Open Position Scales

Hi, guys.

Quick question: what's the most efficient way to practice scales? The way I do is to play all the scales, open position, for one minute on daily basis. And by all I mean: major, minor, pentatonic, pentatonic blues, and the patterns for major and minor.

But the thing is: when I practice improvising, I don't find myself using the open position at all. So should I keep practicing them, or should I just play the patterns and move along the fretboard to play in different keys?

Thank you, and have a great day! :)

Originally Posted by: jasim.hd

Quick question: what's the most efficient way to practice scales? The way I do is to play all the scales, open position, for one minute on daily basis. And by all I mean: major, minor, pentatonic, pentatonic blues, and the patterns for major and minor.

[/quote]

It really depends on your musical goals. But you should attempt to make anything you practice integrated with the music you want to play. If you are still at a beginner level, then it might be necessary to just play scales in time with a metronome in order to buld the basic skill of playing single note melodies at a steady rhythm.

See this tutorial.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=451

But in general, after you can do that sort of thing, then you should aim to work on practicing scales in time with backing tracks or songs that you want to play.

[quote=jasim.hd]

But the thing is: when I practice improvising, I don't find myself using the open position at all. So should I keep practicing them, or should I just play the patterns and move along the fretboard to play in different keys?

Using scales in open position is frequently an important skill for acoustic players. They need to get those patterns down to walk between chords. Or to play open string country or bluegrass licks! :)

What style of music do you want to play? If that style requires lots of open string scale patterns, then yes, practice them! If not, then don't worry about them as much as whatever it is you are aiming for.

Hope this helps!

I totally agree with Christopher.

Training something and not using or integrating it into your playing makes absolutely no sense. So focus on your goals and work out if its worth the time of practise. Always keep in mind that you could practise something else that maybe much more important to your goals in that time. So try to use your practise time as effective as possible by cutting out all the things that are "nice to be able to do" but leading towards your goals

As always, thank you, thank you.

So I can safly put that aside for the time being, and focus and the blues and related scales, as I see myself playing blues/rock and at times metal, I don't think I'll be using the open ones for a while.

Originally Posted by: jasim.hd

As always, thank you, thank you.

So I can safly put that aside for the time being, and focus and the blues and related scales, as I see myself playing blues/rock and at times metal, I don't think I'll be using the open ones for a while.

Always happy, if i can help.

You will see that you will improve on the open positions as well, after you truly recognized the shapes all over the fretboard