Learn to play guitar – The Major Scale
If you have a desire to learn to play guitar, you will need to have an understanding of the Scales, let’s take a quick look at the major scale first.We all know the sequence of notes in the scale as: Doh – Ray – Me – Far – So – La – Tee – Doh.
There are seven notes in the scale without the octave, and if we transpose this into the notes of the E Major scale we would have: E – Gb – Ab – A – B – Db – Eb – E
The last E in the scale is the same note as the first E, but only one octave higher in pitch. Which is the same as; playing the open E string then playing the same string with your finger on the 12th fret. The two notes are 12 frets apart or one octave.
On the guitar neck the distance between each fret is known as a Half step or Semitone and the distance between 2 frets is known as a whole step or tone, so if we played an open E note on the 1st string then played an F fretted on the same 1st string 1st fret, the distance between those two notes would be 1 fret, a half step or a semitone. To keep
things simple, for the remainder of this book we’ll use the term: half step / whole step, when referring to the distance between
notes.
Again if we played open E on the 1st string then moved up 2 frets to play the Gb on the same string, and pressed down on the 2nd fret, the distance between those two notes would be a whole Step.
As with the notes on the guitar it would depend on the key that we were playing in whether we call a note flat (b) or sharp (#) but for the purpose of this short lesson we will keep it simple and call the space’s in between the notes half steps and whole
step’s. Likewise with the notes, we will refer to the notes as being flat rather than sharp. Also the notes in the scale are marked with Roman Numerals, this is the standard for numbering notes in a
scale. You will also notice the upper and lower cases in the Roman Numerals; this will all become clear when we start with the chord progression scales.
So the E Major scale looks like this:
As you can see in the diagram above, in the major scale each note in the scale is separated by a W which represent a whole step or a H, representing a half step.
I should mention before we go any further. The major scale is taken from the 12 note Chromatic scale, which is used as a reference in music throughout the western world. The 12 notes in the chromatic scale are
each separated by only Half steps or by only one fret on the guitar fret board.
Above is a diagram of the guitar fret board, you will notice that the notes are exactly the same on each of the E strings (1st and 6th strings) as they ascend up the fret board.
Try to memorize the notes of the E string! There are no flats (b) or sharps (#) between E and F or between B and C. Take a look at your guitar, most guitars have dots or inlays positioned at the 3rd, 5th,
7th, 9th and 12th frets.
Memorize the notes at these positions first and then simply fill in gaps. For instance; if you knew that A is played on the E string 5th fret and you were trying to find a Bb, then you would just move up the fret board a
half step to the 6th fret, and you’ve got a Bb. Simple isn’t it!
It will help by saying the notes out loud as you play each note at its fretted position, for now play the notes on the top E string (thinnest string) one at a time starting with the open E and moving along the fret board to the 12th fret. The correct position to place your fingers on the frets are just behind the wire frets, not on top of them. Make
sure that the notes are ringing clear as you play them.
To continue learning more about the Major Scale and much more with colour diagrams, audio examples and video lessons,download a free evaluation copy of my Guitar Course for Beginners at: playguitarlicks.com
Hi John
I’m being addmitted to hospital again tomorrow, our blogs’ 1st birthday. I should (hopefully) only be gone for 2 weeks.
I just wanted to stop by today and wish your blog a very happy 1st birthday for tomorrow, and to wish you all the very best for the year ahead.
May you sail the sea of ambition and land on the shores of success.
Respect and Regards,
Barry
Hi I thought I would pop by your blog and say hello!
I am in John Thornhill’s Masterclass for this year and am enjoying it very much indeed. How did you find it last year?
If you need any help with Twitter just let me know as I am very active there and help a lot of people.
Hope to speak to you soon.
All the best
Keith Dean
Hi Dean,
Thanks for dropping by, John’s course last year was second to none and I understand that this year he has made further improvements.
Good luck with your course.
Best Regards
John