Originally Posted by: greyghoast17I was going to ask a question about scales, but will adjust the question- take for instance the super fast guitar shred style- malmsteen, gilbert, ect..these guys play so fast, how can they even stop to think about what the names are of each individual notes they are playing, when they are playing so many notes at blazing speed? to play really fast, so much of that is improvizational often, and to consciously think would slow one down. So when one is practicing different scale patterns down the fretboard, is it really important to call out the individual notes or concentrate on the actual patterns and the sound of that scale? any suggestions out there...

One thing I found useful was to print out a bunch of blank fretboards (or use graph paper or draw them) and write the notes for each position. For example, take a page and locate all the positions for C. Then draw in the C scales, etc. It really helped me to know where the notes were and see some of the patterns.