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!