Hi there I'm Tomas from Real Guitar Success.
Today I have a lesson for you. Gonna make your brain work a little bit but in a
good way. We'll make sure that it's not too much
that you feel fried when you're done. In fact you'll find that this will
stimulate you to probably want to know more
and that's a good thing. We're going to do what we'll call a music theory but in
a very practical way. When I was first learning to play guitar
I remember even after a while when I could play some stuff
I always felt underconfident because I didn't understand even
basic aspects of music theory. And I'm determined to make sure that doesn't
happen to you or if you're older and it has happened
I'm going to make it easy for you to get some of the basic foundation and today's
lesson is one of those basic foundations. This is a way to be more comfortable
about getting around the fretboard itself.
What we're going to do is show you how to play a basic scale on the fretboard
no biggie, but we're going to make a chord out of each note out of the scale.
Now this doesn't sound like much on an intellectual level
but doing it physically on the fretboard will both train your ears
and help you to kind of grab what the fretboard and how it's all
connected and how the notes fit on the fretboard. You'll see what I
mean after you do it for a while. This is something you'll probably want to
practice a little bit every day rather than
try to learn it and say you got it under your belt. But after a while you'll be
able to get around the guitar fretboard with more confidence and be able to
commute and talk the musical language in a way that you won't feel like a
dummy. I'll give you a heads up. I start with the assumption
that you understand kind of how a basic scale is constructed.
I slightly review it but if you're still mystified by this I'll put a link to
another lesson that explains it in more detail so with
that get your guitar out get it in tune and be ready to follow
along with me. We're going to start off with the major
scale. Now I'm not just going to explain it. We're going to play it together
on the guitar. Let's start off with a C. Easy one to get going with. Find your C
note on your guitar. I'm using the third fret on the fifth
string. Got it? Good. We're going to go up that one
string using the formula for major scale. Just a quick refresher that's whole step,
whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole
step, half step. The way I remember it is 2
holes a half, 3 holes and a half. Some
people call whole step by the way a tone and a half step a semi tone but I'm
more accustomed to whole steps and half steps. So we're
gonna make a C major scale. Do it with me. Third fret
fifth string here we go whole step, whole step,
and yes the whole step is two frets, half step one fret. Now the half step
whole step, whole step that's 2. Another whole step and half
step and we ended up back on C. If we were to
do the notes we'd say that's a C D E and you probably remember there's a
half step between E and F G A
B and a half step between B and C.
Good. Okay, so now we're ready. We're going to use that scale to make a
chord on every note degree of the scale. So what that
means? Is it will start with a C. Make a chord from it. Go to D. Make a
chord from it and so on. To make a chord, there's a simple formula.
You just skip every other note and you got a chord. So in this case
C will skip D and go to E - E F and G C E G.
Well it doesn't sound like a chord, does it? Because we're not playing them at the
same time. So I'm going to do some refingering
here. I think I'll move my C up to here. Same note. Exactly the same
note as playing it on the sixth string and now I
can do that D where it was and I'll do the D over here. Now I can
play all 3. Got that? Don't worry if this is hard to
play. It's not a problem. You're not learning
it to actually use it for play. This is going to help you both train
your ears and your intellect to understand where all
the notes are and the chords are on the fretboard.
Okay we got C. Let's try D now. I could do it here
same thing D E F G A skipping every other note.
Now, how about E. I want to go here. Keep it simple. E
F G G A B E
F G A B. Now of course you can do the E here. Yeah that's even a little
bit easier. So you can keep going in that same
direction. Take each note just skip every other note and make a
chord. Find it on the guitar fret board and then play it. See what it sounds
like. See what it looks like in your fingering then let go. Relax.
Don't worry about trying to practice it until you can do it easily. A good way to
practice this is spend some time a little bit each day
finding the scales on the fretboard. Pick a notes, start with a C and find the
scale. Apply the formula. Try it on a couple of strings so I'd
like to do the C up here that's an octave higher
whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step,
whole step, half step. Then try a different note, D.
Let's say D whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole
step, and half step. Okay that works but we can
find it on another string too same thing. Then try to make a chord
out of each note of the scale. Pick just one a day.
Don't try to do all of them or try to grasp it all at once.
This way it'll actually get in your bones easier a little at a time.
You'll find when you do this the fretboard starts to make sense
little by little and you'll also find that it's kind of easier to just get
around because your fingers will start just knowing where the notes are even if
you can't think about it that fast. So how was that? Did you follow along? How
did it seem? Was it overly complicated or does this
something that comes to you pretty easy? Let me know in the comments below. I
appreciate it. So if this is something that you
need more help on I'd encourage you to check out my Real Guitar Success
membership program where I go not only into more detail and more aspects of
this but I have practice along videos that
make it a little easier to play along and to kind of
get into your bones. That said you can also search for videos on YouTube
like how are major scales constructed? and
how do you build chords on the guitar? Those are the kinds of things that will
complement this type of lesson. This is day 22 of my 30
days of guitar coaching. I'll be back again tomorrow
with something good. See you then.