Our audiences only keep coming back to our gigs if they feel that we have more to give them, so we need to be ahead of their expectations.
One of the ways we can do this is to add another scale or mode to our repertoire. Once we have a collection of techniques we can use when we do our solos, scales gives us more material that we can make our own with the way we play our hammer-ons, string skipping, note bending and our other lead guitar tricks.
A basic plan for learning scales is to be master of the minor pentatonic in its five shapes. This gives you two octaves you can use as your playground for your improvisation. It will take some time to really be able to move around the minor pentatonic scale without thinking too much, and after that, you have the rest of your life to acquire more scales, and then move onto some of the modes.
When you are learning a new scale or mode, repetition is your friend. Play the scale up, then play it down with alternate picking. Over and over again. Start with a relaxed left hand, make sure only the tips of your fingers are pressing on the strings to get a clear sound. Have your fingers in position over the frets you are playing at, and assign one fret to a finger.
During the day, if you have the time you will probably be picking up your guitar and playing whatever you have been working on lately. Add a scale to this routine. So you are only playing for a few minutes each time but you might find that you are picking up the guitar ten, twenty or fifty times a day!
Here’s Will Fly playing some scales:
This link takes you to the video on YouTube so you can get more info from Will’s site and visit his forum.
Related posts:
- What Are Beginner Guitar Scales? Well, really there are no beginner guitar scales, just guitar...
- Bluegrass Guitar Scales Today we will look at learning scales as an approach...
- Learn How To Play Scales On Guitar – The Major Scale Playing guitar solos and improvising begin with learning scales. This...
[...] Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free » Guitar Scales This entry was posted in Guitar Scales and tagged guitar scales. Bookmark the permalink. [...]