Are you excited to learn how to build guitar Major and Minor scales ?
Scales
Scales are the most important and quintessential part of any music. Practicing scales are very essential for any musician, i mean instrumentalists, to gain speed on their instrument and to play different kinds of riffs with ease. Whether you are a vocalist, an instrument player or a composer. Unless and until you know how to play different scales, then you cannot create a different shades of melody which invokes different moods or emotions in a listener.
Major and Minor Scales
Major scales are the most important and basic component in music and the first one in the diatonic scales with 7 notes. A major scale evokes a plain mood when played, where as Minor scales when played give a more bluesy feel or to be precise, a sad or a feeling of pathos. This is what I have felt.
What are covered in this LENS ?
After you read this lens, you will know what is a Chromatic Scale and also learn how to build Major and Minor scales. You will understand the formulae for each of the scales and you will be able to build any Major and Minor scale with ease.
All the best. Hope this lens will help you improve your guitar skills.
Table of Contents
Its easy to navigate with Table of Contents
- Learning Chromatic Scale Notes
- Learn the forumulae to build guitar Major and Minor scales !
- Recommended Guitar Learning Sites
- A Sample JamPlay Guitar Lesson
- Video on how to play C Major scale !
- Watch how to play C Minor Scale
- Watch how to play Chromatic Scale !
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Learning Chromatic Scale Notes
This is a Non-Diatonic scale with only HALF STEPS !
Chromatic scale is a non-diatonic(diatonic scale is a scale with 7 notes, a standard scale) scale that can be built on any key. But it will contain only half tones or steps and it will have 12 notes unlike 7 notes in a diatonic scale. It is nothing but dividing an Octave into 12 different pitches. The interval between two Chromatic scales notes in this scale will be always a half step or a semitone.Sharp of a note is one semitone higher than that note and Flat of a note is one semitone lower to that note
Let's take the Key of C and analyze the Chromatic notes
Ascending Notes
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C (SHARP is denoted by the symbol '#')
Descending Notes
C B B-flat A A-flat G G-flat F E E-flat D D-flat C
Learn the forumulae to build guitar Major and Minor scales !
Minor scales are more melodious than major scales..!
This lens can be considered as the 3rd part. I have created 2 other lenses prior to this one which touches through the basics of guitar playing. So if you want to brush your basics, you can go through my lens "Get yourself a guitar to learn how to play !"Before we hop into chord building, we will just see what is an "Interval" in music
Whole Tone or Whole Step - This is the interval between the first and second notes of a major or diatonic scale. In case of C Major, the distance between the notes C and D. In guitar it is the interval between two frets. This interval is known as Major Second
Semi-tone or Half Tone or Half Step - This the smallest interval in music. That is the note immediately after the first note in a diatonic scale. In case of C Major scale, it will be C and D-Flat. In guitar the immediate fret after C, or there is no interval of a fret between two notes(C and D-Flat). This interval is called Minor second
Whole Step will be denoted as "W" and Half Step will be denoted as "H"
Formula to build a Major Scale
The formula is as below
W-W-H-W-W-W-H
You can build any major scale using this formula. Always start with the root or tonic note. Now, let's take the C Major scale now. The root or tonic note is C and the next degree is D. The interval is a Whole Step. And the interval between E and F is a half step and also, B to C is again half.
Formula to build a Minor Scale
The minor scale is as below
W--H-W-W-H-W-W
You can build any minor scale if you follow this formula. Start with the root or tonic note.
If you are interested in some information on the basic chords in guitar you can check out my lens"Want to get lessons on acoustic guitar ?"
Pentatonic Scales are the staple of rock music, you can check out my hub to see how you can create Pentatonic scales easily - "Do you want to play Pentatonic solos easily?"
I hope this lens was of some use to you. If you are really interested in going deeper and mastering all the techniques in guitar I can suggest a nice and well written guitar guide that I had bought recently. I found that to be very helpful and well structured.
Recommended Guitar Learning Sites
These guitar learning resources are also worth checking out..
Finding the right guitar tutor often becomes a very intimidating task for most beginners. But ultimately when you find one, it will change every negative perspective of guitar learning that you had till now. So I cannot emphasize enough on how important it is to learn from a professional guitar tutor who really knows his job.
These are some of the other good guitar learning sites that I would recommend. Please do have a look at them.
These are some of the other good guitar learning sites that I would recommend. Please do have a look at them.
- JamPlay
- JamPlay is an online guitar course which has a wide range of genre specific video guitar lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced guitar players designed in an easy to navigate and easy to follow manner. It also provides many other benefits to it's members like live web cam chat with the instructors, forums and community features to interact easily with your instructors and other members to name a few.
- Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar
- Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar have their learning materials spread out on DVDs, CDs and books which you can learn at the comfort of your home. This course will help you build a strong foundation on the concepts of guitar starting from the beginner level and gradually progressing towards the advanced level guitar concepts and techniques in a slow and easy pace.
- Learn and Master Blues Guitar
- Learn and Master Spotlight Series Blues Guitar will teach you not just few blues licks from here and there, but the concepts in-depth, chords, techniques, and riffs that will groom you into a full fledged blues guitarist. This course will guide you from the most basic concepts till you become a seasoned blues solo player. This blues guitar course is one of the best of the breed in it's class that sets Legacy Learning sytems on a higher pedestal than other online guitar courses.
- Pentatonic Power
- The patterns of the pentatonic scale lay comfortably under the fingers allowing guitarists from the beginner on up to quickly get this scale under control and play lead guitar.This is a specialized Online Guitar Course that claims to teach you the nuts and bolts of Pentatonic Scale in 150 Days of daily lessons.
A Sample JamPlay Guitar Lesson
From my favorite tutor Hawkeye Herman
JamPlay has tons of guitar lessons for beginners, intermediate and expert level players and also on various genres and styles. Check out this blues guitar lesson by one of the most admired guitar tutors in Jamplay - Hawkeye Herman. I love his teaching style.
curated content from YouTube
Watch how to play C Minor Scale
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Watch how to play Chromatic Scale !
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deepakeapen
Nov 1, 2010 @ 1:06 am | delete
- I think I must make more lenses like these to help others learn guitar.
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by deepakeapen
deepakeapen
Hi There, I love to write about music. I am an ardent fan of guitar and have been playing guitar for the past many years. Thought I would share some o... more »
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