Getting Started With… The major scale
Learn some easy lead guitar licks as we take a look at one of the most commonly used scales in music
“I see we’re looking at a scale this month. What do I need to know?”
Scales are a quick, easy way of choosing which notes to use when you’re improvising or writing a guitar solo. In general, the notes of a scale will sound good together, especially if the music you’re playing over also uses those notes.
“Surely I can play notes that aren’t in the scale, can’t I?”
Of course! Guitar music is littered with solos using ‘outside’ notes. For example, John Mayer’s solo in Perfectly-lonely starts in C
Bb Eb major before he brings in and notes from C minor – and that’s just one simple example. Think of scales as a starting point, narrowing down all those potential notes you could play into something simple that you can build on with your own ideas.
“Got it! So how do I get started?”
Take a look at the boxout on the right. You’ll see a fret box showing the C major scale. This is the shape we’ll be looking at so have a play through it. The dots tell you where to place your fingers on the fretboard. Black dots are root notes; red dots are other notes in the scale.
“It’s pretty easy. I can play it.”
Great! The most important thing is that the following chords also use the notes in the scale. If you played these chords in sequence you could use the C major scale over the whole thing.
“How do I start making music?”
Take a look at the first tab example. Hopefully, you can see that we’re using the lowest notes from our scale shape. The music is quite quick so play through the tab a few times.
“What about the second tab example?”
It’s the same scale but this time we’re exploring the wider reaches of the shape. In places we’re playing two notes at a time – which can really fill out your sound. You could even use three or four notes, but then you’ll be playing chords! It doesn’t really matter. As long as the notes in the chords and scale match up, you’ll be in key. And with that as a starting point, why not try experimenting with some non-scale notes?