COMMON OPEN-POSITION GUITAR SCALES

In music, a scale is a group of notes.  This group of notes is ordered by pitch (frequency).  If it is going up in pitch, it’s an ascending scale.  If going down, it’s a descending scale.   

The major and minor scales are the most popular scales in Western music.

The major scale is a group of seven notes built using a formula of whole and half steps.  On guitar, a whole step is the distance of two frets (skip one fret) up or down from any fret.  A half step is the note one fret up or down from any fret. 

To create a major scale from any starting note, we use this formula:

Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half

Depending on the starting note, this formula yields a unique set of notes.  The key of C, for example, is the only major scale with no sharps or flats (all natural notes).  

C (w) D (w) E (h) F (w) G (w) A (w) B (h) C

The most common scales we use on guitar are major and minor Scales. Most pieces of music are composed using these.  

As a simplified guide, we can think of major scales as “positive, happy, bright.”  And we can think of minor scales as “dark, moody, sad.”  The actual mood of a scale will depend on the context–the other scales and chords in the music. 

We can also start on each of the different notes of a major scale.  This creates a new sound using the same notes.  These scales are called “modes.”  Each has a unique flavor and application.  

In fact, the minor scale is a mode of the major scale.  When we start a major scale on the sixth scale degree, we get the minor scale.  

These modes are a popular topic of conversation with some guitarists.  The modes have Latin names: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian.  

But for classical guitarists, it is usually more useful to be able to play scales smoothly than it is to know these scales and their names.

For any scale, we may also alter one or more notes.  This creates a new scale.  But it is often easier to still think of this as the original scale with the alteration, instead of renaming it.

In music from other cultures, we find a wide variety of scales.  India, for example, has hundreds of scales (called “ragas”), each sounding vastly different from the next. Many of these scales have five notes.

The music of Ghana and Mali also uses various scales of five notes called pentatonic scales.  

Likewise, the music of eastern countries such as China, Japan, and Mongolia will use different musical scales.  

In South America, most of the music uses the major and minor scales.  

And in the United States, “blues music” is a national cultural treasure.  When a lead instrument plays a solo in blues music, he or she will often use a pentatonic blues scale.  These scales have five notes and give the quintessential sound known as “blues”.

American-born jazz music is based on major and minor scales.  However jazz characteristically explores more complex arrangements of notes and chords.  Jazz improvisation often uses the modes mentioned above, as well as other, more exotic scales. 

Chords and scales are closely related.  Melodies are often composed using the notes of a scale.  The accompaniment will often be the chord with the same name as the scale.  (So a melody in D major will use the D major chord in the accompaniment.)

Chords are built using specific notes from the scales.  And the scale shapes on the guitar will often outline and include the common guitar chords of the same name.

For this reason, it may be fun and useful to play the related chord before or after playing a scale.  

For more on Playing Chords on the Classical Guitar, click here.

Why practice scales?  There are many reasons.  Some of these are physical and some are mental or conceptual.

On the physical level, classical guitarists practice scales using I/M alternation.  This helps us play melodies smoothly and at fast speeds. 

We train our hands through scale practice.  We learn to move from one string to the next (string-crossing) cleanly with the right and left hands.  We boost our accuracy, precision, and stamina.  In addition to full scales, we can also use scale fragments in guitar practice.

On the conceptual level, we learn to recognize common patterns of notes in pieces of music.  This helps us to learn pieces faster and memorize them more easily. 

This enters the realm of practical music theory.  We come to understand how the music is composed.   Then we can use this knowledge to learn pieces and play them expressively.