Download Scale Play
Samantha Ferre
The significance of the root note is that it determines where you will move the scale to place it in the key in which you want to play. If you are playing in the key of A, you want to move the scale pattern to where the root notes are on A notes, like this:
This would make it the A major pentatonic scale. For another example, if you were playing in the key of D, you would move the pattern further up the neck so that the root notes are on D notes, making it the D major pentatonic scale:
You can use the major blues scale when soloing over any part of a blues progression. So, if you are playing a blues progression in the key of E, you could use the E major blues scale. If you are playing over a blues progression in G, you could use the G major blues scale, and so on.
That means that you have two scale choices for any key in which you are playing. What I mean by that is if you are playing over a blues progression in E, you could use the E minor blues scale or the E major blues scale. If you are playing over a blues progression in G, you could use the G major blues scale or the G minor blues scale.
You could also change back and forth between major and minor blues scales as you are soloing. So, you could do a few licks using the major blues scale, then switch and do a few licks using the minor blues scale, and so on.
You just have to be careful with the IV chord. Lots of the notes in the major blues scale will sound fine over it, but there are a couple that will clash with the chord in an unappealing way. I personally prefer to use the minor blues scale over IV.
Guitar scales are organized sequences of notes played in an ascending or descending order that help you build finger strength and dexterity. Practicing guitar scales also makes you more familiar with the notes on your fretboard, develops your musical ear, and provides a framework for creating melodies for your own original songs.
For those that want to expand their scale horizons, the available Player Pack on the Fender Tune app features a dynamic scale library with a variety of diagrams and patterns for any variation, flavor, and key. And for those looking to brush up on the basics or just dive into scales for the first time, Fender Play has a wealth of videos that offer step-by-step guides of basic scales that will serve you well.
The E minor pentatonic scale in the open position is ground zero for soloing. Led Zeppelin's "How Many More Times," "Back in Black" by AC/DC and "Rumble" by Link Wray are a few popular songs that feature this scale.
The E minor pentatonic scale only contains five notes instead of the standard eight (octave) notes found in all major or minor scales. Rather, pentatonic scales are abbreviated scales that follow a certain pattern, taking five notes from the corresponding octave-based scale, removing three of those eight notes. (More on that later in this article!)
In this Technique of the Week, Leah Wellbaum (Slothrust) teaches the E Minor Pentatonic using the open strings, hammer ons and pull offs. Wellbaum also plays portions of the scale under chords which is a common technique used in her songs.
Similarly, the formula to create a minor pentatonic scale would involve playing the 1st, flattened 3rd (b3), 4th, 5th, and flattened 7th (b7) notes of a scale. And much like standard eight-note minor scales, a minor pentatonic scale has a darker, more somber tone.
Some common songs that utilize the A minor pentatonic scale are "Stairway to Heaven" from Led Zeppelin and "Hoodoo Bluesman" by Junior Wells, to name a few. Learn to play the A minor pentatonic scale.
Learning the C major scale will help you understand the key of C, and because it doesn't have any sharps or flats, it's a great entryway into musical composition. To simply play it all on the B string, you'll need to follow a whole step / whole step / half step / whole step / whole step / whole step / half step formula. You can actually play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" using this method!
The E harmonic minor scale is used often in classical, jazz, and metal music, as it can spice up your solos. One way to get to know the E harmonic minor scale is to play it all on the High E string, going from the open position to the second fret (whole step), second to third fret (half step), third to fifth fret (whole step), fifth to seventh fret (whole step), seventh to eighth fret (half step), eighth to 11th fret (minor third), and 11th to the 12th fret (half step).
You can apply this formula starting with any root note to play a major scale in any key. You can hear major scales across every genre and a nearly endless amount of songs. Its bright, upbeat tone makes it ideal for danceable pop songs, rock stadium anthems, and more.
You can try out how your patterns sound with different collections of notes by changing the Tonic and Scale settings. (These terms are explained in the Advanced topics lessons but you can already play with them here!)
Every time I update Unity, start a new instance of the Editor, and sometimes even hit the play button, the scale of the game window goes to 2x. This is obnoxious. I do not want to zoom in, but Unity feels the need to show me a magnified part of my game.
I had this happen for a long time. I wanted it in 0.6x, but it would jump to 1.0x every time I played it. I found that by setting it to the desired size, in my case 0.6x, and then closing Unity and reopening it, fixed the problem.
Plug-and-play products are complete, ready-to-use IGBT drivers that have been tightly matched to a specific device. Drivers are available to cover a large selection of high-power and high-voltage IGBT modules with reverse voltages from 1200 V to 6500 V. All plug-and-play drivers are equipped with DC/DC converters, short-circuit protection, active clamping, supply monitoring and more.
The major 7 scales above can also be played over a C major 6 chord (C E G A) - which is practically the same chord, it just has a 6th instead of the 7th.
Dominant 7 chords have the most options when it comes to jazz scales, and jazz musicians will play lots of altered notes over V7 chords - like the b9, #9, #11, b13.
The hybrid blues scale creates a warm, yet bluesy type of sound. It has two blue notes in it (Eb and Gb), and you can use these as grace notes to precede either of their surrounding notes (D and E, or F and G).
IMPORTANT: Note that there are two types of diminished scale - both scales follow an alternating half-step / whole-step pattern. However one starts with a half-step (and then a whole-step) - whereas the other starts with whole-step (and then half-step).
Now if you find the diminished scale too intimidating - you can always reduce the notes you play from down to the four chord tones (C, Eb, Gb, A).
Next, choose a song in your real book and play through the chords in your left hand. In your right hand, play up and down the correct scale (this will train you to build these scales from a range of notes).
Julian Bradley is a jazz pianist and music educator from the U.K. He has a masters degree in music from Bristol University, and has played with and composed for a variety of big bands.
Julian runs the popular Jazz Tutorial YouTube channel and writes educational jazz lessons at JazzTutorial.com
If however you feel comfortable playing the minor pentatonic scale, and you are now looking to add some variety to your lead playing, then getting to grips with the blues scale is one of the best places to start.
Each of the numbers above describes a note from within the major scale. 1 is the first note of the scale, 2 is the second note, and so on. In the key of A, the notes of the major scale are as follows:
In the key of A, this changes the notes of the scale. The 3rd, 5th and 6th notes have all been flattened. And this reduces their pitch by a semi-tone. So the notes of the minor scale in the key of A are as follows:
Although the major scale provides the foundation of most Western music, it is very rarely used in the form noted above. This is because put simply, the major scale lacks some of the edge and tension that we like to hear when we listen to popular forms of music.
There are two types of pentatonic scale; the major and the minor pentatonic scale. Both of these are important, and both are widely used in blues and rock guitar playing. This is especially true of the minor pentatonic scale, which has come to define the sound of blues and rock music.
Looking at the scale formulae in this way, it is somewhat challenging to understand how to apply the blues scale to your playing. But this all changes when you see the shapes of the minor blues scale. Here they are in the key of A minor:
The diagram here shows the shapes of the minor blues scale. The notes in green are the root and octave notes (in this example they are the notes of A), and the notes in blue are the new notes from the blues scale.
As noted above, the easiest way to understand and view the blues scale, is as a pentatonic scale with the addition of one extra note. So, if you want to use the scale in your soloing, all you need to do is play it in those situations where you currently use the minor pentatonic scale.
The first playing situation in which you can use the minor pentatonic or minor blues scale is nice and straight forward. If you are playing a song in a minor key, you can solo using the corresponding minor pentatonic or minor blues scale.
As an example, if you are playing a song in B minor, you can solo and improvise using the B minor pentatonic or B minor blues scale. If you are playing in the key of G minor, you can solo and improvise using the G minor pentatonic scale or G minor blues scale, and so on.
df19127ead