Originally Posted by: stevesomerville40Secondly, I'm always searching for some sort of pattern to help me memorize these scales. I can't seem to find anything that makes sense from one scale to another. Are all scales to simply be memorized by frequent practice? There are SO many.

Every major scale has only one formula: the specific order of intervals in between the notes. I cover this concept in this tutorial.

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

Things get tricky because:

1. You can play the same note in more than one place on the guitar. This makes it possible to play any given scale in a wide variety of fretboard patterns (or shapes).

2. When you cross from the G to the B string the tuning is different! This makes every pattern shift up one fret. Please read my replies in these threads:

https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/thread.php?f=46&t=53156

https://www.guitartricks.com/forum/thread.php?f=46&t=53640

3. There are 12 possible musical alphabet letter notes to start a scale on! A through G#.

But even though you have so many possibilities, the thing that makes them all "any given major scale" is the interval formula. If you watch the tutorial linked above I show you how to understand, use & look for the familiar patterns of most major scales.

Hope that helps!