I’ve been reading several blogs now, all related to music in one way or another. Whether it be about guitars, amplifiers and effects pedals or about guitar lessons or guitar repairs, I’m now a blogger. Well during one of my blog tours, I ran into one of the most motivating posts that just happen to tie right into what I was talking about in my post just yesterday when I talked about the importance of learning the major scales inside and out and up and down the neck of your guitar.
The following is a guest post written by a guest, I hope you enjoy it.
Written by: Guest Post on December 1, 2010.
This is Ground Control!
While visiting my family over the weekend, my younger cousin Jonah brought his guitar to my parents house. (Hey Jonah, sounding really good my man!) The following is some of the things we worked on. Firstly, I mentioned the importance of MELODY. Our leads/solos should revolve around a melody or theme. It’s a great idea to learn as many melodies as possible on the guitar, ESPECIALLY super-simple children songs.
This Serves Two Purposes:
1. By learning lots of melodies, you will develop a better sense of where notes are on the neck.
2. It will help you to sharpen your ear, and improve your sense of melody.
This familiar melody as shown is played on the high E string and the B string.
e|–5-3-2—–0-2–
b|——–5-3—–3-
Figure out the rest of the phrase on your own!
Here is another seasonal melody also played on the first two (high) strings.
e|—-3-3-5-3-2-0-0-0-5-5-7-5-3-2–
b|–3————————————-3
Again try and work out the endings.
[If you are REALLY STUCK, email me for the ‘answers.’]
Try and play as many melodies as you can on the guitar, you may want to keep a running list of these melodies for future reference.
Another concept we worked on was playing scales on a SINGLE STRING. While not as efficient or even practical for actual playing, it makes for excellent practice. It also serves the purpose of getting familiar with the intervals of the scale, neatly laid out on a single string.
Here is the MAJOR SCALE!
|–0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12-14-16-17-19-21-23-24
—w-w-h-w-w-w-h-|-w-w—h—w-w-w—h–
All scales are simply a series of WHOLE STEPS (two frets), and HALF STEPS (one fret) between notes. The type/sound of scale is determined by where these HALF steps occur. The half step/one fret interval (in a major scale) is between the 3rd and 4th notes, and between the 7th and 8th/ OCTAVE.
Take Note of This One!
There are just two intervals that are one fret (half step) apart; the rest are two frets (whole step) apart. This applies to MAJOR, MINOR and any other MODE of scales. So when playing melodies or riffs within the scales and you aren’t sure if the next note is one fret or two frets away, you have 5 in 7 chance that it is two frets.
Understanding the major scale and it’s intervals will help you more than any single piece of knowledge – the mechanics of all western tonal music is based on the MAJOR SCALE. Enjoy your leftover turkey and dive into the major scale!
I hope you enjoyed this post, I know I did and it cleared up a lot of questions I had about the major scale. Hopefully you’ve learned a little more about the use of the major scale.
Have a great day tomorrow and don’t forget to give your kids a big hug. Until next time . . . . . . . . . . .
Bob
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