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Major & Minor Scales

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Early on in this book we went over the chromatic scale in terms of using it to figure out barre chords in open G tuning. We started with open G. When we bar across the first fret we get an A flat chord. If we keep moving along the fretboard we wind up with another G chord at the twelfth fret.

In order to discuss chord progressions, chord construction, transposing and melody we have to have an understanding of how major and minor scales are built. Don't worry, people make a big deal about music theory being difficult but with what you already know about the chromatic scale this is going to be pretty easy, and it will lead you into some really cool stuff down the road.

Major and minor scales are modes of the chromatic scale. To put it simply, major and minor scales are nothing more than a way of shuffling the chromatic scale to create specific patterns. When a song is in the key of G it means that the song is played out of the G scale. Actually the technical term is something like "the key of G is a major mode with a root of G", but talking that way makes my brain hurt. We are not going to get into modes just yet.

To figure out the notes of the G scale we need to lay out the chromatic scale starting with our root note. The root note in a major or minor scale is always the same as the key you are creating a scale for. To create an A major scale you use A as your root note. For an E major scale your root note would be E.

We are going to write out a G major scale so the root note is G:

G  |  A  |  B  C  |  D  |  E  F  |  G 

Now if you notice we started on G and ended on G. That second G is called the octave. It is the same note as the root but higher in pitch. In order to make this chromatic scale into a G major scale we need to pick seven notes out of the twelve notes in the chromatic scale. In order to do that we just follow a simple formula:

Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step

G is the root.

  1. a whole step from G is A
  2. a whole step from A is B
  3. a half step from B is C
  4. a whole step from C is D
  5. a whole step from D is E
  6. a whole step from E is. . .F# or Gb. We'll call it F#
  7. a half step from F# is G which gives you the octave

So your G scale is:

G A B C D E F# G

If we start the scale on the third string (G) we would come up with something like the tab below, but that isn't the only G scale on the fretboard. Start with a G note anywhere and just follow the whole and half steps to get a G scale!

G scale

Lets figure out a C scale.

Lay out the chromatic scale with a root of C.

C | D | E F | G | A | B C

Follow the pattern of whole steps & half steps:

Root, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step

And our C scale is:

C D E F G A B C

C scale

Find a C note on your guitar and see if you can figure out where the whole and half steps fall on the fretboard on your own. Then try it with other root notes.

Now this stuff is really nifty to know but I am pretty sure that right about now you are thinking, "How is this going to help me play the guitar?"

Down the road you will find that being able to use scales in your guitar playing will let you come up with melody lines and variations of melody lines without any real effort, but most importantly at this stage major scales help you figure out chord progressions.

Before we move into chord progressions lets take a quick look at the minor scale.

Minor scales work under the same concept as major scales in that you create them by following a series of whole and half steps along the chromatic scale. Minor scales just use a different set of whole and half steps. The crazy thing about minor scales is that there are three different versions of the minor scale: Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor. For right now we are only going to concern ourselves with the natural minor scale

The natural minor scale is the most common of the three minor scales. It works under the same concept as your major scale in that you have a root note followed by a series of whole steps and half steps. The difference is in the way the whole steps and half steps are laid out:

Root, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step.

To create an A natural minor scale the first step is to lay out the A chromatic scale:

A| B C | D | E F | G | A

A is the root.

  • A whole step from A is B
  • A half step from B is C
  • A whole step from C is D
  • A whole step from D is E
  • A half step from E is F
  • A whole step from F is G
  • A whole step from G is A

So our A minor scale is:

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A

Am scale

That's probably just enough information to get you into trouble, but you need to know a little bit about this to understand how chord progressions work. Have some fun messing around with finding scales, but don't go crazy with it just yet. Master the rhythm first, then worry about the melody line.

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