Scales - Part 1

One of our readers recently asked about lessons on scales. There is one lesson at the moment on how to use the blues scale (Minor Playing), but to be honest there's not much to study about scales. I will have lessons down the road, but basically the two scales we use the most and need to know well are the Major Pentatonic Scale (light playing) and Blues Scale (bluesy playing).

Step 1 - Memorize each scale, ascending and descending.

Let's start with the Blues Scale in 2nd Position. 10"+ and 10+ are in the scale, but are not commonly used in scale exercises, so I left them out. I do recommend you play the 6 and 6', but they are not technically part of the scale, so I neededed to denote that by the use of parenthesis.

1+ 1' 1 2" 2 3' 4+ 4' 4 5 6+ (6' 6) 7+ 8 9 9+

Grab a jam track and play each note as a whole note (4 beats per note), up and down. After you've mastered that move to half notes (2 beats per note). Then move to quarter notes (1 beat per note). Then to eighth notes (two notes per beat). Finally move to triplets.

Time to get to work :-)