Why learn and practice scales?

I started learning guitar with Guitartricks 5 weeks ago. The next step is going to be learning and practicing scales. Just for my understanding and motivation I would like to know why scales are important and is it a good idea to skip practicing it and to concentrate first on chords and strumming? I have found that chords and strumming are motivating because they bring faster result.
Thanks

Without getting too technical, here's 16 good reasons why you should:

http://www.guitarhabits.com/16-right-reasons-why-you-should-practice/:

If all you ever want to do is play chords to song, you do not need to learn scales, but if ever want to play lead to someone else playing chords, you will need scales.

When learning music you cannot always chase what is easiest, there can be huge rewards working on something for weeks, then one day it just works. That is every bit as inspiring as throwing 3 or 4 chords together and saying I Learned A New Song. You are learning something that takes years, kick back and enjoy the ride.

Originally Posted by: diemmai100Just for my understanding and motivation I would like to know why scales are important and is it a good idea to skip practicing it and to concentrate first on chords and strumming?

Scales are important for 2 reasons.

1. Conceptually, they are the basic building blocks of music, the raw materials of melodies & chords.

2. Physically, it is extremely valuable to be able to isolate one note at a time. It is a skill that requires lots of practice & the sooner you start working on it, the better.

This is not at all a matter of being a theory geek, or learning to shred lead solos. Playing scales & any one note at a time physical skill will help you with isolating individual notes in chords for arpeggiation, for ornamentation, for walking in & out of chords, for isolating alternating bass lines, for understanding how chords are built from scales to illuminate your understanding of what you are playing.

It will help you understand how the most important component of music is melody & how any series of notes that form virtually unlimited numbers of melodies can be grasped as ways of manipulating & using scales.

So, no, don't skip it. :) Work through it. You will be a better musician for it. Best of success!

Scales work for me.

Any drill has great benefit; scales practice adds music theory and understanding. Running through scale patterns has helped me lick some bad habits/improve my technique; e.g.. fly-away finger(s), using the tip of my little finger vs. the pad, keeping my hand parallel to the neck and fingers vertical, brought the little finger up to the same 'capability' as the other three. Fret hand flexibility, stretch, strength and picking improvement are all benefits of 'drills' and, IMO, scales have that added benefit of better music understanding.

Further, running through scales is a great exercise for me to focus on relaxing my grip and whole body while maintaining proper posture. Improved my timing, too.

But then, I started with low expectations... :rolleyes:

Guys,
thank you very much for the valuable inputs. I will learn and practice scales.
My immediate target is to be able to play some Christmas songs at the Holiday season 2014. I do hope to find some time to learn scales beside strumming and chords for Christmas songs.

Justin from JustinGuitar put it best, he said you learn scales, and then you spend all your time trying to play them in a way that doesn't sound like scales. So you play around with the notes from the scale to make solos and melodies and stuff.

Hello all, I'm an older newbie and have been wondering what I should be focusing on while practicing on a daily basis. Is there somewhere on guitartrick (I'm new to guitartricks so perhaps I over looked it) where all the scales are listed and in what order they should be practiced?

http://www.chordbook.com/guitarscales.php

I found this great site that I'm finding helpful in learning scales but are there certain scales that should be focused on first? There are so many different types of scales so it would be nice to have some order in mind when learning them.

I ran into this yesterday;

“I practice all the scales. Everyone should know lots of scales. Actually, I feel there are only scales. What is a chord, if not the notes of a scale hooked together?” – John McLaughlin

To which I would add; "All things in moderation." :D

The lessons here in GT show that learning the major and minor pentatonic scales is quite useful and a good place to start.

Originally Posted by: haghj500If all you ever want to do is play chords to song, you do not need to learn scales, but if ever want to play lead to someone else playing chords, you will need scales.

When learning music you cannot always chase what is easiest, there can be huge rewards working on something for weeks, then one day it just works. That is every bit as inspiring as throwing 3 or 4 chords together and saying I Learned A New Song. You are learning something that takes years, kick back and enjoy the ride.

Good point. And im sure you are gonna want to play your own chord progression. Well you will find the chords you need within a scale. Example c. Mj scale , u want a simple chord progression. Start with the 1-3-5 / of the scale c-e-g .now you have a cmj chord. So even if you just want to be a solid rhythm player,your gonna need to learn mj-min scales to construct your chords. Make any sence.

Right now I begin to learn scales, at first I was shock by the detail and it seem hard. But nothing in life comes easy, so I will practice a lot no matter is my goal to achieve focus on rhythm my real goal is to be a good guitar player overall.

Here is my input and I hope this helps. I've been playing guitar since I was 10. Playing chords with ease and always thought I had a natural talent when it came to rhythm. I could never shred and would never try a lead lick.

I stopped playing in my 30's and picked back up now in my 40's. I'm back to my old self when it comes to chords and playing a song but I realize now how important scales are and being fluid with them.

Most of my time is now spent learning scales when I can. Yes it is not the most rewarding thing a first, but a necessary evil to becoming an all around guitar player. You'll get by for a long time just on chords, but understanding music and using scales will make you a musician not just a guitar player.

See I was the opposite, learning lead came naturally to me. I was drawn to learning scales and how to play through them fast, and I didn't want to play chords. I had learned them, but it just didn't interest me. Now I'm forcing myself to play more rhythm!

~Rusty