Lesson 1: Scales (part 2)

Part of the first hour in me getting guitar lesson 1 covered looking at other parts of the C scale on the fretboard & scales in other keys.

At the end of this lesson I had some understanding on how to put a very basic solo in a specific key together and 'keys' in general had lost most of their 'terror' for me :)

Guitar geezer called the patterns below the '2nd position' but I've also seen it listed as 'Pattern 3' and 'Pattern 3 plus one octave * ' 

Before looking at the 2 images, sketched below, remember they are exactly the same shape/pattern but the second one is one octave (12 frets) higher up the fretboard and you are 'barring' (playing every note) on the 12th fret to make it the same pattern as you play on the ZERO fret (open strings).

Definitely worth spending time eye balling those until you 'see' they are exactly the same - just 12 frets up the neck / one octave higher.

Looking at that pattern (and the fretboard on your guitar) and working out what each note is in those shapes and the shape from the previous post, was for me, worth the time and effort. It helped me grok it a little deeper and it dawned on me that nothing is flat or sharp in C (I'm no music dude remember!). I'm guessing that is obvious to anybody who knows anything about music - but that's not me :)

A little Googling and it becomes clearer especially when viewed from middle C on a piano.

You can now solo!

So now you have, starting from your little finger on the 'C' on the 8th fret of the top 'E' string a simple starting point for a basic solo in the C major scale. That starting position is a 'root' note in the C major scale. You can pick notes out of the 2 patterns listed so far (the zero fret + 12th fret version and the 5th fret pattern from the last post) and away you go.

There are a couple of other patterns and notes that can be used to join up those 2 basic patterns giving you places to go to between those shapes. Geezer said don't worry about them for now "They are not so important"; but I printed em out and had a look at them anyway :)

Now what you need is somebody playing some cords in C major and you can begin your path to world domination :)

More on the cords next time.

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*  (an octave from a note on your guitar is from any starting position plus 12 frets higher, or lower I guess, and the easy one to see/hear is by playing any open string and then playing the same string on the 12th fret).

Once again its not black magic (I'm missing the magic now guitar is starting to make some sense!) and if you look at your single fat 'E' string from the open string (fret 0) to the 12th fret you are playing all the notes between the two 'E's: E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E).

Lesson 1: Scales (part 1)

First thing the guitar teacher (from now on known as the 'geezer') got me to look at was the C major scale; apparently its an easy one...

I've drawn up part of the C maj scale below with the most excellent balsamiq ui designer:

thin string on the top of the image

fattest string on the bottom of the image

Short Story:
Looking at image above

1. Little pinkie finger finds the maj note. For 'C' place little finger on the 8th fret, thinnest string, and you will be on C. You are now in 'C' maj.
   
2. Index finger (first finger) finds the relative minor. It is 'always' 4 frets back from the maj. Place your index finger on the 5th fret thinnest string. Your index finger is now on the 'relative' minor, in this case 'A', to where your little pinkie finger is.
3. Pick each note in that pattern above, in the fret position above, and you should hear some 'do re mi fa so la ti' sounds emerging.
4. Enjoy!
   

Longer Story:
You can play that pattern of notes anywhere on the fretboard BUT there is a simple 'trick' to making it easy to find out where you should be playing it for the 'key' (some note grouping from a 'root' starting note / cord) you want to be 'in' - where thankfully & very magically stuff sounds 'nice' together.

Lets call it a black magic get your mojo working trick!
To play in 'C' major you put your little 'pinkie' finger on the 'C' note (in the image above) and you are ready to roll! Easy :)

In this case, in the picture above, the 8th fret on the top (thinnest) E string is the note 'C' (when your guitar is in tune and you are using the standard tuning).

For the next piece of guitar black magic you take your first finger (index finger) and put in on the 5th fret on the top (thinnest) E string.

That magically gives you the 'relative minor' to the note your 'pinkie' finger is on.
Don't worry too much about what a maj / min is right now (I'm not).

So in this case since your little finger, on the 8th fret, is on C maj your index finger, 4 frets back on the 5th fret is going to be on A - which is the relative minor to C maj.

I wish I knew that years ago! Litte finger on the maj then index finger will auto-magically be on the relative minor.

Now from there you move up and down the fret board into other 'groupings' of notes (that have different shapes then the picture above) that also sound 'nice' when played/picked/bashed over somebody else strumming cords in the key of 'C' maj (or it's relative 'A' minor). The geezer called the grouping in the image above 'position one' but I've also seen it called 'pattern six' else where.

Next part of lesson 1 (coming later) was other patterns of notes that make up a C guitar scale and where to play them to stay in 'C'.

Phew. I'm knackered after writing all that. 

Time to stop writing and play :)