Types Of Guitar Scales You Need To Know

Welcome back! It’s about time we dive into the different types of guitar scales. The pentatonic scale (or minor pentatonic scale) is probably the most used scale among guitar players; It’s just really easy to play and to remember. Besides, there are so many great guitar solos and styles based on just the pentatonic scale. It is part of the 5note scale family alongside of the major the major pentatonic and many other scales. Here’s a diagram of an A minor pentatonic, starting on the 5th fret of the 6th string: types-of-guitar-scales_1.png And an A Major Pentatonic, with its root on the 5th fret of the 6th string: types-of-guitar-scales_2.png Then we also have 7note scales. One of the most used and popular scales in this category is the Major Scale. Let’s have a look at the C Major scale, with its root on the 3rd fret of the 5th string: types-of-guitar-scales_3.png Now what’s very interesting is that if you keep the same structure of the C major scale, but start on a different degree, you get the Modes of the major scale. Let me explain this a little bit better. The C major scale is composed of C, D, E, F, G, A and B. If we consecutively count the distance between each note (from C to D there’s a whole tone, from D to E another whole tone and so on) we end up with the structure of the major scale, or so call it the skeleton: WWhWWWh. But if you keep the same notes of the C major scale but start on a different degree you end up with a different structure. For example, if we start in F, you will end up with: WWWhWWh. This is called the Lydian scale/mode. So you can literally do this for every degree of the major scale and you will end up with the following structures: types-of-guitar-scales_4.png types-of-guitar-scales_5.png This is all for today! I hope you enjoyed this lesson and if you are interested in learning more about scales please visit the scales section on the blog

Scales

How to play your favorite songs from the 60's & 70's on the guitar

image_3_edit_3

This free course expires in:

Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds

Get 2 hours of FREE Guitar Lessons.