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Originally Posted by Kirk Lorange
Hi, LH V-2.
I reckon it's important to know what scales are ... and that's it. Most teachers advocate learning them in all positions and practicing them. I don't. The private PlaneTalkers' Forum (for people who have bought my book) is full of players who have learned and practiced them and are now desperate to forget them, to break out of the boring, restrictive, non-melodic traps they find themselves in. I personally haven't thought or worried about or wondered about scales since about 1975, and I've done a lot playing in that time, almost all of it improvised ... making it up as I go. If it's the art of soloing you're looking into, there is a better way, an easier way, a fool proof way of negotiating any tune, any chord progression.
So, no, it's not imperative that you practice scales endlessly, but at least know what they are. Despite their scary sounding Greek names, there's nothing complicated about them. They're just ways (too many ways) of organizing the 12 notes into batches. But don't be fooled into thinking that to play solos and improvise you need to know all your scales ... you don't. Chords are all you need to know.
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Thanks, Kirk -- you've pretty much convinced me that the endless practicing of scales isn't all it's cracked up to be. I really don't know why so many people advocate this thoroughly boring routine to beginners for anyway; it seems a sure-fire way to get them to drop the guitar altogether.
But I did find it interesting that
Guitar World (not
Guitar Player, as I'd originally thought) claims that players like Page use just three simple scales as the basis of most of their solos. Under "Essential Scales", here's what they had to say:
"There are thousands of scales!
GW has stripped away all of the advanced (and sometimes unnecessary) scales to leave you with a handful of truly useful examples. These scales have seen the most famous guitarists safely through their careers. Zakk Wylde, Slash and Jimmy Page use just the first three as the basis of most of their solos."
They then go on to list, in order of importance: A minor pentatonic, A major pentatonic, A blues, A major scale, and A natural minor.