Cant understand how to do scales?

[ZakNafien]

Hi, im a total begginer and scales have me totally stumped i mean how the hell do i do them ?

I read the scales section and i didnt understand a word of it could anyone please try to explain it to me in extremely easy persons speak?

Cheers
Zak

[slaughteredsoul]

i have the exact same problem,and i tried other sites but none are making sense to me..i gave up on scales for the moment,but if anyone can explain in simple english it would be greatly appreciated:)

[Phil]

Well i'm only just starting myself but i think i have these scales worked out, hehe. Unlike a chord, which is a certain combination played on the same frets/strings each time, a scale is a shape that you apply to the fret board. You pick a starting point (a certain note) and apply a scale (shape) from that point. It's kind of a way of making sure that each note you play in a sequence sounds "right" with the one before and the one after it. Pick a starting point, say the top string, 3rd fret (G), and apply any scale to it, say the major scale. Work your way down the fret board in the sequence layed out by that scale. You'll hear that the notes sound right together. If you play the wrong one you'll hear that that one seems out of place. Then, once you get used to the shape you can pick any starting point you like and apply that shape, the notes will always sounds right together.
Hope that helps. If i'm wrong i'm sure one of out guitar instructors will correct me, lol.

[slaughteredsoul]

Actually that makes PERFECT sense :)
thank you

[Phil]

No probs, dude. Hope that it helps Zak as well. I figured since i'm starting out myself that i could maybe give the "extremely easy persons speak" he was after, hehe.

[smfulla]

just to confuse everyone (hopefully not, but neway)
so you all know the basic major scale shape?
well from your root note (the begining note) move downwards 3 frets, and play the basic minor scale shape. Sound similar???? this is because they use EXACTLY the same notes as the major scale you played, just in a different order to give it a minor sort of sound. the theory behind it is if you have no sharps or flats in your key signature (assuming you all know basically how to read standard notation) it could be C major, but depending usually on the chord progression it could be A minor. Because if you count three frets down from C it's A.

I hope this helped in sum way.

[Phil]

Cool, i'll have to try that when i get home :) Thanks
Altho i will admit Standard notation is still a mystery to me to yet. I do understand what you mean by the move and applying the minor scale.

[slaughteredsoul]

Yeah that makes good sense too,after reading it properly:) it all fits in..great, i love this lol
thanks

[Phil]

Hehe, i guess that's the point of talking about stuff like this :)

[ZakNafien]

Thats what i would call perfect easy persons speak :)

Cheers for the help i think i've got it now :)

[smfulla]

ok I'm gunna try and make the more needed side of scales, easier to understand.
now if you're playing in the key of C major, what you would generally use to play solo's etc. is the Cmajor scale.
Now, the major scale pattern in terms of whole steps, or half steps (2 frets or 1) goes like this:
W = whole
H = half

W, W, H, W, W, W, H

These are not notes themselfs, but the amount of frets between each note. A whole step is 2 frets, and a half is 1.

With the notes included it should look like this
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
- W- W- H - W- W- W- H

now all this should help you do is be able to figure out a major scale anywhere on the neck as it applys to all scales.
G major for instance would be
G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G
- W- W- H - W- W- W - H

Next comes the scale degrees
now this should make sense to everyone, but its application is a little different.
In a the C major scale, C is the first note, so its's the root note. So in scale degrees terms it's a 1.
d is the next note, so it's a 2.
E is a 3
F is a 4
G is a 5
A is a 6
B is a 7
and we come back to C. (Please note that these aren't intervals)

so horizontally it looks like this

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1/8

the reason why the last C is 1/8 is because in a scale, you can either keep on counting upwards from where you started, or start again from the root. But if you want I'll get into that later.

But to make this simpler, for every major scale, the numbers don't move around, they still go in the same order, so if you were talking about the G major scale, G would be the root, so therefore number 1, A would be 2, B would be 3, C would be 4, D would be 5, E would be 6 and F# would be seven.

so to recap, we know the major scale pattern looks like:
W, W, H, W, W, W, H
when starting from the root

and a major scale has the scale degrees:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1/8

have you understood everything so far?????
If you have and would like me to keep on going into the finer points, just post a msg saying you want me to continue. If you haven't understood and would like me to explain a little more in detail on a section or something, just post a msg saying so.
I hope it has helped a little so far

[slaughteredsoul]

hey smfulla,
great description! i browsed through tons and tons of sites and i haven't figured it out yet until now.you're great!
thanks again.:)

[smfulla]

cool, it's great to hear your feed back =]]]
hmm, i'll try and explain about why, and how you can move scale shapes up and down the fret board.

Take a look at the notes in the C major scale:
C D E F G A B C

Now take a look at the notes in the A minor scale:
A B C D E F G A

Notice that they are exactly the same notes? (Don't worry about understanding the minor scale just yet, I'm concentrating on playing the major scale up and down the neck)

Like I said before, if you play your C major scale using the basic major scale shape, then move down 3 frets from the root and play the minor scale shape, it has exactly the same notes, just in a different order.
Now the different order is what lets you move around, but its the whole step and half step method that keeps you in key.
Remember the whole step and half step pattern of the major key?
W W H W W W H
Well let's say we're playing in the key of C major, and well we don't want to solo in the same position, lets say we feel like moving our hand lower. So keeping in the key of C major, we choose to start on the note G. So find the note G on the 6th string and 3rd fret of yoru fret board. Now using the Whole Step and half step method, in the C major scale, we find the from G to A, there is a whole step. Then from A to B there is a Whole step. Then from B to C there is a half step. And so on and so forth. So as you can see, we have kept the same formula, just changed the order. Using the same formula and changing the order can help you practice your scales and scale shapes up and down the neck. This is good for spicing up a few of your solo's, going from something growling down low, to something screaming up high and staying in key.

So far this is all for the major key, but as you will find out it applies to minor scales as well.
Maybe after reading my 'explanation' of scales, cyberfrets could make more sense. So I suggest going back to his, because I'm sure he could explain it better, but for now, just read over what I've said, try and absorb it.

[slaughteredsoul]

Again i gotta say thanks,i printed it out and all to read properly..and this made it clearer for me to understand some other stuff i had printed out,that i could never for the life of me,get a single word that makes sense out of them ..:)

[smfulla]

hey I'm glad it helped =]
what I tried to do was use the knowledge I had of scales (with all the hardout technical terms) and then use other principals that would work with the original definitions in the learning process.
I guess it's sort of how I helped myself to learn scales (I only finished learning them like 2 and a half weeks ago, lol, but I understand like everything about them).
If you want more, like say minor scales, I could try write it out again

[slaughteredsoul]

It is incredibaly helpful to put that out in words you can understand,like zak said,easy persons speak.
if i have any more trouble with the scales, i know who to ask..(you dont mind do you? hehe dont worry, wont ask too much;) )
thanks!!

[smfulla]

I don't mind in the least =]
I might print out what I wrote and give it to my music teacher to see if I did a good job =]

[musiclover4life]

wow smfulla, you are really good at explaining things...i am new to this whole guitar thing and new to cyberfret.com, so the stuff you said really really made sense. thanks!
--Jana

[smfulla]

no problems =]
I'm glad I could help

[ZakNafien]

from the looks of all the people who have viewed this i think there were more than just me and slaughteredsoul who were struggleing with our scales.

Hey shawn any chance you could add the explanation written here at the end of the scales page to sorta give people a simpler way of understanding it? for all us slow people that is.