Jan 02 2009
Practice - Major Scales
I’m still pretty new to music theory. I know the difference between major and minor scales when I hear them, but I’m still learning what makes them different. We’ll start here with major scales which are your basic scale without anything fancy. All other scales are derived from the major scale. It’s a series of 7 notes and an octave. Let’s use G as an example. You’ll start with your middle finger on the third fret on your E string and that’s your root. The 2nd is A, pinky on 5th fret of your E string. The 3rd is B, index on 2nd fret of A string. The 4th is C, middle on 3rd fret of A string. The 5th is D, pinky on 5th fret of A string (or an open D string, but that won’t help you with proper finger technique). The 6th is E, index on 2nd fret of D string. The 7th is F, middle on 3rd fret of D string. And then the Octave is G, pinky on 5th fret of D string (or an open G, but see above).
Besides just running this pattern back and forth and up and down the fretboard in each and every key, you can learn a few important things. The root note, 5th and Octave make up the power chord. The 5th is always 2 frets down the neck on your next higher (pitched) string, and the Octave is always 2 frets down and two strings higher.
Practice these scales. Next time we tackle the minors.
