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As I said in earlier posts, a scale is a way to divide up an octave into discreet units so that the distance between any two notes is not that far, and so that we approximate intervals that we find resonant and pleasing. By far the most common scale in Western Music is the major scale.
A major scale consists of a series of whole and half steps. A half step is a one fret move on your guitar. A whole step is a two fret move on your guitar.
The pattern for every major scale is as follows: W W H W W W H. So, if you want to make a major scale on a guitar, you start at any note, go up two frets, two frets, one fret, two frets, two frets, two frets, one fret. I could also have notated this as 2 2 1 2 2 2 1.
Lets take an example on the guitar. Start on the fourth string 1st fret. Play the notes on the frets in this order: 1 3 5 6 8 10 12 13. Congratulations, you now know one way of playing a D# major scale.
Because of the overwhelming importance of the major scale, and seven note scales in general, we have 7 note names in Western music. A B C D E F G A(completing the octave). Or Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do.
There are 12 tones in diatonic music, and for each of those tones there is a corresponding major scale. All of the scales have accidentals (sharps or flats) in them, except for C major. And all of them use each of the letters, once. You can build any of them following the same 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 procedure.
Descending scales: If you want to build a scale descending from the octave, you simply reverse the order of the intervals: 1 2 2 2 1 2 2.
We will get to intervals later, but for now I will simply say that the intervals in a major scale are Unison, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect Fourth, Perfect Fifth, Major Sixth, Major Seventh, and Octave. I have never seen anyone explain this, but my guess is that the Major intervals are called Major because they appear in the major scale.
Learning on the Guitar
There are several ways that you should approach learning the major scale (or any scale for that matter, including the Pentatonics).
First is the horizontal approach: On each string, learn to play the scale up and down that string and only that string. This will help you to learn both the sound of the scale, and the fretboard.
Second is the vertical approach: After you are familiar with the note relationships from the horizontal approach, try to play the scale with your index finger staying at a single fret and going up and down the strings. This is basically an extension of Brian’s box approach. Some of his boxes shift position for convenience, but if you can it is a good idea to learn single positions. Ideally, you would be able to play every scale with your index finger staying on any fret (I am a long ways from this ideal).
Third is a string set approach: Like the horizontal approach, except you pick out two strings that you can play on, or three strings, etc…
Fourth is the diagonal approach: as you ascend, it is generally more comfortable to move your hand up the fretboard, and then down again as you descend. With what you have done, you can start to work these shifts in.
Approach to playing the scales: It’s very impressive to see people rocketing through full two and three octave scales, but not very useful, and not great for learning.
When doing any of the above, I think its better to break the scales up into short, usable bursts.
First, just two notes at a time. On a C scale, you would play C D, then E F, then G A, etc. Then three notes at a time. Then four. Maybe go on to five. But maybe do a different short pattern, like CDE, DEF, EFG etc or CE, DF, EG or CED, DFE etc…
Modes
Lots of people are intimidated by modes. Don’t be. Here’s the dirty secret. Once you know the major scale, you know all of the modes. Each mode is just the same pattern as the major scale but starting at a different point. Here are the modes and their interval sequences:
Ionian 2212221 – which is the Major Scale
Dorian 2122212
Phrygian 1222122
Lydian 2221221
Mixolydian 2212212
Aeolian 2122122 – this is the Natural Minor scale
Locrian 1221222Notice that nothing changes in the sequence except the starting point. There are songs that have the character of the particular modes, but in terms of getting a collection of notes on which you can improvise, the modes don’t add anything at all. If you know your major scales, you know all of your modes.
Historically, this was not the case, but it is in modern music with equal temperament.
Finally, in music theory, we always worry about the names and justifications for things. But music theory is there simply to describe the sounds, and the important thing is to learn the sounds, and to learn how the sounds are made on the guitar. Don’t worry too much at first about all the names. If you are working out a scale on the guitar, learn the sounds and shapes first, then put the names to them. After all, that’s what the theoreticians did too.
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