How to Teach Yourself to Play Guitar Scales

One of the best ways to really increase your skill on the guitar is to teach yourself to play guitar scales. Learning the basic scale patterns which make up guitar chords is one of the first steps in becoming a good guitarist. Unfortunately most beginning guitarists learn their scales in a very poor manner; tacking months or years on to their learning time. This can cause you to become frustrated and give up. Below I am going to outline my 4 step process for effectively learning to play guitar scales, which tends to cut down the learning time greatly

Have the right scale charts

Most professional guitarist usually will not reference a scale dictionary or chart in order to know what scale to play. This is because they know that all scales are based on the same five basic chord shapes and so do not need them anymore. When you are first starting out though, you will need to find a good guide for each of the five basic scale patterns that is clear and easy to understand. Also you will want to make sure that you are clear on how to read tablature and scale or chord diagrams. For tab just remember that the bottom line is the low E string and the top line is the High E string. The numbers on each line tell you what fret to play.

Develop Muscle Memory

Learning scales is as much about your muscles as it is about your eyes and ears. You want to memorize each scale using all possible modalities so that you will never forget them. When you are listening to a basic major scale just remember that it is the basic Do Re Mi scale we all sang as kids. Also each scale is formed from a chord and vice versa; so make sure you know what the chord tones that make up your scale are and visualize the chord you are playing as you work on the scale. This type of memorization will allow you to use the right scale for the right chord every time; without having to think about it.

Learn 4 Notes at a Time

When you are first learning guitar scales only work on four notes at a time. This is known as a tetra chord and there are only about 8 different shapes for them. This will cut down your memorization time considerably. Also by simply linking these clusters of four notes together you will be able to cover the entire fret board with one scale and not have to think about it.

Learn the Scales to Simple Changes

When you make some progress with one of the five basic scale patterns you should start to create basic melodies with them over very simple chord changes. The progressions you use should be only 3 chords in length and repeated over and over again for about a minute or two. Also the chords should be related to teach other and in the same scale family. So C F G for one progression and so forth. These are the I - IV - V chords of the Key of C. These are the types of progressions you should be working on.

To truly understand the benefit of teaching yourself to play guitar scales you have to go out and try it yourself. I have provided access to a free 6 part series of guitar lessons which will give you in depth knowledge of how to learn to play guitar. By the end of this course you will be able to play along with a band.

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http://www.learninghowtoplaytheguitar.info/

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