Learn Scales (Ezine Article)

 

What do you do when you want to inject new creative ideas from playing scales in your guitar playing? If you are anything like the vast majority of guitarists (and similar to myself in the past) then you might look to explore books and online resources in search of more new scales to play. However if you approach learning all scales in the same general way, you will soon once again find yourself very frustrated with your lack of ability to consistently come up with inspiring musical ideas from the scales you know. Unfortunately learning "more" scales isn't going to fix the problem.

Fortunately, there is a better way to practice guitar that will help you to get more out of the time you spend learning scales. The most important thing you must keep in mind is the need to explore ALL the creative possibilities any new scale has to offer before you abandon it in search of the next scale to practice. When you get yourself to do this, you will amaze yourself by how much more fun you will have when practicing and how many more creative ideas you will be able to derive from any scale you are working with.

In this article I will list for you 5 important things you must do after you go through the initial step of memorizing the notes of a new scale. These steps are critical for avoiding the frustrating situation described above and for getting a lot more from every minute you spend practicing guitar.

1. Analyze Guitar Solos That Inspire You And Focus On The Scales Being Used

On top of the regular guitar practice sessions you do to learn to play scales, it is important to spend some time observing how the guitar players you admire actually use scales in the music you listen to. Depending on your level of skill with ear training, you can either do this by using tab of solos (that you are SURE is accurate) or (ideally) transcribing the solos yourself by ear and analyzing your own transcriptions.

In addition to being a great exercise for general ear training, doing this will enable you to see how the scales you are practicing can be (and are) used to create melodies and licks that combine together to make guitar solos.

Even if you have already made a list of scales that are used in your style of music, you will learn a great amount by doing this step anyway.

2. Avoid The CAGED System

Even though this system of playing guitar scales is quite popular among some guitar teachers, it is NEVER used by world class virtuoso guitar players because it places a huge number of restrictions on your ability to freely use scales in music.

Without writing a 100 page dissertation about all the flaws of the CAGED system, its single biggest weakness is that it is not based on "how scales ACTUALLY work in music" for all instruments and is instead intended to create a shortcut only for "guitar players" by exploiting several isolated and completely illogical visual shapes on guitar (that, by the way, only work in 'standard tuning' and become totally useless in drop tunings or open tunings). The result of such a crippling system is that guitarists remain forever restricted in the way they can use scales musically and cannot play scales all over the guitar on the same level as other musicians who have a real and complete understanding of how scales are supposed to work in music.

Fortunately, the complete and most efficient ways of practicing scales on guitar are not any more difficult to learn and understand than the (much flawed) CAGED system.

3. Learn Each Scale All Across The Guitar Neck

If there is one mistake that most guitar players make over and over when learning new scales on guitar, that would have to be learning each scale in only one position on the fretboard. A fairly typical illustration of this occurs with classic rock guitar players who, after learning the foundational A minor pentatonic scale on the 5th fret become "forever stuck" there, neglecting to learn the other shapes of the same scale all over the guitar.

The above is analogous to starting to read a book, stopping after reading only one chapter, picking up another brand new book, reading only the first chapter and then moving on. It's obvious that by continuing to "read" books in this fashion you will learn nothing. Translated into the world of music, guitar players who practice scales in this way never learn to fully express themselves in music. Ironically, a guitar player who truly masters one scale inside and out on the guitar will have more to say musically (and will be much more creative doing it) than a guitar player who knows 30 different scales "as pieces" (individual shapes) scattered around the guitar.

4. Practice Scales From Side To Side On The Guitar

A lot of guitar players spend all of their time practicing scales starting on the 6th string and going to the 1st string in box shapes. This is a fine method of practicing, BUT it is only one part of what true mastery of scales on guitar should consist of. It is just as important to also play scales from side to side, starting on the first fret going to the highest fret on your guitar. Doing this is essential to having a more complete visualization of the guitar neck as you play. This method of practicing will also help you to start playing a solo on any string of the guitar and know exactly where you are in a particular scale.

5. Don't Learn Scales At Random

There are so many scales that exist in music that it is critical for you to get organized about which of them are most important for you to learn and practice. To do that, make a list of all scales that are used most often in your style of music and do NOT move on to learn lots of other obscure and unusual scales until you have a very firm command of the essential scales used in your style of guitar playing. This involves not merely the ability "to play the notes" of the scales but also the skill to use them in any musical context freely and expressively.

That being said, of course it can also be helpful to learn and study other scales that may add an exotic or unusual sound to your guitar playing, BUT you will only really benefit from this when two things are in place:

1. You already have a very proven and effective system for learning scales on guitar that allows you to easily learn any scale.

2. You have already spent enough time on the fundamental scales used in your style of guitar playing to be ready to reap the benefits of expanding your musical horizons by learning other scales.

If you are not sure of how to find the list of scales used in your style of music, you can do so in one (or both) of the following ways: either by asking a guitar teacher or a more accomplished musician to tell you what these scales are, and/or by developing your ear training and music theory knowledge to be able to hear what scales are used in your favorite guitar solos.

What should you do now?

Although there are many ways to go about learning to play scales on guitar, some approaches are, without a doubt, more effective than others. If you have been less than satisfied with the results you have seen so far in your guitar playing from practicing scales, consider changing your approach by following the advice in this article.

To see how the ideas in this article are applied to an actual guitar practice session, study this free lesson on video regarding how to practice scales on guitar.

About the author:
Mike Philippov is a guitar instructional author, professional guitar player and composer. He writes articles about the best ways to practice guitar that are studied by many musicians worldwide. To get more help with becoming a better guitar player, visit his website: PracticeGuitarNow.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Mike_Philippov/1361214

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