[MUSIC]
So this lesson we going to get in to scales.
Were going to start off with what's called the chromatic scale.
I'm going to explain that to you in a second.
Before that I'll just want to talk a little bit about the position
of your left hand.
We haven't yet discussed that.
For the most part, your left hand should be relaxed and comfortable.
If you find yourself feeling any degree of
strain in your left hand as you're fretting notes,
you should rethink it and try and find a position that feels comfortable for you.
I find it very comfortable to sort of keep my hand,
if I were to take my hand and just sort of drop it and let it hang, and
then I picked it up and kept it at the same angle, and I kept this part
of my hand relatively straight and then I simply wrapped it around the guitar.
If you're playing an electric, the width of the neck allows you to even
keep your thumb In this area right here.
Acoustic guitar might have a slightly wider neck, and
you may want to keep your thumb
slightly behind the fretboard just sort of balancing the fingers on the other side.
This is important now, because as we're starting to practice scales.
There's going to be a lot of repetitive motion so you do want to be careful.
I always say just listen to your body, listen to your hand.
If you find yourself doing things that feel like you're a contortionist,
then try and rethink that and get to a place where it's relaxed.
For the most part try and keep your fingers parallel to the frets.
You don't want to try to much of this kind of stuff,
you don't want to try too much of that kind of stuff.
Try and keep them in line and very relaxed in a very natural way.
So that, we've covered that, so now lets talk about the first of the scale.
Now some people might be saying well why do we practice scales?
Good reason to practice scales is first of all to develop facility.
Now the scale that I'm going to show you, quote, the chromatic scale.
It's a great scale for doing a warm up.
When we get to other scales like the major scale, practicing scales,
besides strengthening your facility and the relationship with the right hand and
the left hand, it also helps you develop the sound, the tonality
of the scale and knowing where the notes on the fretboard, of course, lie.
And where those sounds, the relationships between those sounds, so
practicing scales allows you to reinforce a lot of those fundamental relationships.
So now we're going to start off with the chromatic scale.
Now, this is a good scale for warming up.
I often use a chromatic scale as one of the first things I play,
when I pick up my guitar.
I warm up with the chromatic scale.
So, I'm going to give you, sort of a quick tutorial on what exactly this scale is.
If I were to play every note that is available to me between
a certain distance up to the same note again in an octave above that note.
If I were to play every single one of those notes,
that scale is called the chromatic scale.
Now, I'm going to demonstrate it on one string for you.
So if I were to start off with my six string, and I play an open E,
[MUSIC]
the next note,
[MUSIC]
would be an F.
Now, when we're ascending,
we usually refer to the notes in between Letter notes as sharps.
So we're sending, so we're actually going to go to an F sharp.
The next note above that is a G.
Now we continue, the next note is a G-sharp.
[SOUND] Note above that is an A.
[SOUND] Then we're at A-sharp.
[SOUND] Then we're at B.
[SOUND] Now, there's no sharp above,
technically speaking there's no sharp above that B, we go straight to C.
So there's only a half step between B and C.
Next note is C sharp, then D.
[MUSIC]
Then D sharp, and now we're back at,
which is one octave higher [SOUND] Then the note,
the open string, the E that we started with.
[SOUND] I usually, when we play a descending chromatic scale,
the note underneath the letter names we actually call them flats.
So in other words, [SOUND] if we were to start with this E.
[SOUND] The first note, descending, would be an e flat.
Now the note after that we're on the d.
Now a d flat.
Now a c or
a B.
B flat.
A.
A flat.
G. G-flat, F, and
then a half step to get back to the open E,
which is an octave lower than the note on which we started.
[MUSIC]
So as I'm demonstrating that chromatic scale on one string ascending and
descending, you can see the corresponding graphic of the Half-Step Wheel or
the H Wheel, and you can understand the relationship between the half steps
ascending and the half steps descending.
You won't always have that wheel with you, so one easy way to remember these
relationships is to know that between the E and the F, there's only a half step.
And between the B and the C, there's only a half step.
Every other note, when you're ascending, has a sharp.
And every other note, when you're descending,
if it's not a letter name like E, it has a flat.
So that would be E flat, D, D flat, C, only a half step, and then B flat.
Now that was a tutorial to explain how the scale is actually constructed.
Fortunately for us on guitar, we have six other strings,
so we don't need to play melodies on one string.
We have five other strings and
they allow us to play across the fret board in position.