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Scale Exercises
Major
Scale Exercises for Guitar
Major
scale key tones, phrases and runs
Before we go on to look at some major scale exercises for guitar, you
need to familiarise yourself with the different major scale shapes and positions - There's a lesson that
introduces you to the major scale right
here!
Ultimately, it's your experimentation with the major scale that will
help you progress and make sense of it, but I hope I can at least give you some essentials
to think about when crafting that perfect solo. Remember, the more creative
options you have, the freer your soloing will be. Let's start.
Basic major
scale exercises & phrasing your licks
Think of guitar solos being structured in a similar way to speech. Your
words are collected into sentences. These sentences are punctuated to
put what you're saying into context. When you draw a sequence of tones from the major
scale, think about phrasing
and punctuating
them in a similar way. How?...
Let's start with the basic "boxed" major scale pattern:
The first thing is not to get into the habit of simply playing the
major scale blindly, up and down in sequence. You need to identify the key tones of the
scale and build phrases
around them.
Here are some practical examples...
The major scale's key tones are the root (1), 3rd (3) and 5th (5), as these three tones make up the basic major triad. Just
playing these tones from the major scale will build a major
arpeggio/chord.
We can use these key tones as the "meat" within a larger phrase. For example...
Not sure how to read guitar tab?
Notice how I separate the piece into two phrases, with the
second phrase acting like a "response" to the "call" of the first
phrase. In the call phrase, the last 3 notes make up the major triad -
root, 3rd, 5th. It's good to include these key tones occasionally to
bring out the scale's major flavour and put the other notes used into context.
Also,
I've structured it in such a way that, in the response phrase, those 3
initial notes "lead in" to the phrase. It kind of
carries you into the next phrase, rather than jumping in randomly.
Something to think about when creating your own!
Let's try another...
So this time I landed on the root note at the end of the first phrase, which
separated the two phrases. The 3rd
is also a "safe" tone to hold
onto in between movements, over the major chord. If you end a phrase as
the chord changes away from major, you should experiment with different
suitable landing notes for that particular chord change. Trust your ears!
A note about the 4th...
The 4th tone in the major scale should be mostly seen as a passing tone.
In
other words, if you're playing over that root major chord, the 4th shouldn't be
a held note (unlike the other "safer" tones - 1, 3, 5). This is because
the 3rd being played in the chord will clash with the 4th you play in
the scale.
The most common use of the 4th over a major chord is to quickly resolve
it to the major 3rd, to put it into context.
Example:
So all we're doing is glancing over that 4th, as part of the phrase,
but we're not dwelling on it, as it wouldn't sound too harmonious
over a major chord!
This is why you'll often hear the 4th being used in hammer-on/pull-off
sequences with the 3rd. More on these techniques another time.
You can also use the 4th as a passing tone safely between the 3rd and
the 5th or root (1st). Just see it as a bridge between more
stable major scale tones.
Major scale backing track
Use the A major backing
track below to experiment. If you're using the boxed
pattern from above, the low E string root note will be positioned at fret 5, which is of course the note... A.
Notice
how, even though the track starts away from A major (on the chord B minor), the A
major scale is still compatible because the other chord uses notes from
the A major scale. Experiment with different landing notes from the A major scale for both chord changes. Phrasing your licks (like we looked at above) helps lead up to those landing notes.
Click here to play/download >
Ready for some more advanced stuff?
Major
scale exercises - runs
Runs are typically played faster than regular phrases and are good to
inject occasionally into your solos as they have a different quality to
the simple phrases we've been looking at.
It's difficult to explain exactly what a "run" is... so let's look at a few examples.
We'll
start with a very basic run, heading down the scale. For this example,
we're going to use the wider, ascending major scale pattern...
If, for example, I wanted to highlight that 3rd tone of the major scale in a sequence, I could create a run that ends on the 3rd. The starting note is not so important, as the quick succession of notes will blur the context.
We're in the key of B major for this...
The red text highlights how I've broken up the sequence. We start on the 3rd, followed by 3 notes, 2nd, 3 notes, 7th, 3 notes and ending on a lower 3rd.
This is a typical run, where you have a "sequence within a sequence".
Those highlighted tones can be seen as "marker points" that put the
entire sequence into context.
Of
course, you don't have to use those major scale tones, that was just an
example. You should try different combinations and rhythms, using your
knowledge of weaving the major scale's key tones into phrases.
Let's
now try a more complex run working up the major scale. Before we do, I
just want to create a larger scale pattern by using the large scale pattern we created in the major scales positions lesson.
Remember the colour codes from earlier? 1st (root), 3rd, 5th.
Going on where the root notes lie, we can see that the above major scale is in the key of... C, making it the C major scale.
So
we now have a rather large pattern to work with, and we could, if we
wanted, build a sequence from that A string root note right up to around the B
string root note (although obviously we don't have to start or finish the sequence on
the root note of the scale)...
Start slow and speed up gradually using a metronome >
A key point about using runs over chords...
A
lot of the time, you will simply be playing the major scale over its
major chord equivalent (e.g. the D major scale over D major). However,
the true expression of the major scale comes with chord changes. What you'll find is you can start your run before
the change back to that major chord (as long as the other chord is
compatible). As mentioned earlier, this is like a "lead in" phrase
before the climax of the major chord fused with its major scale.
Experiment over the C major
backing track below. All the chords used in that are compatible with
the C major scale, so think about emphasising those changes away from,
and back to C major.
Click here to play/download >
And finally...
In
other lessons, I'll be showing you more techniques for playing around
scales in dynamic ways. Another technique we need to look at is "string
skipping" which is pretty self explanatory really!
There's still so much to learn, and I recommend the below course for a far more comprehensive plan to mastering scales.
 Where Now? The Guitar Scale Mastery Course has fast
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importantly, mastering guitar
scales.
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