Guitar Mastery Simplified: How Anyone Can Quickly Become a Strumming, Chords, and Lead Guitar Ninja (10 page)

Distance between notes:
  W  
W
  
H   W  
W
  
W
   H

Have you ever heard the vocal exercise,
“Do-Re-
Mi
-
Fa
-So-La-Ti-Do”? 
Those are the musical steps for the major scale.  Or the “Do Re
Mi
” song Julie Andrews sings in “The Sound of Music?” 
That song is based on the steps of the major scale.  It is VERY important
to learn the major scale if you want a good foundation for learning everything
else on the guitar.  It is the basis of music theory, the field of study
that deals with the mechanics of music and how music works.

Definitions
To
Know

Interval
– The pitch distance between 2 notes.

Chords
– 3 or more notes played together.

Arpeggio
– “broken” chord, or notes from a chord played apart from
each other.

Major Chord
– 1
^st
, 3
^rd
and 5
^th
scale
steps (notes from the Major scale: 1, 3,
5
.

Minor Chord
– 1
^st
, flat 3
^rd
and 5
^th
scale steps (notes) from the Major scale: 1, b3, 5.

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The major scale can be defined as a 7 note scale separated
by the following intervocalic distances: whole-step, whole-step, half-step,
whole-step, whole-step, whole-step,
half
-step (W
W
H W
W
W
H).  The major scale is
the most important scale
that we will address. 
It’s the benchmark scale that we compare all other scales and chords to.
 When you hear a musician describing a scale or chord with terms like
“flat three”, “sharp seven” etc. they’re referring to adjustments of the major
scale to create this other scale or chord.  “Trust me now, believe me
later”... learn the construction of the major scale and know how to use it to
create chords and scales as I have and will continue to show you through my
lessons.

It is important
to be able to construct major scales
across a single string.  It’s important to see this pattern and to be able
to recreate it on any string and from any fret.  If you have not done so
already, it would behoove you to review that lesson and get that skill down.
 Knowing this construction is obviously crucial, but then we must graduate
to more usable forms of the scale.

See the diagram on the following page for the first form of
the major scale that I want you to learn.

I use this form all the time to determine the key of a particular
song, to construct chords, to analyze chords and a myriad of other musical
reasons.  Another great thing about this scale, as with all scales on the
guitar, is that it is completely mobile or movable.  Unlike a lot of other
instruments - like the piano or wind instruments - the guitar allows its player
to transpose scales very easily by playing the same pattern lower or higher up
on the fret board.  That is to say that if you took the G major scale and
move all the dots up one fret and play the same exact pattern one fret higher,
you will now be playing the G
#(
sharp) major scale.

Move it up another fret and you will now be playing
A
major.  Take that same G major scale and drop it down
a half-step, or one fret towards the nut or tuning pegs and you will now be
playing in the key of Gb(flat) or F#(sharp).  For more advanced guitar
players this concept is not new to you.  For those that are just coming to
understand these concepts it’s important to understand how the scales move.
 It will
save you a ton of energy and time
if you grasp this
concept correctly now instead of skipping over it.

So again, all the dots within a specific scale will move up
uniformly.  For instance if you’re moving the scale up 5 frets, every dot
moves up 5 frets exactly.  You will use the exact same fingering higher up
the neck that you use in lower positions near the nut.  This is a skill
that can be developed with perseverance and detail.  
Don’t be a
slacker!  
Learn this scale
and open up your playing.  As
we progress in our studies I’m going to show you that this is the most useful
tool for a guitar player to know.

Practice makes perfect
, and allowing your
fingers to practice what your head just learned is a surefire way to integrate
this into your knowledge.  So this is how I want you to practice the
scale.  Place your fretting hand in the 2nd position (this means to slide
your hand up 1
fret
from the open position so that
your 1st finger is behind the 2nd fret, your 2nd finger is behind the 3rd fret
and so on).

For this scale, keep your hand in this position.  Don’t
move your hand up or down the guitar neck while you play the scale.  Doing
so will better ensure that you play the correct fingers on the correct fret.
 Now play through the scale slowly and systematically and say the scale
step numbers for each note as you play it (for example 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
(or 1)).

This will help with developing your ear and understanding
the number system.  This will also increase your finger dexterity and help
to increase speed.  Don’t try to play the scales quickly, however.
 That will only slow your learning process.  There is plenty of time,
once you master the scales, to play them quickly.

Once you get G major down, slide the entire form up one
fret.  Remember that all the notes should move up 1 fret uniformly and
that the fingering will be exactly the same as it just was for the G major
scale.  Before you play each scale,
audibly say the name of the scale
(for example, “G# major”).  This will help you understand what you are playing.
 Continue to move the scale up the guitar fret board one fret at a time
and naming the scale before you play it.  
Do this
across the entire fret board until you get to the end.

Make sure that you play the same scale down the fret
board towards the nut.
 It may take a little figuring out – which is
good for your brain - but attempt to play the scale in the open position as
well.

Notice on the second diagram how we can play this same form
starting at the 5th string instead of the 6th string.  This will save you
time by allowing you to memorize one form and use it by starting from either
the 6th or 5th strings.  To play the fifth string root form of this scale
you will start in the same position (2nd) for C major.  You will use the
same exact fingering and still say the number of each scale step as you play
it.

Also,
don’t forget to audibly say the name of the scale
before you play it.
 The letter name of the scale is the first scale
degree.  Again, play this all the way up the fret board and play it down
to the open position as well.

In regards to picking the scales,
the beginner
guitarist should probably stick with down strokes while the intermediate and
advanced guitar players should incorporate alternate picking (strict up and
down picking).  Alternate picking can be frustrating and difficult in the
beginning (and is for everybody who just first attempts it).  So if you’re
attempting alternate picking, take it slowly.

The brain learns a lot faster when you do things slowly.
 Trying to do this quickly when you haven’t done it systematically and
slowly will only slow down your learning process.  Don’t fall into the
trap that says you have to practice fast to play fast.

Now stop reading, and go get that guitar!!!

In the following diagrams, the finger I want you to use
to fret the indicated note is marked right under the fret board.  The
tonic (root) note of the scale is indicated by the red circle around the note.

6th String Root G Major Scale Form (1 octave)

6th String Root G Major Scale Form (2 octave)

5th String Root C Major Scale Form (1 octave)

5th String Root C Major Scale Form (2 octave)

Single String Scale F Major Scale (1 octave)

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videos on right and left hand techniques and exercises that will quickly boost
your guitar playing ability.

For every major key there is a relative minor key
.
 Conversely, for every minor key there is a relative major key.  In
short, these relative keys share the same set of notes (the following red
lettering denotes the tonic of the scale).