© 2014 Progressive Edge Records
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Guitar Scales |
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Why are these pentatonic scales the best beginner guitar scales? 1. They are easy to learn. 2. They are fun to play solos. 3. They sound great. 4. They are used for thousands of songs. 5. They are the basic structure of both the blues and rock and roll. 6. You can sound great fast! How to learn this scale fast. 1. Use the graphic and tab to learn the scale and practice till it feels completely natural. 2. Use the metronome to get up to the speed that you feel best about. Start slow and raise the speed slowly. If you start messing up, your moving too fast. Slow it down a bit and try again. 3. Next step Drum machine or backing track in the key of A to improvise over and make it your own.
Get this guitar pentatonic scale pattern box 1 under your fingers
|---------------------------5--8-8--5--------------------------| OK, now I can hear you saying,"What the heck do I do with that?" Well, Now its time to get out the metronome. If you don't have a metronome don't worry, Here is a free one you can use.
You, yes, you have to add your guts, gristle and attitude, along with some simple guitar techniques to the mix to make, Wahla... music! What kind of techniques? Blend in the following techniques and you'll have folks thinking your a genius at guitar in a short period of time. All of these techniques are well worth your time to practice until they become second nature. 1. Bends 2. Vibrato 3. Hammer-ons 4. Pull offs
|-------------------------------8-10-10-8--------------------------| To really get these patterns into your long term memory, there is no substitute for practice. This practice can take many forms. First you want to just get the guitar scale patterns down so that you know what they are and what they look and feel like. They need to be in your muscle memory. Go slowly at first memorize how the pattern look and feel without any metronome or drum machine. At this point they would be a distraction. As soon as you know the pattern get out the metronome. Set it at a slow speed and spent some time working at it. Speed it up when it gets to be too easy. This is a great metronome to use Just for that.
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Congratulations on your progress
- your more than halfway through the most important scale patterns
in the history of rock and roll and the blues. Along with the beginner scales, a great beginning practice schedule should include daily guitar finger exercises and a stretching program to keep you limber and your hands strong. The exercise program I have outlined on this site has done a world of good for my guitar skills. Strength and flexibility is usually not talked about too much when the subject of learning guitar comes up. I believe it is vital to give you the edge over other players. A horse can win a race by mere inches. A complete hand and finger exercise program can do the same for a guitarist. To sum up This lesson. 1.You have learned the 3rd pentatonic scale box and how to combine it with pattern number 2. 2. You have had a chance to practice the two patterns with the metronome and make it part of you. 3. You have learned about the importance of a regular finger and hand strengthening routine and how it can give you the edge over other guitarists.
|-------------------------------12-15-15-12-------------------------------------| Now let's see how beginning guitar scale number 4 fits together with number 3 Take a look at the top of pattern 4. What you should notice that it's the same as the bottom of pattern number 3. It's the same notes. They share those notes and that is where they run together for playing solo's. Step by step lesson on how
to master the pentatonic guitar scale pattern 1. Play along with the graphic and tab until the pattern feels natural to you. 2. Once the pattern feels natural to you and you don't have to consult the tab anymore you are ready to move onto the metronome. Set the metronome at a slow speed with relaxed hands. - Maybe even slower than what seems natural. You are training your nervous system and gaining muscle memory at this stage. 3. Slowly build up the speed small steps at a time until you are going too fast and making mistakes. At this point you want to reduce the speed a little bit and get it down first before moving on. 4 When you feel that you are fast enough, use a drum machine or a backing track to improvise over. Have fun and get to the place where you sound good. 5. Record yourself. Play it back and listen. Record again and again till you like what you are hearing.
|---------------------3-5-5-3-----------------------| Overview of how the 5 box patterns fit together. Ok. So now you might take a look at the patterns all laid out together. Notice that the beginner guitar scales neatly fit together until you get to box five. What is up with that? Precisely. Pattern or box five can fit not only on the bottom of pattern 4 but it also fits on the top of pattern 1. The pentatonic scale patterns repeat.1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Bottom and top. After you get to box 5, you start all over again with box 1 I know I haven't got a graphic for box 5 stuck to the bottom of box 4. It does fit. Look at the bottom of box 4 and you'll see its the top of box 5. The bottom notes of pattern 5 are also the top of box 1. Kinda cool eh?
Congratulations! You have finished the last lesson on the Beginner guitar scales. 1. You have learned pattern 5 of the pentatonic guitar. 2. You have learned to connect them together to travel up and down the fretboards in your own guitar solos. 3.What you have not learned is the simple addition I was talking about at the first of this page. |
