Welcome to lesson #3 of the Lead Guitar Quick-Start Series. On this lesson we’re going to go
over your first scale, the major scale, and this one is really important because the major
scale is pretty much the foundation of all the other scales and chords that you’re
going to learn as a guitarist. What we’re going to do is work on just the basic mechanics
and the memorization of the scale shape, but before we actually jump into learning the
shape, you need to learn how to read a scale diagram. If you’ve learned how to read chord
diagrams, it’s not a whole lot different. On a scale diagram you’re going to see 6
vertical lines that represent the strings of the guitar. The one to the far left represents
the low E strings, the one to the far right represents the high E strings and the horizontal
lines on the scale diagram are going to represent the frets of the guitar. When you look at
a scale diagram, you’re going to see a lot of dots on it. Those dots are either going
to be filled in or not filled in. The filled in dots represent the root notes of that particular
scale that you’re looking at. So for example we’re going to be learning a G major scale
here. The filled in or black dots that you’re going to see are the root notes of that G
major scale, which means those are going to be all G notes. The rest of the circles, the
non filled in notes, are just the rest of the notes in that scale. Now in those circles
you’re going to see numbers, either 1, 2, 3 or 4. Those numbers just represent which
fingers you should be playing those particular notes with. For all the scales that we’re
going to be learning in the Lead Guitar Quick-Start Series, we’re going to be using the designated
finger concept. I mentioned that in the first lesson, and that just says that you’re going
to have one finger that’s designated for each fret in that particular scale. For this
G major scale, if there are any notes that occur on the second fret, you’re going to
play those notes with your first hand; any notes that occur on the third fret you’re
going to play with your second finger. Any notes that occur on any of the strings on
the fourth fret you’re going to play with your third finger and your pinky is going
to cover any notes that happen on the fifth fret. That’s going to become a lot clearer
to you once we start learning the scale shape. The major scale is a 7-note scale and if you
look at the scale diagram for this shape we’re going to be learning, you’re going to say
“Nate, there are a lot more than 7 notes on there" and you’re right. The thing
is once you play the first 7 notes of that scale; you’re just going to repeat those
notes again one octave higher. So let’s just into the scale, remember all the tips
I’ve given you about small efficient motions with your picking, staying relaxed, finger
placement right behind the frets, coming right down on the tips of your fingers, all of those things.
So let’s get into the scale shape. Our first note is going to be the lowest note
of the scale and that’s going to be the G root note right here on the third fret of
the low E string. You’re going to play that with your middle finger, your second finger.
Second note on the scale you’re going to get with your pinky on the fifth fret.
Now I'm going to be using all downstrokes just to keep things simple right now. So those are
the first 2 notes of your scale. Now go over to the next string and your first finger is
going to come back to the second fret. Second finger third fret. Pinky finger fourth finger
on the fifth fret. So those are the three notes on that string.
So do you see how the designated finger concept is kind of kicking in? The notes that occurred
on both strings, both the low E and the A strings on the third fret I was getting with
my middle finger. The note that occurred on the second fret I was getting with my index
finger there. Third finger was getting the note on the fourth fret. My pinky was getting
both notes on the low E and the A for the fifth fret, so both of those strings together,
just take it a little bit at a time. Work on just those two strings.
And like I did just there, make sure to go up and come back down too. Let’s add in the notes on the next string
on the D string. Those notes are going to be first finger second fret, fourth fret with
your third finger and your pinky is going to grab the fifth fret. And that brings us up
to an octave G note. So we’ve played 7 notes and then back up to another G. So work on just
those notes. Get them under your fingers, then add them in to the rest of the scale.
That’s our first octave of that scale, 7 notes, right? And then to the octave, another
G note right there. We’re just going to repeat that major scale and to do that we
need to learn the notes on the G string, which is something really cool right here. It’s
the same exact pattern that you had on the last string, you’re going to have your first
finger second fret, third finger fourth fret, pinky finger fifth fret and those are the
notes on that string. Looking for repeating patterns like this is
a trick to memorizing scale shapes faster. If I know that my D string and my G string
have the exact same patterns on them, that can make memorizing this G major scale a little
bit easier. Incorporate that with the rest of the scale and just work on that one chunk
Once you have that down, you can add the notes on the B string. And on the B string
there are only two notes for the scale shape. Middle finger is going to grab the third fret,
pinky is going to grab the fifth fret. Those are the only two notes under that string, so
get those under your finger. Once you get those memorized and down, just add it in to the rest of the scale
So you’re almost there. You don’t have to
learn this all in the course of this video. It takes some time, a couple of days, week,
month, whatever to get this scale shape down. The notes on the last string, the high E string
are the second fret with your first finger, third fret your second finger, and your fourth
finger is going to grab the fifth fret. You got 3 notes on this string.
Once you get it memorized, just work on going up and down the scale, making sure that you have it
memorized and it’s under your fingers really well.
So right now just focus on memorizing this scale shape and getting it down. Another thing that
I want you to realize is this scale shape is movable too. If I had this G major scale
that we just played and I move it to where the root notes were on a different note, so
if I moved my starting point up two frets to an A note, now I’d be playing an A major
scale using the exact same shape and now the name of the scale changes to an A major scale.
It’s also important to start memorizing where the root notes of the scale shape are,
so we know our lowest root note is here with our middle finger, right? If we look at the
scale diagram, we’re going to see another root note here on the fifth fret of the D
string and another root note here on the third fret of the high E string.
I’ve made a jam track for you to help you work on this major scale, and like I said earlier, it’s really
important that you apply everything that you’re going to be working on here to some real music
So pull up that major scale jam track and what you want to do is just start off
by getting the scale shape down, kind of using it as a metronome. After you do that, you’re
going to kind of want to emphasize the root notes of the scale, and by emphasize the root
notes all I mean is start and end or maybe even pause on the root notes. After that,
once you have the scale shape down and you know where the root notes are, just try making
up your own, like start to improvise and just mix up out of thin air with this scale shape.
Here’s a basic example of how you can start to develop this scale with this jam track.
So go as crazy as you want to with that. Memorize the scale shape, memorize where the root notes
are and then just start making stuff up on your own. Thanks for going through this lesson
with me. Don’t forget to apply everything you’ve learned to real music, in this case
the jam track I’ve supplied for you. You may feel silly at first, you’re like you’re
not very good, but that’s okay. The important part is that you start to apply like I said
everything you learn to real music and you enjoy the process of making up patterns and
learning this new scale shape. In the next lesson, we’re going to learn
a new scale that you can use over the same jam track that you used in this lesson.
It's going to be the major pentatonic scale, so get ready for that. If you have any questions
about the major scale or this shape, you can leave them here on the comments and I’ll
answer you there or you can just email me nate@guitarsystem.com. See you in the next lesson.