Major Scales

Hi, guys.

I've posted this somewhere else here, but I also would like to hear other opinions as well, doesn't hurt. :D

I have a question about how to practice Major Scales, I'm now by the end of scales section on Fundementals 2 course, and I feel like I have a lot on my plate; between Grid, Open Major, and one string scales, I feel kind of lost.

Should I practice them all, and then practice the songs/practicing section? Or is the "FUN Ways to Practice Your Major Scales" enough to cover all scales and will give me a solid background to it?

Also, should I memories all open major scales?

Really appreciate your intake on this matter.

Thanks a lot, guys. :)

I appreciate your ambition to learn so much at once! Best way to do it is, choose a lesson you really enjoy, or are interested in, and continuously go back to it so you get used to a small section at a time.

Personally, I really enjoyed the sound of Minor pentatonic scale, and that's all I practiced for weeks.

[br]Whether it's the Grid, Open Major, or just a single string scale, I recommend you choosing one and getting comfortable with it before moving on. It takes time, don't feel rushed!

Originally Posted by: Guitar Tricks Admin

I appreciate your ambition to learn so much at once! Best way to do it is, choose a lesson you really enjoy, or are interested in, and continuously go back to it so you get used to a small section at a time.

Personally, I really enjoyed the sound of Minor pentatonic scale, and that's all I practiced for weeks.

[br]Whether it's the Grid, Open Major, or just a single string scale, I recommend you choosing one and getting comfortable with it before moving on. It takes time, don't feel rushed!

Thanks a lot for your advise. LOL yes I am rushing things, I want to become the next David Gilmour over a night, but I know it doesn't work this way. :P

Since I'm okay with the Grid and the same string scales, I'll head to memorise the open major ones, and take my time with that.

Thanks a lot and rock on!

I've been where you are wanting to learn EVERYTHING and learn it all at once.

Learning scales is great, but they really won't stick or mean anything to you until you learn how to do something with them.

I happened to learn the minor pentatonic scale first. I got frustrated that my playing all sounded the same, so I looked to modes. That got me nowhere, and then I thought about it...if I can't put the major scale to use to improvise, what am I going to do with modes of it!?!?! :)

My suggestion would be to find uses for what you are trying to learn, then learn it and apply it at the same time. Otherwise, you have a solution looking for a problem.

For myself, I needed to solo over songs in major keys that are countryish in sound. So I started making use of the major pentatonic scale. Recently I discovered they can be used interchangably between in some of the songs I play and gives me some great tools to work with. Evil Ways was added to our setlist, so now I'm looking into some Dorian licks that Santana is famous for. Using this approach, things are making more sense to me, and more importantly, they are sticking in my brain!

I totally agree with what Maggior said about making sure it's usable in your playing before you move on. I know when I first started studying theory I had this idea that I could just learn all of the scales and THEN suddenly be able to write music and improvise, and I would do scales for hours a day and wonder why I wasn't getting better; theory and technique are useless if you don't know how and when to use them. Things started making sense a lot faster when I would learn or write songs using the technique... I still use scales, but I put them in different patterns and rhythms in my warmups instead of just mindlessly plowing through them.

Originally Posted by: winryember

...just mindlessly plowing through them.

Yeah. Been there, done that. Still trying to make up for lost time.