Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A Guitarist Should Learn Guitar Scales

By Jonathan Hart


Many kinds of music features solos on the guitar. Rock, classical, jazz, folk, and blues music have guitar solos in them. These might be performances of previously rehearsed phrases of music, or they might be improvised during the performance. In any case, soloing is made easier for anyone who takes the time to learn guitar scales.

Some guitarists learn to play musical phrases from memory or sight reading, the process of playing written music the first time one sees it. Many kinds of musicians may have the ability to sight read without gaining an understanding of how the phrases they play relate to one another. This makes it hard for them to create original music.

For the musician who wants to experience the creation of music, either through composition or improvisation, learning the scales is a necessity. Beyond playing, transposition and substitution are important to understanding the fundamentals of Western music.

This is actually relatively easy on the guitar. A single finger pattern for playing a major pattern can be played at different positions on the neck. It is a good idea to learn to play the same scale using as many different fingering patterns as possible. But, you only need one to start. Some patterns may be more comfortable to different people, depending on the shape of their fingers.

From of these fingering patterns, you can transpose to any major key by simply playing at different positions on the neck. The relative minor to each of these majors can be played using the same finger pattern, but starting on a different note. From there, it becomes easy to use certain notes to create familiar sounds. For example, the pentatonic scale often used in blues, rock, and jazz, is simply a selection of notes from the major scale.

If one really listens while playing, one can develop an ear and grow as a musician. Composition and improvisation, which are facilitated by learning the scales, give one a more intimate relationship with music.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment