ConfusingScales

Although I can play most open chords and also barre chords and I am working in Blues 1, I am still a beginner. All these scales have me totally confused. I see articles that say all guitar players should know the Major Scale, Natural Minor Scale, Major Pentatonic Scale, Minor Pentatonic Scale, and Chromatic Scale. Then I see other articles that say you should know the Five Patterns of the Pentatonic Scale. Can I get any agreement from instructors that say learn these three patterns of the pentatonic, or learn these particular scales. I am so confused about this that the other day my wife told me she wanted to have sex in the car, and I thought she wanted ME to drive. That's confusing!! Help ME!!

Basically, all chords are made up of notes in ‘a scale’ or another word being a key , and the notes in a scale are used to develop chords when composing songs or as a skeleton of 7 notes phrased anywhere on the fretboard when soloing over specific chord progressions

For example, a song in the key E-minor would appropriately be soloe’d over with an E-natural minor scale [1st , 2nd ,b3rd , 4th , 5th ,b6th , 7th ] . I hope that’s a help; by the way if you can tell me some songs you’re most familiar with or favourite music? I will let you know the key they are in , the chords and what scale corresponds. the major and the minor scale are a good place to start and really really get comfortable with before getting into things like pentatonic and more complex things

If I said that the minor natural key is the 6th note in any major scale for instance; would you be happy with that? [just trying to gauge a sense of where you're at with theory]

the major and the minor scale are a good place to start and really really get comfortable with before getting into things like pentatonic and more complex things

I understand your pain. I was fortunate enough to study with Jimmy Bruno. He is one of the best jazz guitarists alive, and, in my opinion, the best teacher. He says scales and modes are nonsense. He will have you improvising over a simple jazz cadence in a couple of days and if you stick with him for a while, you will be amazed at what you will learn. Mastering his system is not easy, it takes a lot of serious study, however, it makes more sense than anything I have seen. He asks, "are you drowning in scales and theory instead of playing music?"

I suggest you take a look at his site and consider studying with him long enough to get a working understanding of his approach to learning guitar.

Jimmy Bruno's Instruction Site

Hope this helps,

Bill

Hey John. I am a complete newbie and I totally understand your confusion. I too am looking for a simple, direct answer as to what would be the best scales to practice with. I am watching this thread so hopefully we can get a simple reply. Best of luck to you and your wife.

Hey, John! I answered this question for you in my instructor forum a while back. I don't know if you saw my reply, so you can find it here. [br][br]https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/thread.php?f=36&t=46019

I'm going to copy-paste it below & add some other thoughts for future reference if other users have the same questions.

Originally Posted by: johnv31552All these scales have me totally confused. I see articles that say all guitar players should know the Major Scale, Natural Minor Scale, Major Pentatonic Scale, Minor Pentatonic Scale, and Chromatic Scale.

In general most guitarists need to know the major & minor diatonic & pentaonic scales. However, you need to remember this: you don't need to master all scales or even any scale in order to play music.

Your knowledge of various scales & ability to play them should be a natural extension of your overall learning to play the guitar. That's why in the courses the instructors just show you a little scale & then exercises to use them. Your ability to play & know scales should closely match your overall development.

In short, don't worry about learning a bunch of scales until you have a practical use for them. Make sense?

Having said that if you are a beginner, then you should work on basic 1 octave major & minor diatonic scales like in GF1 & 2. Why? Because they have the practical benefit of training your ear, mind & fingers to get used to the basic material that is used in melodies. For example:

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=363

And you need to learn the practical skill of isolating & playing one note at a time to help with country guitar & fingerstyle to connect chords with scale lines & fragments. Like this.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=426[br]https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=427[br]https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=428[br][br]

Regarding pentatonic scales, there is only one basic pentatonic scale, but it forms different patterns on the fretboard as you move up & down.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=296

However, as a beginner you only need to know the first box. And if you are working through the Blues courses, Anders will introduce you to them right when you need to know them. Again, you only need to know as much as you can actually use at any given time.

Once you get done with the courses, start to learn songs. And then you can start to work through more advanced tutorials on how pentatonic scales cover the fretboard. Like this.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=185

But before you need to know all that stuff, it's more important to just be able to use a little of the scale to play a great foundation lick like this.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1614

Because that's how you start to play blues licks, right? Not by playing the entire scale all over the neck! Just by learning one part of the pattern at a time & applying it in a practical way.

So for now, just follow the course material. Don't worry about learning a zillion scales all at once. There's time for that when you actually need to play them. And depending on what style of music you want to play, or what your guitar goals are, there are some scales that you won't ever have to worry about!

Even if your goals include lots of scales, just take it one step at a time! That's all you can do anyway. So, relax. Just learn one scale. Really drill it, make it stick in your mind, ear & on your fingers. Then move on to the next one.

Hope this helps! Ask ore if necessary & best of success. Have fun with it!