it, F sharp, G sharp, C sharp, and D sharp. I listed those straight out of my head. Before, I would have been counting along the frets on the strings and working out the notes.

When I first started learning music theory, the book I was learning from started with the C major scale which has no sharps or flats in it. The G major scales is next which has one sharp in it, F sharp. After that you get bored and give up.

You don’t get bored and give up with Guitar Scale Mastery. It’s fun and interesting to do. It doesn’t matter how many sharps or flats are in a scale, it just becomes natural to play the right notes.

This isn’t for lazy people, it’s a long term training course that benefits you more the longer you do it. It’s recommended that you give up some time to practice each day. If you’re a keen guitar player, you’re already doing this anyway. I’ve found that even if I don’t pick up my guitar for a couple of weeks, I can still play those scales across and along the fretboard with ease. It’s like riding a bike, you don’t forget how to do it.

Guitar Scale Mastery

I’m going to try and keep this simple and the music theory to a minimum. These are the twelve notes on the guitar over two octaves:

A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab

The sequence of notes for a major scale is:

whole whole half whole whole whole half

Where whole is a whole tone, or two frets, or two notes, eg from C to D.

Half is a half tone, or one fret, or one note, eg from C to C#/Db.

Using this formula, the notes of the C Major scale are:

C D E F G A B C

The notes of the G Major scale are:

G A B C D E F# G

What Are The Modes Of The Major Scale

Very simply, the different modes of a major scale are the same but starting on a different note of that scale. Following are the modes of the C Major scale:

C Ionian Mode

C D E F G A B C

D Dorian Mode

D E F G A B C D

E Phrygian Mode

E F G A B C D E

F Lydian Mode

F G A B C D E F

G Mixolydian Mode

G A B C D E F G

A Aeolian Mode

A B C D E F G A

B Locrian Mode

B C D E F G A B

We’ll now do the same wth the G Major scale to reinforce this:

G Ionian Mode

G A B C D E F# G

A Dorian Mode

A B C D E F# G A

B Phrygian Mode

B C D E F# G A B

C Lydian Mode

C D E F# G A B C

D Mixolydian Mode

D E F# G A B C D

E Aeolian Mode

E F# G A B C D E

F# Locrian Mode

F# G A B C D E F#

Major Scales And Modes Software For Guitar

This software is similar to my other Guitar Scales Software except it shows the major scales and modes instead of the major and minor pentatonic and blues scales. The diagram below shows the opening screen.

This alone shows quite a few things. Firstly, you can pick a key in the first column and instantly see the notes of the major scale in that key.

E.g., the notes of the A Major scale are A B C# D E F# and G#.

Secondly, the can instantly see the starting note for any mode in any key.

E.g., B Major scale Lydian mode starts with E so the notes are E F# G# A# B C# and D#.

You can pick any mode and find the notes in that mode.

E.g., A Lydian. Go across the top to Lydian and then go down to A. We can see that this mode is in the key of E and the notes are A B C# D# E F# and G#.

Finally, you can find what scale you can play a chord over. A little theory here, a major chord uses the first, third, and fifth notes of its major scale. The C Major chord would then use the notes C E and G. If you look along each row you can see that the C chord can be used in the key of F (C Mixolydian) and G (C Lydian), apart from the obvious C Major scale.

Double click on the scale you want to look at. The diagram below shows that I’ve opened up the F Major scale.

You will find the root note F is highlighted in red. Along the top of the screen are the tabs for the seven modes. Below I’ve selected Lydian. The notes are the same but this time Bb is highlighted in red as the root note.

Unlike the previous Guitar Scales Software, I’ve not shown any boxes or patterns. This is because, with seven notes in the scale, there are a number of possible patterns. You can try out different combinations and see what works best for you. Below are two possible combinations of the F Major scale over two octaves.

This is a Microsoft Windows software program and requires at least Windows 2000 to work, ie Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Right Click the link below and select Save As to download Major Scales And Modes For Guitar to your computer. Unzip and run the file and follow the instructions to install it.

I’ve covered this in my previous post Why Learn Guitar Scales? but I’ll quickly list the advantages again.

Practicing guitar scales improves:

• finger strength
• co-ordination
• overall technique
• playing speed
• ability to improvise and play riffs and solos

How To Practice Guitar Scales

Again, I’ve covered how to practice scales in my Metronome post. Pick a scale you want to practice and set the metronome to a slow speed, say 60 BPM. Once you can play the scale over without any mistakes, increase the speed and do the same again.

Guitar Scales Software

This is different to my previous Ebooks;

• Minor Pentatonic Scales
• Major Pentatonic Scales
• Minor Blues Scales
• Major Blues Scales

This combines all the previous separate Ebooks into one software program. The program has diagrams showing all the notes of the major and minor pentatonic and major and minor blues scales in every key including the sharp and flat keys. It also has diagrams showing each box position for each scale including the boxes an octave lower and higher than the root position. There’s no theory involved, just easy pictures to use to practice your scales.

This is a Microsoft Windows software program and requires at least Windows 2000 to work, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Right Click the link below and select Save As to download the file to your computer. Unzip and run the file and follow the instructions to install it.

Once you’ve installed the software, run it and it should look like the following:

Click once on one of the icons on the left to select a scale; Minor Pentatonic, Major Pentatonic, Minor Blues, or Major Blues. Double click in the right hand pane to select which key you want.

Here, I’ve selected the C Minor Blues Scale. The first diagram shows all the notes of the scale. Clicking the tabs towards the top of the screen shows the individual boxes of the scale. In the diagram below, you can see I’ve selected the first box with the root note C at the eighth fret.

The biggest problem when you’re trying to learn a new guitar solo is that you’re not Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, or Eric Clapton, or whoever’s solo it is that you’re trying to play. Even if you’ve got the guitar tab in front of you, you just can’t get it right.

If you’re learning the solo from guitar tab, you’re playing the right notes but it still doesn’t sound right when you’re playing along to the music. If you’re learning to play it by ear, you just can’t seem to pick out all the notes, especially if it’s one of those lightning fast guitar solos.

Riff Master Pro is software that you install on your computer and it lets you slow down music without changing the pitch so that you can play along to it, perfect it, and speed it up gradually, until you’ve got it mastered at full speed.

If you’re as old as me and tried doing this with vinyl records you’ll know it doesn’t work too well. You can slow down a 45 rpm single to 33 1/3 rpm but the pitch changes. I could even slow down 33 1/3 long play records to 16 rpm (not that I’ve ever seen a 16 rpm record).

With Riff Master Pro, you can slow down a whole song, or just part of it, and the pitch stays the same. You can get the timing of all the notes right and then speed it up until you can play along at full speed. You can even change the pitch if you want to learn the song in a different key.

Slowing the song down but keeping the pitch correct will help you transcribe or tab tunes if you learn them by ear. It will also help you get them spot on if you learn them from tabs or sheet music. It doesn’t just work for the guitar, you can use this for any instrument.

Riff Master Pro has a 10 day free trial – well worth trying it out.

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. It’s main features are:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

As a guitar player, you will probably use Audacity most to record live audio but you will find being able to change the speed or pitch of recordings useful too.

Audacity can record live audio through a microphone or mixer, or digitize recordings from cassette tapes, vinyl records, or minidiscs. With some sound cards, it can also capture streaming audio.

• Record from microphone, line input, or other sources.
• Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings.
• Record up to 16 channels at once (requires multi-channel hardware).
• Level meters can monitor volume levels before, during, and after recording.

To record your guitar playing, you can either use a microphone or use a line input.

I use a DigiTech RP155 Modeling Guitar Processor. This is just another name for a multi effects guitar pedal. This box has the advantage of having a USB socket so you can connect it directly to your computer. It then becomes a MIDI device that you can use to record directly to your computer, cutting out any background noise you might get using a microphone.

This is what the DigiTech RP155 looks like:

This is how I connect my guitar to the RP155 and the RP155 to the computer, except I use headphones plugged into the back of the RP155:

Another useful feature of Audacity is that you can dub over existing tracks to create multi-track recordings. It’s easy to record one guitar part and play it back and at the same time record another guitar part.

You will need the Lame MP3 Encoder to export your recordings to MP3. Like Audacity, it’s free and is a plugin that works from within Audacity itself.

Another free plugin is available for importing MP3 files. This is libmad.

The effects you get with Audacity include:

• Change the pitch without altering the tempo, or vice-versa.
• Remove static, hiss, hum, or other constant background noises.
• Alter frequencies with Equalization, FFT Filter, and Bass Boost effects.
• Adjust volumes with Compressor, Amplify, and Normalize effects.
• Other built-in effects include:
  • Echo
  • Phaser
  • Wahwah
  • Reverse

For a guitar player, being able to change the tempo is very useful for learning new songs, or parts of songs that are tricky.

This is one of the best programs I’ve used for recording my guitar playing. It’s probably the best software for recording any type of audio. It’s also one of best pieces of free guitar software you will find.

This is one of my favourite guitar related software programs I have on my computer that I use regularly.

Metronome

Using a metronome is one of the best ways to practice scales. Regular scale practice with the metronome will improve your scale knowledge, speed, timing, improvisation skills, finger strength, and dexterity. Start off at a slow speed and gradually increase the speed as you improve. The free one I use is quite a few years old but more than adequate. The speed can be adjusted from 40 BPM to 208 BPM and the beats can be multiplied by one, two, or four.

Download it here:

etMetro

Here’s one simple exercise using the G Minor Pentatonic scale. Start off with the metronome set to 60 BPM to start off. Using quarter notes, this is one note a second. Play this repeatedly until you are comfortable with it and then increase the speed of the metronome. At 120 BPM, you’re playing two notes a second. At 180 BPM, three notes a second. And 240 BPM, four notes a second.

This next exercise uses the A Minor Pentatonic scale. With eighth notes, it will be twice as fast as the previous exercise and you will be playing two notes a second at 60 BPM. Do the same as before, practice it over and over until you can do it without making any mistakes and increase the speed of the metronome.

We’re now using sixteenth notes and the C Minor Pentatonic scale. This is again twice as fast as the previous example. You’re playing four notes each beat or sixteen notes each bar. At 60 BPM, you’re playing four notes a second and might be too fast for you to play comfortably. If this is the case, slow down the metronome and start off at a speed you can manage.

This final example uses the B Minor Pentatonic scale and triplets, or three notes a beat.

The tab diagrams are screenshots from Power Tab Editor and can be downloaded from Power Tab Editor Website.

This is another old program but is one I’m still using and it’s still free.

Power Tab Editor

What is the Power Tab Editor?

Power Tab Editor is a tablature authoring tool for the Windows operating system. It is intended to be used to create guitar sheet music, more commonly known to musicians as guitar tablature and bass tablature. (aka guitar tab/bass tab). The program provides the most commonly used symbols in tablature, including chord names, chord diagrams, rhythm slashes, bends, slides, hammer-ons/pull-offs, harmonics and palm muting. A useful piece of software for people who want to learn how to play guitar, and for experienced guitarists who want to transcribe their own music and/or guitar lessons. The software can be used by both acoustic and electric guitar players alike.

What is tablature?

Tablature, or tab for short, is a special form of sheet music used to indicate the fingering patterns used by an instrument. It is most commonly used to notate guitar and bass guitar parts.

Power Tab Editor can also be used to learn songs that have been transcribed by other guitarists.

Some of the other features of Power Tab Editor include:

• Print power tab scores
• Export power tab score to PDF
• Export power tab score to BMP

One of the problems with the export to BMP feature is that it only exports a section at a time, either to a file or to the clipboard. You then have to combine the sections in your graphics software. One way around this, if the score that you want to export fits onto one screen, is to press the Print Screen key on the keyboard and then paste it into your graphics software.

One undocumented but useful feature is the ability to slow down the playback of the tab. All you need to do is change the tempo marker. This can be set to 40-300 BPM. This allows you to learn songs, or tricky parts of songs, at a slower speed.

Power Tab Editor Screenshot

Power Tab Editor Website

You should now know the difference between the Minor Blues Scale and the Minor Pentatonic Scale if you’ve read the other articles on this site.

The diagram below shows the first box of the E Minor Pentatonic scale.

E Minor Pentatonic Scale First Box

And this diagram shows the first box of the E Minor Blues scale with the added flat 5th notes.

E Minor Blues Scale First Box

As with the minor scales, the major blues scale is the same as its pentatonic version with the blue notes added. The relationship between the major and minor blues box patterns is also the same as with the major and minor pentatonic box patterns.

You can take your minor blues scale and move it three frets down towards the head of the guitar and you then have your major blues scale. The G major blues scale is the same as the E minor blues scale.

Or, take the box patterns and move them down one position so that the first note of the second box is played at the root note or first position and you have your major blues scales.

The following diagrams show the fifth, first, and second boxes of the G minor blues scale.

G Minor Blues Scale Fifth Box - One Octave Lower

G Minor Blues Scale First Box

G Minor Blues Scale Second Box

The following diagrams show the fifth, first, and second major blues scale box patterns on guitar fretboard for the G major blues scale. Note how it is identical to the E minor blues scale.

G Major Blues Scale Fifth Box - One Octave Lower

G Major Blues Scale First Box

G Major Blues Scale Second Box

I’m not going to show you how to play all the boxes in different keys. You should be able to work them out now or you can download this free ebook. There’s no music theory involved, it’s just a handy quick reference guide that shows you all the notes on each string on the fretboard for the major blues scales in every key including the sharps and flats.

This is a Windows based program, sorry Mac users, that should work on any computer that has Windows 95 or above and Internet Explorer 4 or above. Just right click the link below and select save as to download to your computer, unzip and run the file, it doesn’t have to be installed.

I you’ve read my article Minor Blues Scale, you should know how to play the minor blues scale box patterns on guitar in the key of E. You should also be aware of the difference between the minor pentatonic scales and the blues guitar scales. Also, you already know about the blue notes, or flat 5th notes.

This free ebook is a handy quick reference guide that shows all the notes and box patterns on guitar fretboard for the minor blues scale in every key including the sharps and flats. It’s not a theory textbook but it will help you to learn the minor blues scales as long as you practice them.

If you need to put together a 12 bar blues riff or solo in a particular key, just click on the button for that key in the ebook and you will see all the notes on the fretboard and all the box patterns, including the ones one octave higher than the root notes and the box patterns below the root notes for the minor blues scale in that key.

This is a Windows based program, sorry Mac users, that should work on any computer that has Windows 95 or above and Internet Explorer 4 or above. Just right click the link below and select save as to download to your computer, unzip and run the file, it doesn’t have to be installed.

This ebook is similar to the Minor Pentatonic Scales Ebook except it shows all the notes and all the boxes for the major pentatonic scales in every key.

Again, there’s no theory involved. There’s no talk of tones and half tones or steps and half steps.

The major pentatonic scale seems to be less commonly used or learnt than the minor pentatonics one but still has its uses to good effect, especially when the two scales are used together. Most of the rock guitar or lead guitar courses teach you the minor pentatonic scale from the start and don’t even mention the major scale.

So, if you need to put a solo or riff together in a particular key, this ebook will show you the notes and boxes. It shows all five positions, including the ones an octave above and an octave below the root note. It shows them for the sharp and flat keys as well, such as Bb, Eb, F#, etc.

This is a Windows based program, sorry Mac users, that should work on any computer that has Windows 95 or above and Internet Explorer 4 or above. Just right click the link below and select save as to download to your computer, unzip and then run the file, it doesn’t have to be installed.