Saturday, February 19, 2011

Top Five Reasons To Learn Guitar Scales

By Nick Dillon


It is crucial to learn guitar scales as it provides a solid framework for any lead or rhythm guitar player. The notes contained in scales are essentially the most basic components in which music is constructed around. By understanding and applying even a few scales, your skills as a guitar player will improve dramatically.

Applying certain guitar scales will allow you to portray a sense of mood with your music. Certain guitar scales will also help you zero in on a particular sound or genre of music, and are the backbone to lead guitar and soloing.

Have you ever wondered why certain songs make you feel happy, while others elecit a feeling of sadness? The notes in scales affect the mood in music. For example, to create a happy feel, the major scale is often used. On the other hand, the natural minor scale can portray a sad feel to a song. So when listening to music it is important to understand that the scales used will have a emotional effect on the listener.

Knowing guitar scales is critical for lead guitar playing. To solo with the guitar and sound good, it is important to know exactly which notes will work and which ones will sound the best. By matching the scale to the backing music, this can easily be accomplished. Once the scale patterns and note placements become familiar, soloing becomes an effortless task.

Different genres of music each have an individual sound and corresponding scale or scales. A good example is the blues, which relies upon many scales, in particular the blues and pentatonic scales.

Very specialised sounds can only come from using particular scales. As an example, to create a Spanish or flamenco sound, we might use the gypsy scale or phrygian mode. So if you are very focused on, or interested in a certain type of music, you can start by learning only those scales common to that genre. It is not always necessary to learn many different types of scales.

Learning guitar scales can be an enjoyable exercise if practised correctly. I recommend to learn guitar scales with a backing track, to not only make the learning process fun, but also to promote creativity. It doesn't have to be a painful experience!




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