Hey guys and welcome to this free little mini series of videos where I'm showing you how to play lead
acoustic guitar now in this particular series what I'm going to be referring to what I'm gonna be
Sharing with you some ideas of how to get started with is soloing over
The chords that are in a major key so for example if we're in the key of C those chords would be C F
G
major a
minor
And also an E minor and another related chords, but the principles that we look at here
I'm going to show you how to transfer them to any major key, so the key of G
The key of D. Key of a sharp whatever it may be
everything here is going to be very transferable and
Quite different to the things that we've looked at before really on this channel
We've only focused so far on how to play minor pentatonic style solos, so this kind of thing
That kind of thing so very much based in the minor pentatonic
Position one however as I've covered in the live streams that I've been doing recently and in my live workshops that
Doesn't apply or we can't use that those scale notes
To play over something that is in a very major key
Again using what I want to call the diatonic chords in the key of C
So we're going to be starting
Super basic with this and some of you may have seen
some of this on their live stream that I did a little while ago and
However, we're going to be starting with the absolute basics which is
Begins with the C major scale and the easiest way we can play that scale is an open position like this
Now for now already a couple of videos of mine on YouTube showing you exactly how to play that scale and
how to play loads of melodies
using those scale notes such as happy birthday and things like that if you want to see those and you think that's you know you're
Not yet at a level where you can play that click the link just here. It will take you to those videos and
Get you started with this more majors or even get you started
With single note playing if that's something that you have not done yet, but where I would like to
Push on from here discovering something new
To my channel that I have not really covered at all, and I should have done by now
That's why I'm doing these videos and that is the major scale in position one now
I'm doing other videos on exactly what these positions mean so position 1 position 2 etc
But the one that we're going to be focusing on is this so it begins with our middle finger
On the 8th fret of the thickest E string, and if I just give you a quick play through of it
If that is something that you is either brand-new to you, or you've kind of covered it in the past
But you need a refresher on it
That's what this video is about if you're wanting to kick on in you already know that
Scale shape click on to the next video in this series where we'll be kicking on how to use this for
Improvisation and how to make learning lead lines that are more major based much easier for you
but let's have a look at this scale a
little bit more in depth and learn how to play it for those of you that haven't covered it before
So as I say we start with our middle finger
which is different to how if you've done that and this will be a C know so C
At eighth fret of the thickest east ring and many of you may have covered the minor pentatonic scale
If you haven't covered this scale you probably start with that one
It is it is much easier that minor pentatonic
I have lessons on it just how to play the minor pentatonic scale
But with the major scale in this position one we need to start with the first finger
And we're going to always use the little finger and assigning a finger to a fret
That would be at the tenth fret so middle finger at eight
little finger at tenth fret
The next note would be the first finger as seventh fret of string five and
Therefore we start to hear this sound DO
RE MI
Now it's really important to note that these are the exact same
notes same letters everything C D E as
In the open position one that if you're still watching this video here you should already know
Those letter names are C D E
C D E
So by learning this we're not necessarily learning any of the letters
which is why I really think you should learn how to make music from the
Open position one first
but
What we are given ourselves is is higher note so we can go over two octaves here
Which is C to C and enter C again so go much higher?
Then we can go in open position
that's the one of the many advantages of learning this one when we learn it in this fashion, so
DO RE MI or C D?
then we play the same frets again so as
Eighth fret and then tenth fret, but a string down
So DO RE MI FA SO
Now those are by far the most important notes that you need to learn
specifically because of the next lesson in this series
DO RE MI FA SO
If you do nothing else in this first video you can just learn those
First five notes and memorize them and the tab for everything that we cover here is on the website
Links in the top corner and or in the description below you see the tab written out
it's all totally for free that you don't have to sign up to get my tabs or anything there totally for free and
That you can kick on to the next lesson if you wish however what it's best to do
And then the full-scale shape which would then be seven
Nine so the third finger this time two little finger
And if we can get that far they it can get harder to learn later on
But there's a pattern that we can learn that makes it super super easy don't get lost as we go down the strings
But the thicker ones are a little easier, so
eighth fret ten
Seven
Eight Ten
And we have to use these fingers as well so make sure you're doing that, but then we're on 7
9
10
Mention that it can be easier for the next part because there's a pattern and it's 7 9 10 again
7 9
10
So those middle two strings
Exactly the same
But it is good to
when you first learn them to start from the beginning because I want you to
Be really paying attention to the sound of this
This is the major scale and it is how we play a lot of melodies, how songs play melodies?
So you have to be familiar with this sound as you're learning it. Let's have a recap for how far we've gone so far
Sticking just to the major scale to the C octave
We've just got four more notes now, so you're nearly there. It's middle finger on the eighth fret
little finger on ten
and those are on the B string so eight and
ten
And Then seven and eight
Now to finish off the scale shape which is
Every note that we can play in this position one we can also play the little finger on
Tenth fret as well, but it's important to know that that's the C octave just like our Barre chord and therefore
We've gone through one C. Note and
And two so two octaves in total that is the first octave
And that's the second
We do also want to practice this as well as going up the scale so down the fretboard
We want to practice it coming down so descending as well and
I think too many people just are too many beginners can learn scale shapes just from the thickest string
So it's important to be able to play from the highest note and to practice it and even start playing
From the finished and and the highest note also and because as many melodies will come down as will go up and
So let's just have a little bit of a recap of that, but it will be
Exactly the same notes
And it is best to practice it with what we call alternate picking so with a Down up
Motion no matter what note is played
There's our highest note and then we just come down the exact same set of notes
And that is position one of the major scale and we started on a C note so it was the C major scale
However the real advantage of learning it here
And as well as in the open position is if we want to play the C sharp major scale
We just move this scale shape up one fret
And It sounds very similar still sounds like the major scale because that's what it is
DO RE MI FA SO and once you've learnt it in one position?
It is easy to transfer that up and down the neck or easier than learning a new scale certainly because it's the same
finger motions that the finger
mechanics of it others are the same so all you need to know to be able to play now if you've learned that the the
Major scale in any key is just know the notes that are on the thickest string
so from the F and the F sharp G
Etc etc. I have a lesson on that
as part of my beginners course where we'll cover the notes on the thickest string and
That's it so for example. I wanted to play this in the key of E. Where it starts at the double dot that's well fret
And you're playing the E major scale
But that's everything that we're going to cover in this lesson if you need more of a breakdown more written
content more
You know more help with this and the tab it's all for free on the website that link is in the top corner and in
the description below
And I really hope this serves you and helps you play some major scale
Sounding solos and how to learn major scale style songs and lead lines. We'll get onto the next video right now