Guitar Scales Lessons
Clear diagrams, backing tracks and audio clips

Your aim should be to learn guitar scales in such a way that you can put them into the context of your own music. Most guitar lesson sites simply show you a few scale patterns, but it's important to understand how these scales work over chords, their unique features etc.

Different scales have different moods and, in the lessons below, you'll learn how to use them in your music. Eventually, you'll connect the tonality of the scale with the sequence of chords you're playing over, almost as second nature. You'll find the more scales you learn, the more creative options you'll have when crafting that perfect guitar solo.

If you're wanting to learn scales to develop your soloing ability, think of this section as the theory side of lead guitar, whereas the lead section on this site looks at the physical application of that theory. In other words, knowing your scales will allow you to apply the lead techniques you learn to their full potential.

Guitar Scales Basics & Theory

Guitar Scale Beginners - Start Here

The very basics of how guitar scales work.

Guitar Fretboard Lessons

First thing's first, make sure you know how the fretboard works! Could you say where all the positions for "F#" are on your guitar? This lesson includes clear and concise fretboard diagrams and a simple but ingenious way to learn the fretboard. Well, ok, maybe not ingenious but it bloody well works!

Part 1: Basics
Part 2: Note Relationships

Fret Intervals

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

Part 1: Basic Intervals
Part 2: Intervals in Guitar Scales

Major and Minor Scale Basics

Answers the question "what makes a scale major or minor?". This lesson shows you how to identify a scale's tones to determine whether it can be played over major or minor chords or progressions.

Chord Scale Relationships

Shows you how to identify a "starting point" for your soloing by playing scale patterns around chord shapes. This is about using your knowledge of those basic barre/movable chords from the chords section and applying boxed scale patterns to those same positions.

Passing Tones

Learn how to identify and use "passing tones" in scales. These are tones you should avoid emphasising (e.g. holding onto) in your solos. Includes a backing track and ear training exercises to help you pick out the passing tones in the example scales.

Guitar Scales Lessons

The Major Scale

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.

Other major scale lessons:

Major Scale Positions

Modes of the Major Scale

Series which looks at the 7 modes of the major scale, from Ionian to Locrian (yes they have weird names - goes back a long way). Each lesson takes you through the individual "flavour" and characteristics of each mode, with jam tracks to help you experiment with your own ideas. Finally, we pull it all together and delve deeper into modal theory.

Introduction

Mode 1: Ionian
Mode 2: Dorian
Mode 3: Phrygian
Mode 4: Lydian
Mode 5: Mixolydian
Mode 6: Aeolian
Mode 7: Locrian

Pentatonics

Pentatonic scales are very simple: just 5 tones. This series will introduce you to the minor and major pentatonic scales and help you "unbox" them across the whole fretboard of your guitar. The final part looks at more advanced pentatonics including how to merge major and minor effectively. Backing tracks provided!

Introduction

Minor pentatonic

Major pentatonic

Unboxing the pentatonic scales

Blues Scales

Learn the key tones used in blues soloing, building on the pentatonic foundations from above. Some really good backing tracks in this lesson and plenty for you to experiment with... whether you're into blues or not!

Harmonic Minor Scale

A slight alteration of the natural minor scale (also the Aeolian mode), harmonic minor has a more "exotic" sound and unstable tension than many other minor scales. In this lesson, we'll learn when it's typically used and there's a couple of backing tracks to help you really get a feel for this wonderful scale.

See also: Harmonic Minor Positions

Spanish Scale

A slight alteration of the Phrygian mode from earlier (so make sure you've been through that lesson first!). The Spanish scale, also called Phrygian Dominant, is a major scale used most commonly in flamenco and non-western musical traditions. However, it's become a favourite in heavy metal and makes frequent appearences in "alternative" western genres. You'll enjoy it!

Harmonic Minor and Phrygian Mode

Looks more in depth at the relationship between harmonic minor and its 5th Phrygian mode (which is the same as the Spanish scale above). This lesson is for those who truly want to understand the harmonic function of Phrygian, its tension and resolution. Includes audio clips to train your ear to the harmonic minor-Phrygian sound and a fresh backing track.

Metal Guitar Scales

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.

Arpeggios

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.

Part 1: Arpeggio basics
Part 2: Weaving arpeggios into solos

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

Don't forget to take a look at the Guitar Scale Mastery Course as a more comprehensive guide.