Guitar Major Scale

See how the Guitar Major Scale is constructed. Learn the secret of playing the scale from any fret position. This enables you to play fillers that fit in with the chord backing.

If the chord you or the band is in is, say, G major, then any improvising you do will contain some of notes in the G major scale. The chord of G may last for a couple of beats or several bars, and then you and the band will have progressed to another chord with its own scale.

The major scale of C begins on C.
The major scale of F begins on F, etc.  Dead easy !

The second note in the scale is one tone above, which is equal to 2 semitones, that is 2 frets.

The note steps for the whole scale, say, beginning on F, are
       tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.
Note: these note steps are the same for any of the major scales, and, remember a tone = 2 frets, and a semitone = 1 step.

Therefore now you have the secret of playing every major scale.

These are the notes then for the major scale of F (play one note at a time of course)

Bb (B flat) is another way of saying A# (A sharp). To better understand sharps and flats, "the black notes", just have a look at a keyboard. This will also demonstrate that there is no note or fret position between E and F. Refer also to the pages on the Chromatic Scale.

You can now make the scale of F# yourself by starting on the second fret, and making sure you follow the secret of tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.

You will readily see that this pattern along the one string is not practical. It's too awkward to play.

So let's start to work out a pattern you can use practically anywhere starting on the low E string. The pattern must not use any open string notes.

Our first attempt at a pattern is this --

The illustration shows the F major scale. You can use this pattern starting anywhere on the E string, but it means your left hand fingers have to deal with a span of five frets.

A better pattern is --

Actually this is the best pattern - it only straddles 4 frets, which means you can play it faster. (There is another pattern, but that one straddles 5 frets also.) The illustration of course shows the major scale of F#.

Exercise 1. Practise this pattern starting at all possible places on the low E string. For example your next scale would start on the next fret up, viz. G (on the low E string). Try to gradually play it faster over a period of a month or two.

Exercise 2. You can also play this pattern starting with notes on the A string. Begin with the scale of B, then the scale of C etc, moving up the A string.

Let's now complete the "F#" pattern all the way up to the second octave.

Exercise 3. Use this pattern starting on the low E to play all the other scales - G G# A A# etc, up to as far as you wish, or able.

It is worthwhile noting here that the higher you go along the E string the narrower the fret positions become. This means you are able to play faster.

All The Major Scales

Scale	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII
A	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A
Bb (A#)	Bb	C	D	Eb	F	G	A	Bb
B	B	C#	D#	E	F#	G#	A#	B
C	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
Db (C#)	Db	Eb	F	Gb	Ab	Bb	C	Db
D	D	E	F#	G	A	B	C#	D
Eb (D#)	Eb	F	G	Ab	Bb	C	D	Eb
E	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D#	E
F	F	G	A	Bb	C	D	E	F
F# (Gb)	F#	G#	A#	B	C#	D#	E# (F)	F#
G	G	A	B	C	D	E	F#	G
Ab (G#)	Ab	Bb	C	Db	Eb	F	G	Ab

Note;   the column headings I II III IV ...etc have not just now been invented by me. Make a mental note that you will meet these often as you progress further on guitar.

Question. Why not just use sharps, and forget about flats altogether ?

Answer. This would mean the scale of Ab would instead be G# (G# A# B# C# D# E# F## (or G) G#). So the answer is "simplicity".

Note;  there is a useful pattern in the above table --

starting on C and going up in intervals of "perfect fifths" i.e. 7 semitones, the red figure shows the number of sharps in the scale (you don't count any sharps in the last column VIII because that is the octave and only duplicates what is in the column I)

C    G 1    D 2    A 3    E 4    B 5    F# 6

starting on C and going up in intervals of fourths i.e. 5 semitones, the red figure shows the number of flats in the scale (again ignore column VIII)

C    F 1    Bb 2    Eb 3    Ab 4    Db 5 

[ From the author: i have spent many hours on the above. Please let me know if it is useful to you (or not !). Thanks a lot.
Rob Clancy]