Guitar Scales: Summary

…and so we come to the last post in this series. I thought I would add this just to sum up what we’ve covered in the previous instalments of the “guitar scales” series (although, that’s not to say there wont be more posts on guitar scales in the future…).

Guitar Scale Theory

So what have we covered up to this point?

Well, first we found out that the idea of keys is based upon the Major Scale and the chords contained within.
Then, I explained how the Major Pentatonic scale was basically a stripped down version of the Major Scale which was more useful for soloing
The Same thing applies for the Minor Pentatonic, which has the same notes as the Major Pentatonic (and thus the same patterns), but starts in a different place
Next, there isn’t just one Minor Scale, but three that make up a “minor key”
The Natural Minor has the same notes as the Major scale, but starts on the 6th note
The Harmonic Minor scale is formed by sharpening the 7th note of the Natural Minor scale
And the Melodic Minor Scale is basically the Natural Minor Scale with a sharpened 6th and 7th notes
Modes are NOT keys, or in a key- they are a different system of music

Hopefully this series has been useful to you and your guitar playing click here to go back to the start of the series!

If you have any comments, please leave them below.
Rob.

March 15, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Scales, How to | No comments