As an aspiring guitarist, you often hear about the
importance of scales and why you need to practice them. However, not everyone
knows which scales are the most important scales and why they are so.
Scales are the foundation of riffs, melodies, chords,
solos, improvisation and much much more. Although playing the rhythm guitar can
be fun, if you want to try something different with your music, incorporating scales
is a great variant.
In this article, we attempt to explain the importance
of 5 scales on the guitar and why we think they are important.
1. The Major
Scale - The major scale is heavily used in a number of
ways. The chords formed from the major scale are commonly used to form chord
progressions, and there is also a lot of theory on how to form harmonies with
this scale. Additionally, this scale is used to form modes which are also
commonly used. If you have ever learnt solfège, you will
know “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do” – this is a major scale.
2. The Minor
Scale – The minor scale is another diatonic scale. While the major scale
sounds happy and it resolves. The minor scale is kind of the opposite – it sounds,
sad, dark and sort of incomplete.
3. The Major
Pentatonic Scale – “Penta” means five and hence, the
pentatonic scale is made up of five notes. In other words : it
is a major scale without the 4th and the 7th note. This
eliminates the two semitones present in the major scale. (In the C scale between
E and F, and between B and C.)
4. The Minor
Pentatonic Scale – A minor
pentatonic scale consists of 5 different notes. They are the same 5
notes as the major pentatonic scale, but the tonic of the scale is
a different note. The tonic of the minor pentatonic scale is
the note (3 semitones) below the tonic of the major pentatonic scale.
5. The Blues
Scale - Once you learn the minor pentatonic scale, it
should be relatively easy to learn the blues scale as it is essentially the
same with one additional note (a flattened 5th). As the name suggests, the
scale is used heavily in blues but is also used in rock and jazz based styles a
lot too. Soloing over the blues using this scale is relatively easy to get the
basics of, but you could spend a life time honing the subtle nuances of the
style, such as the feel of the bends, the vibratos and the timing of your
phrases.
One you
understand these scales, you need to practice regularly in order to master
them. You need to learn to play the scales in both ascending and descending
order – this will help ingrain the position as well as the sound of the scale
in your memory.
You
should then begin spending time experimenting with the scales to try and come
up with phrases and melodies using the notes of the various scales. You can
then move onto experimenting with scales over backing tracks that you can find
online. Choose the pitch and tempo and then jam away! As you do this regularly, you will
become familiar with the scales and playing the scales will become a very natural
process.
BlueTimbre is a Music hub with
Music Education spaces, Jam Room and Recording studio located in India.
BlueTimbre provides complete end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. BlueTimbre
works with schools providing complete Music Education solutions on campus. BlueTimbre
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performance.
Sources:
www.jazclass.aust.com/scales/scablu.htm
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