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Basic Guitar Scales

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Basic Guitar Scale for Beginners

The most basic guitar scale is the major scale. Why should you know the major scale? For one thing it's the basic building blocks for chords as well as the Western system of music. So unless you're playing a sitar you need to study up. You have already heard the major scale if you can sing the elementary school exercise do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do. Extra credit if you can sing the whole song from the Sound of Music. That's one octave, with the do's representing whatever key the scale is in, A to A, B to B, C to C, and so forth.

The Notes for the basic guitar scale

The major scale for guitar.

Each note needs to appear in the scale. Each of the major keys will be a sharp key of a flat key. Sharps and flats do not belong in the same key. Kind of the exception to this is the key of C Major, which has no flats or sharps. Here are the keys and the notes that go with them in the major scale.

The Sharp Keys

Key of A - A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#
Key of B - B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#
Key of C - C, D, E, F, G, A, B
Key of C# - C#, D#, E#, F#, G#, A#, B#
Key of D - D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#
Key of E - E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#
Key of F# - F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#
Key of G - G, A, B, C#, D, E, F

The Flat Keys

Key of Ab - Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, G
Key of Bb - Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A
Key of Cb - Cb, Db, Eb, Fb, Gb, Ab, Bb
Key of Db - Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, C
Key of Eb - Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C, D
Key of F - F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E

It may seem kind of confusing to have a key of C flat because that is really a B, but there has to be a flat key for the C as well. C is unique because it has a natural key (no sharps or flats), a sharp key (all sharps), and a flat key (all flats)

Basic Guitar Scale Video Lesson

The major scale is the most basic scale.

Here's how the major scale relates to the guitar. Every fret goes up the scale a half-step, two frets are one step. The major scale is a formula of these steps and half steps.

Here is what you need to memorize for the major scale: step, step, half-step, step, step, step, half-step. We'll start to apply this to the guitar.

Hopefully you already know the notes on the fretboard, if not I'm going to do a lesson on memorizing the fretboard shortly.

In the video the key of G is used so the notes are G, A, B#, C, D, E, F#, G.

The Major Scale #1: How and Why (Guitar Lesson SC-020) How to play: by JustinSandercoe | video info

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Learn Guitar Scales

Basic Guitar Scale Books

The major scale is the most basic guitar scale.

Once you learn the major scale, you can branch out into other scales that have different sounds.

Buy a Guitar Scale Wall Chart

More information about guitar scales.

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