scales?

Jimmie Martin · From: Ohio, USA

where can a person get single note scales to practice on?

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Why not practice songs, instead? I'd look for songs that have good scalar melodies in them. Examples would be...

Nola
Tico-Tico
Christopher Columbus
Arkansas Traveler
The Devil Went Down To Georgia
Turkey In The Straw
The "Munsters" theme
Sailor's Hornpipe
Old Joe Clark
Fiddler's Dream

Playing scales over and over is a drag, and all it teaches you is the scales...not where to put them. But, if you can play the melody to all the songs above (at a pretty good clip), you'll have more than enough practice on "scales" to hold your own in a band!

[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 18 December 2004 at 07:00 PM.]

Michael Holland · From: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

I think you can get them at the note store when you get your notes.

Joey Aguilera · From: Whittier, California, USA

The Winnie Winston book has a great section on scales.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Scales are real good practice. If you know your scales well, you can find any song the first time you hear it. Here's the basic C scale at the 8th fret:

F#______________________________8____________


D#________________________8__________________


G#_________________________________8__8#_____


E ___________________________8_________________


B ________________8__8##_______________________


G#_________8__8#_____________________________


F#______8____________________________________


E ___8_________________________________________


D _____________________________________________


B _____________________________________________

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Bobby Lee - email: quasar@b0b.com - gigs - CDs, Open Hearts
Sierra SD-12 (Ext E9), Williams D-12 Crossover, Sierra S-12 (F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop 8 (E6add9), Fender Stringmaster (E13, C6, A6)

Travis Bernhardt · From: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Your question is a little vague. What exactly are you looking for? Places to play scales you already know, or just scales period? If it's the former, what scales would you like help with? If the latter, I'd recommend a little bit of beginner music theory, to teach you how scales and modes work.

-Travis

David Friedlander · From: New York, New York, USA

I agree with Bobby Lee- scales are good practice.
Bobby- can you post a few more?

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

as Donny says..scales are a drag..but ..

necessary in my view

Dexterity, motor movement, bar technique, pedal movment and all of a sudden you hear things that you can identify with.

The part about them being a drag is true but the advantages outweigh the boring part.

As far as where they are..they are all over the place.

Grab root notes off of the 8th string and play across the neck..grab root notes off the 10th string and do the same..Moving the Bar up or down a fret or two for the proper notes is also a greet excercise.

the most identifiable is the obvious.

doe..rae..me..fa..so..la..ti..doe..and back to the root.

Now, what Donny says about playing meldody on simple tunes and Nursery Rhymes also packs power for sure.

Pesonally I play warmup scales on the 6 string and Steel regularly but not for too long because they ARE a drag !

I have been sharing some "SCALE' excersises with a friend who recently started Guitar. I showed him 2 or 3 positions taking scales off the 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers..he actually went home and practiced them. He called me the other night all excited and told me that he realized that the notes of his CHORDS were also found in the scales ! He wanted to know if I already knew that or if he was telling me that for the first time..!

I said "..Scott,. This is the first time TODAY that someone told me that"...

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 19 December 2004 at 03:39 AM.]

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article759.asp

John McGann · From: Boston, Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.

http://www.ushimitsudoki.com/scalculator/scalculator.html

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http://www.johnmcgann.com
Info for musicians, transcribers, technique tips and fun stuff.

Joaquin Murphey solos book info and some free stuff : http://www.johnmcgann.com/joaquin.html

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I know players that can really "burn" some scales for you...very impressive. They run through these scales and exercises when tuning up, and you say WOW! Then, later, they have the opportunity to play a ride in a song like "Sugarfoot Rag", or "Walk, Don't Run", and they stumble and stutter all over the place.

That just always seemed kinda strange to me.

Jimmie Martin · From: Ohio, USA

thanks guys. what i want to do is play scales to improve my playing. i try to start with some things that are boring but it loosens my fingers and lets me practice picking without looking at my right hand and getting to the right fret ( which i am having a hard time getting use to ) blocking is getting easier but i make so many mistakes going from one fret or string to the others quickly. so i figure if i play scales for 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning it will help. i do also agree it is boring.

ed packard · From: Show Low AZ

Try making a layout of your neck using just the C major Diatonic notes (C,D,E,F,G,A,B). This will give you not only your basic major scale (Ionian mode), but a number of other
"modal" scales; Start at D and end at D, start at E and end at E, etc..

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

I like to play rising and falling scale fragments too to keep the interest level up. Try playing: CDE DEF EFG FGA GAB etc, CE DF EG FA GB etc, CEG DFA EGB FAC GBD etc, CDEC DEFD EFGE FGAF etc. You can make up three and four note segments and run them through the scale, play ascending segments that descend scale tones (and vice-versa), whatever you can make up. Some of the nicest licks I've heard are just an extension of this, 8 or 12 or 16 note phrases starting on a new tone each time but within the same scale.

ed packard · From: Show Low AZ

Bingo David, ..your CEG,DFA,EGB,FAC etc. are the chords for the major diatonic scale harmonized and arpeggiated = C,Dm,Em,F,G,Am,Bdim,C. Repeat this using four tones, and get CM7,Dm7,Em7,FM7,G7, etc.. Now extend it to five tones, six tones, and seven tones. As you work your way up, you can hear some of the common licks come in.

Now try to play the major scale without moving the bar (using pedals and levers).

Next try two part harmonies for the scale in thirds (alternate intervals = every other note in the scale) played together, ...then in fifths (every fifth note).

Next try to run the scale using three notes together as in CEG,DFA,EGB etc.

Want to try four at once? Use your neck map(s) to locate these chords.

For more on locating chords,see the thread on "CHORD LOCATION".

There is no end to the scale thing, ..do, re, mi is just a start.

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

Great suggestions here from David and Ed...while the major scale sounds really vanilla over it's "own" chord, it really opens up in modal useage. Plain old G scale fragments over Am,Bm,C,D7,Em,F#mb5 take on whole new life. Straight up the G scale over any of those chords sounds fine and will lead you to lots of other pathways. If you think of the scale as 8 numbers, you can easily make up mathematical sequences which make great excercise for breaking the scales up and good licks on their own. A couple of good ones are 121, 232, 343, 454 etc. and 123, 1234, 2345, 3456, etc. If you play through these you'll hear licks you've heard a million times. Then try sequences against the "modal" chords... lotsa fun.

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Jimmie Martin · From: Ohio, USA

thanks guys. i have only been playing since july but you guys treat me like you have known me for years. if i need help you all are allways ready to help. thank you all. merry christmas and happy new year from my heart.keep on pickin

joe wright · From: Jackson, Michigan

Here are all 12 major keys on the E9th tuning...joe

click here

Scott Swartz · From: St. Louis, MO

I think you will find it useful to work on scales that work diagonally across the fretboard in addition to the "across the strings" type of scale that b0b posted.

If you can weave in and out of both types, you will sound very fluid when playing single notes. The diagonal scales also sound very different due to the slides.

Check out this thread
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/008124.html

I have been working a lot on these and others and my single note playing is much better.

Its also good to work on pentatonic scales as well as diatonic and be able to mix up the type of scale also.

Its like when the best athletes that say "the game slows down and they can see everything clearly", that's where I want to get with scales.

[This message was edited by Scott Swartz on 20 December 2004 at 01:50 PM.]

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