The 7 major scale shapes

Question: I'm a beginner and I'm confused about the 7 major scale shapes. They change from key to key so my question is do I have to learn 7 scale shapes for each key?

Answer

Key is defined by the root (1). If you look at the diagrams on the major scale page, each one has a 1 note. This means the major scale shapes move with the root note, so the shapes themselves don't actually change. It's just like sliding them along the fretboard.

For example, if you were playing the major scale in the key of G, the root note would be G. Therefore, you should be able to find the note G on the bottom 3 strings (E A and D) and correspond that to the root notes of each shape. That's why it's easiest to identify scale shapes based on the E, A and D string root notes.

This means you need to be confident with knowing where the notes lie on the fretboard.

So you only have to learn these 7 major scale shapes once, because if the key changes, you simply move them to correspond with the new root note position, keeping the formation of the shape intact.

Hope this helps! Please use the comments function below to ask any further questions.