Contents
•
Introduction
*
Scale Patterns
•
Linkage Part 2
•
Linkage Part 2
•
Linkage Part 3
•
Linkage Part 4
•
Linkage Part 5
•
Conclusion & Chart
Introduction
I’m sure there a billions of ways of doing this and this one's probably a bit cheesy, but I figured I'd stick it up in case it might help someone.
So here is a lesson I wrote a while back on how to link all five of the main major scale patterns without getting lost on the fretboard when changing positions. However, all this lesson does is show you how to remember the patterns, actually making music with it is a completely different thing.
This way uses the good ol’ minor pentatonic scale pattern that probably most guitarists learn as their first scale.
This lesson will also give those minor pentatonic-ers (lol) some new notes to add into their playing. Therefore when I talk about "
extra notes" I am referring to the notes from the full 7 note scale pattern that are NOT included in the pentatonic scale.
For those that don’t already know their five major scale patterns and/or the minor pentatonic scale, I’ll start with those so that everyone’s on the same page.
The “Root Notes” in each of the positions are bolded so you can see where they are in each pattern.
NOTE: I am ONLY dealing with the major scale in this example, in order to play in a minor key you could use all of this information below by finding the Relative Minor and then using those notes as the root notes to line up these patterns. This is why I refer to the root note as the “Root Note Of The
Major Key”, because the root note of the minor key would not work with these patterns. (Click
here for an explanation of
relative keys.)
Also go
here for info on
Root Positions. When I mention a “Position” number, I am be referring to the Root Positions mentioned in that post.
Scale Patterns
There are two basic patterns for each of the 5 positions, the “Condensed” and the “Extended”. The Condensed tries to keep one finger per fret (4 fingers = 4 frets), but some of them have to shift 1 fret to hit the notes (spanning 5 frets). The extended is a stretched out version that covers more frets (typically 5 or 6 frets). I have one extended scale written below, the rest are condensed versions. BTW, Marc teaches the condensed version of the scales, and that’s mainly what I’m using in this lesson also.
Major Scale – Root Position 1
E|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
B|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
G|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
D|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
A|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
E|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
Major Scale – Root Position 1 (Extended)
NOTE: This is the same scale as above, but spread out across more frets (hence why it’s called “Extended”). This pattern will come in handy during this lesson, so learn this one also.
E|---|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
B|---|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
G|---|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
D|---|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
A|-O-|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
E|-O-|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
Major Scale – Root Position 2
E|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
B|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
G|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
D|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
A|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
E|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
Major Scale – Root Position 3
E|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
B|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
G|-O-|---|-O-|---|---|
D|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
A|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
E|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
Major Scale – Root Position 4
E|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
B|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
G|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|---|
D|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
A|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
E|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
Major Scale – Root Position 5
E|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
B|---|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|
G|-O-|-O-|---|-O-|---|
D|---|-O-|---|-O-|---|
A|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
E|---|-O-|---|-O-|-O-|
Harmonic Minor Scale – Root Position 1
E|-O-|---|---|-O-|---|
B|-O-|---|---|-O-|---|
G|-O-|---|-O-|---|---|
D|-O-|---|-O-|---|---|
A|-O-|---|-O-|---|---|
E|-O-|---|---|-O-|---|
So take some time to get familiar with the patterns posted above. Try to learn them so you can play them without having to look at the charts. The rest of this lesson assumes that you will already be pretty familiar with these patterns.
Ok, now lest get to it! We’ll start with the Major Scale Position 1 (“Root Position 1”):