Understanding the Fretboard: Scales

A couple of weeks ago, we talked a little bit about barre chords, which are a major part of the foundation of rhythm guitar work. This week I want to begin to set up a foundation for playing lead guitar by looking at scales.

A scale is all of the notes in a certain key played in order. For example, the key of C major contains all of the natural notes, A through G. The scale itself runs from C to C, and contains eight notes, if you include both Cs: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. That is the C major scale. Pretty easy, right?

Here is how it plays out on the fretboard, in first position:

E-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B-----------------------------------------0---1-------------------------------------------- G-------------------------------0---2------------------------------------------------------ D-----------------0---2---3--------------------------------------------------------------- A-----------3------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the same thing that your music teachers tried to teach you in grade school using that not-so-catchy tune, “Doe, a deer, a female deer, Re…” Do you remember it? If you do, you will also remember that the notes were called Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti, and Do. Do you remember singing these nonsense words while your music teacher plunked them out on an old upright piano? That was just the vocal version of the same scale that you are learning for guitar today.

And now you might be asking—just like you probably were then—why you are learning this stuff. Scales are important for a number of reasons. The most basic reason is that they teach every note in a key. If you learn the C major scale, you will know all the notes in the key of C major. If you learn the E minor scale, you will know all the notes in the key of E minor, and so on.

Another important technique that you can develop by practicing scales is fingering. By “fingering,” I mean the technique that describes which finger you use to fret with. For example, if you play the C major scale above, you would use your index finger to fret all the first fret notes in the scale. You would use your middle finger for all the second fret notes, and your ring finger for the third fret notes. The pinky can then pick up any notes on the fourth fret.

Play through the scale a few times, starting with the low C and ending on the high C. Make sure and use the correct fingers on the correct frets. Now play through the scale again, and pay attention to your picking hand. If you are playing with a flatpick, pay attention to which direction you are picking each note. Are you picking them all with a downward stroke, an upward stroke, or do you alternate between downstroke and upstroke? This may seem unimportant, but it is actually one of the most important factors in determining the speed of your leads that you play.

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