help on scales etc.

[fastbladez]

hey all. i bought a guitar out of the blue afew months back and basically self taught myself how to play. but after playing til now i think i've reached some kind of a "stand-still", where i think i'm not improving anymore.

so been wondering if you guys can help explain how the scales work, cause i heard alot of people saying only by mastering the scales then can like learn how to play solos/fill-ins and etc.

pls help!

 

[bryan1234]

true. scales are for playing solos

 

[BlackAcidDevil]

Bro, there is millions of ways/scales/interpretation on a guitar. You need to know how/why/when to use it.

Since you are self taught, and know some scales................experiment, your ear is your best teacher AT THE MOMENT.

 

[IbanezFreak]

ok..scales are basically just templates...they consist of a whole string of notes throughout your fretboard broken up into 4 or 5 segments...

each segment connects to each other nicely... 1 is connected to 2, 2 is connect to 3 etc...then we reach 5...but how? no 6? yeah...5 is connected to 1..so after you reach the 5th segment, you will repeat segment 1..

and for each scale, there will be a root note at segment 1 which you will use to play according to the rhythm guitar...

ok wait..to simply put it...if the rhythm guitarist plays the chords...G, Em, C, D, you use the scale to solo at the root note G...by this your solo will then stay in tune...

to just practise...what i just started last night was to record a rhythm part and to loop it and just practise soloing up and down the fret board...

sorry if it only made a bit of sense...hope that helped anyway...i don't know a lot about this, but this should help you

 

[pianomankris]

Ok here's a starter for ten:

Music is essentially two elements - melody and harmony.

Melody = the relationship of one note to the next note (e.g. the 'tune')

Harmony = the relationship of simultaneous sounding notes (e.g. a chord - more than two notes played together).

So, first of all, you need to be able to think of music in terms of melody (tune) and harmony (chords).

Try to hear things this way.



The notes of a melody come from a 'set' of notes known as a 'scale'. All the notes of a chord also come from a scale. If playing pop music, then, most of the time, the scale used for both melody and harmony will be the same.

So, a scale is the basis for a whole piece of music.


Deciding on which scale to use is picking the 'key' of the piece. You'll perhaps hear people talking about a piece being 'in' the key of, for example, G major. This means that the music uses the notes from the G major scale - for both chords and melody.

A scale is simply a sequence of notes (e.g. all the white notes on the piano). There is, however, a pattern to the sequence. This is when things get a little more tricky.

 

[trickstop]

Scales basically guide you to play a song/solo in key. If you're first starting out learning them is a good idea. But as you progress don't limit yourself to playing within individual keys. Such ideas will come as you progress.

 

[fastbladez]

thanks all you guys for the replies. so basically, practising a particular scale, would be just go down the note? a.k.a tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone all the way? and keep practising?

 

[theunknown]

in a way, but go about sticking to the notes but in different sequences. make different patterns out of it.

 

[thedevilri]

What do you mean by different pattern?

 

[trickstop]

Different combinations, sequences, ways you play a certain group of notes maybe?

 

[theunknown]

yes thats right. the scales are simply sets of notes around the fretboard which sounds nice with one another. its up to you to make a pattern out of them.


--------------------------------
----------------15-------------
-12-14^-12-14-----14^-12-12~
-------------------------------
-------------------------------
-------------------------------

simple pentatonic in G taken from 1st solo of knocking on heaven's door (GnR)

 

[thedevilri]

yes thats right. the scales are simply sets of notes around the fretboard which sounds nice with one another. its up to you to make a pattern out of them.


--------------------------------
----------------15-------------
-12-14^-12-14-----14^-12-12~
-------------------------------
-------------------------------
-------------------------------

simple pentatonic in G taken from 1st solo of knocking on heaven's door (GnR)

14 ^

^ = Bend up?

 

[Likui]

try playing E G# A B D
E G# A B D#
E G# A# B D#
yea these stuff sounds cool althought I don't know what scale it is

 

[fastbladez]

thanks to all you guys.
okay another question, so is it necessary to know like ALL the types of scales there are possible? cause i've read so many articles/lessons online and there are like loads of scales.
sorry if i'm asking too much

thanks for the help anyway!

 

[Likui]

thanks to all you guys.
okay another question, so is it necessary to know like ALL the types of scales there are possible? cause i've read so many articles/lessons online and there are like loads of scales.
sorry if i'm asking too much

thanks for the help anyway!

yes try new scales and try fit it in music like when ppl play rock usually they use blues, pentatonic, diatonic, modes, so what u can do is use those stuff but change the notes here and there u can get some interesting sound