Learning Guitar Scales the Practical Way

Welcome to the new guitar scales section! I want to help you with learning guitar scales the practical way, so you can put them into the context of your own music. So, each guitar scale lesson includes jam tracks and clear diagrams to really help you understand and experiment with different scales and their unique "flavours".

Different scales have different attitudes and in time you'll learn which scales compliment particular parts of your music. You'll connect the tonality of the scale with the sequence of chords you're harmonising over, almost as second nature.

I'll be adding guitar scales as time goes on, and you'll find the more scales you learn, the more creative options you'll have when crafting that perfect solo. However, this is not just about lead guitar! Scales work as part of music theory in general, and should be studied in that vein to begin with. Think of this as the theory side of lead guitar, whereas the lead guitar section on this site looks at the physical application of that theory.

All You Really Need to
Master Guitar Scales...

This course focuses on all five of the essential skills that lead to complete scale mastery. How many do you count?

Find out more here >

Guitar Scales Basics >>

Learn how scales are essentially built from scratch. Intervals are simply the spaces between notes, and several of these build a scale.

Guitar Scales Lessons >>

The most important guitar scale lesson you will take. The major scale is the foundation of western music (based on the chromatic scale). All other scales can be seen simply as modifications of the major scale (even minor scales). So make the major scale your first priority.

Series which looks at the common 7 modes on guitar, from Ionian to Locrian. Each lesson takes you through the individual "flavour" and characteristics of each mode, with jam tracks to help you experiment with your own ideas.

Learn how to play outside the box by linking together different major scale shapes. Try your own lead guitar licks over backing tracks, with examples. This lesson is perfect if you've learned the major scale shapes...but want to know how to really use them!

A scale that can never get over-used in rock and blues. The basic scale is also very simple: just 5 notes. This lesson will introduce you to minor pentatonic but also it will expand the typical claustrophobic scale across the whole fretboard of your guitar. Yep, another "unboxed" lesson!

Almost an identical scale pattern to its minor counterpart, the major pentatonic scale works over major chord progressions (duh!) and has a simple, but bright sounding characteristic. Just like the minor pentatonic lesson, I'll show you how to expand the basic 4-fret pattern across the whole fretboard.

A look at the more exotic scales used commonly in heavy metal music with backing tracks to try out your own ideas. Although the focus is on heavy metal, these scales will work in other genres and contexts, so keep that in mind.

Learn how to create arpeggios - chords played one note at a time - and use the backing tracks to experiment with your own ideas. The first lesson introduces the theory behind arpeggios and then takes you onto how they work on guitar. Part 2 looks at more indepth theory - how to weave arpeggios into an existing solo.

Tons more guitar scales lessons to come! Use the RSS feed (bottom of the navbar) to keep updated if you want.