scales

What are the first couple scales I shoule start to learn?

There are a lot of tutorials on here regarding scales that will help you learn, but what caught my eye was this one below.

To see everything available do a search for scales

Good luck with your studies.

Scales for beginners

Originally Posted by: markrb

What are the first couple scales I shoule start to learn?

That depends on your skill level & musical goals. I encourage all beginner students to work through the Guitar Fundamentals courses. And if those are too easy, then pick a style course.

https://www.guitartricks.com/beginner.php

In GF1 you'll learn basic single note melodies along with the note names in the open & first position. That prepares you for learning basic major & minor scales in GF2.

Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by: William MG

There are a lot of tutorials on here regarding scales that will help you learn, but what caught my eye was this one below.

To see everything available do a search for scales

Good luck with your studies.

Scales for beginners

Thanks for linking my old GF2 scales tutorial, William! That's a great workout for systematically working through scale patterns & applying the rhythmic subdivisions while working with a metronome.

They are a little heavy for absolute beginners because they require some prerequisite single note picking & fingering skills. I still do some of those everyday to warm up & stay in shape.

Thanks!

My pleasure Christopher.

That old metronome looked like it was actually pretty good. Nice and big, easy to see. I use the current one but it is a tiny thing on old eyes when using a smart phone.

Hey Mark, I wasn't sure which scales or how many to learn not too long ago too. I read that a lot of people like to start out with the pentatonic scales because it has less notes so easier to get right away and all the tones are pretty strong so it sounds nice. I wanted to learn the full scales and then see which weaker notes were left out and why. Plus I figured I'd need to learn the full scale eventually, might was well do it first.

So right now I have the major scale patterns memorized and I play it as part of my warm up routine everyday to a metronome, when i begin practice. Trying to get faster, using different techniques, and spiitting up the beats while trying to keep a clear tone and in time.

I mainly play in the key of C and G, but I need to start challenging myself and expanding my keys. What really helped learning the major scale, was taking it really slow and concentrating around the root note, and then expanding till I was able to do it mindlessly, or till the metronome gets too fast for me. Right now I have a couple patterns of the Natural Minor scale memorized and I'm hoping to have it down real soon, then explore it on other keys, and on to more scales. Plus since I know the whole major scale, I also know the major pentatonic scale, and once i learn the natural minor scale, I'll also have the natural minor pentatonic scale in my pocket. Hope this helped, rock on brother

I'll just add that playing E minor pentatonic in open position is a nice easy scale to start with. Only requires an open string and one fretted note (one finger) per string. And that position is used a ton in rock and blues music, so it won't be wasted time! :) [br][br]

-Carl.