How did you learn ...?

Hi guys,
I've been recently working in Major and Minor scales, but this is really frustrating. How did you guys do to memorize all positions on every note? I just can't, i find it very hard.
Thanks

Practice, practice, practice..... then a bunch more practice. Then finally, a whole buncha practice.

They are pretty analogical, in my opinion.

The shape of a specific scale is more or less the same all across the fretboard- only when you cross the b-string it is a bit differnt - however - the question is: who asks you at any point in time when you play something, what the note on the 17th fret of the A-string is called? - i mean honestly - learn all the basic chord shapes (major, minor, diminished, augmented, 7, 9, etc) try to UNDERSTAND (not simply memorizing) how they are transposed and where their inversions are and thatz it for scales are chords and vice versa. Its soo easy on a guitar for you can easily transpose stuff without even changing the pattern - imagine doing this on a keyboard. Call yourself lucky to be a guitarrist *LOL*

Practise and jam. Play one form and learn it. Guitar is extremely visual. Be thankful you are not a trumpet player or a trombone player. More or less played by ear and overworked jowls. There are only five positions or forms on the guitar. (7 if you want to get real nit-picky)

Originally posted by griphon2
Practise and jam. Play one form and learn it. Guitar is extremely visual. Be thankful you are not a trumpet player or a trombone player. More or less played by ear and overworked jowls. There are only five positions or forms on the guitar. (7 if you want to get real nit-picky)

i thought there were 12 positions.

Forms, you're correct about positions or as many playable frets you have. Just thinking of one thing and typing another, sorry.

Positions on the guitar are determined by what fret your 1st finger is starting on, 1st finger on the 1st fret = 1st pos., 1st finger on the 5th fret = 5th pos. etc. Basically the NOTES of the guitar can be learned in 3 positions, everything else will be an overlap of these 3 pos.

1st position will cover the open strings to the 4th fret. 5th pos. will cover frets 5 - 8. 9th pos. will cover frets 9 - 12.

To figure out where the natural notes are of each position figure out what mode of C exists in each pos. In 1st position E phrygian will be outlined, 5th pos. A aeolian, 9th pos. D dorian.

Once you learn the NOTES of one position you can easily figure out all the others. In 1st pos. we have E F G on the 1st str. In 5th pos. we have E F G on the 3rd str. In 9th pos. we have E F G on the 3rd str. When relating things to 1st pos. you will notice the note groupings for each string remain consistent they just keep moving down one string.

So, yes we do have 12 possible positions on the guitar, I recommend learning the 3 (1st 5th & 9th) and then visualising the other 9 pos as an overlap of these 3.