[rocketman]

I am practicing scales so I can solo one day. Where do you put your fingers when fretting? For example, is my interpretation (below) correct?

All of these on the E string...
E: no fingers
F: 1st fret, 1st finger (index finger)?
F#: 2nd fret, 2nd finger (middle finger)?
G: 3rd fret, 3rd finger (ring finger)?
G#: 4th fret, 4th finger (pinkie)?
A: 5th fret, 4th finger again (pinkie)?

I'm just wondering, because it seems like you would use your pinkie twice, or maybe there is another way to do this. What is the normal way most do this, ie. finger the 5th fret or other frets? Yes, I realize that instead of playing an A on the E string (5th fret), you can play an A on the A string, but in some situations this isn't possible. So, how do you do it???

[DemoEtc]

You probably wouldn't often use a chromatic scale in most tunes you'd run into (which is what the notes you've described amount to.

BUT, if you had to play all the notes on one string, the way to hit that A on the 5th fret would be to do a quick 'shift' in position and press the string down with the first finger. So right after your pinky, shift your whole hand up so you can finger it with the index finger.

Then keep going up, shifting to the first finger after the pinky.

Same on the way back down.

[allthumbs]

You can solo quite nicely without memorizing scales. Following chord tones like Kirk does works quite well. Look at some of the music theory lessons to get a better grasp of scales. Better to learn the basics so you can build them yourself rather than just memorize them IMO.

[rocketman]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

You can solo quite nicely without memorizing scales. Following chord tones like Kirk does works quite well. Look at some of the music theory lessons to get a better grasp of scales. Better to learn the basics so you can build them yourself rather than just memorize them IMO.

Good advice. I want to get the basics down good and not just hack away at some riffs. I figure that I can make up all the cool stuff I want if I have all the scales memorized well. I went through all the pages in the "What's music" section and got up to Barre chords, super stuff! Anyway, I can't find the scales pages or where to put your left-handed (fretting) fingers. Is there something like that anywhere? Is this more of a classical guitar question?

[rocketman]

Originally Posted by DemoEtc

You probably wouldn't often use a chromatic scale in most tunes you'd run into (which is what the notes you've described amount to.

BUT, if you had to play all the notes on one string, the way to hit that A on the 5th fret would be to do a quick 'shift' in position and press the string down with the first finger. So right after your pinky, shift your whole hand up so you can finger it with the index finger.

Then keep going up, shifting to the first finger after the pinky.

Same on the way back down.

DemoEtc, thanks for the help. You shift your hand all the way up so that the first finger (index) slides up to the A? Hypothetically speaking, what finger would you use for the 5th fret (E string) which is an A# note. Would you use the first finger (index) on that as well?

I just wanna learn scales and do learn correctly. It's like typing I suppose. My Dad learned typing by pecking away with two fingers (left index and right index finger). Now, he can't break the habit and learn to use all his fingers. In the guitar sense, I don't want to do bad habits with wrong use of fingers at incorrect positions on the fretboard.

[allthumbs]

Use the search bar to find posts on scales.
Read some of these threads
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=70
and here.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=91
and here.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=69
You will easily find the threads about scales.

[rocketman]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

Use the search bar to find posts on scales.
Read some of these threads
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=70
and here.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=91
and here.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/fo...splay.php?f=69
You will easily find the threads about scales.

allthumbs, thanks for the excellent reference. This place is a treasure trove of info! Got a question, was a little bit confused on the "Changing position" section of the Chromatic Scale thread posted off one of your links...
The chromatic scale

In regards to the E string (1st string), am I right in that the...
E - not fretted
F - fret 1
F# - fret 2
G - fret 3
G# - fret 4
A - fret 5

It says on the page (link above) that the "G# on string 1 fret 4". I thought that the G# is actually on string 1 fret 4. Little bit confused about that.

[allthumbs]

It says on the page (link above) that the "G# on string 1 fret 4". I thought that the G# is actually on string 1 fret 4. Little bit confused about that.

I am not getting what your saying in the above. 1 string fret4 is G#. 6 string fret4 is a G# too as is the 3 string first fret.

[rocketman]

Originally Posted by allthumbs

It says on the page (link above) that the "G# on string 1 fret 4". I thought that the G# is actually on string 1 fret 4. Little bit confused about that.

I am not getting what your saying in the above. 1 string fret4 is G#. 6 string fret4 is a G# too as is the 3 string first fret.

Oops. Sorry about that. I just confused myself pretty good and I made no sense in what I posted above. I think I understand what you are saying. The fingering goes like this for the E string:
E - no fingers
F - 1st finger
F# - 2nd finger
G - 3rd finger
G# - 4th finger <then you shift hand position after plucking the note. I was confused because I thought you shift hand position before plucking the note.

If you continue then...
A - 1st finger
A# - 2nd finger
B - 3rd finger
C - 4th finger, and so on.

Here is what is really weird. Say you play a B on the 1st string. You would use the 3rd finger on the the 7th fret. If you were to play a B on the 2nd string, then you would use the 2nd finger because it is on the 2nd fret. Am I correct? Wouldn't you want to shift hand positions at the 5th fret instead of the 4th fret so that you don't get problems such as this?

[Kirk Lorange]

Hi, rocketman.

I haven't checked to see if it's been suggested yet but here it is again if it was: have a look at this lesson The Ultimate Stretching Exercise

You'll see that there are many many ways to play all scales. If you're just starting out, don't feel like you need to learn all of them right now, but keep in mind for later on that there are countless ways around the fretboard, whether you're playing chords, melody, scales, double stops ... whatever.

[Chris C]

Hi Rocketman,

The general idea is to keep one finger working across each fret and not dodging about too much. And yes, the pinky is sometimes expected to stretch across to pick up one more fret.

What you do depends partly on the demands and flow of the piece you're playing, but also to a very large extent on how experienced you are and how big your hands are. As you get better your hands do get more flexible and you can stretch a lot further with your fingers, in each direction. Your weaker fingers (e.g. pinky) also get a lot better at the job, so it doesn't seem so strange to be using it more often.

Once you move up the neck a bit then your index finger can also reach across in the other direction and get one more fret too. When you start out your hand is bound to move a fair bit when you make the stretches, but as you progress you'll find you can more easily keep your hand level and centred and just reeeeeeeeach out with one finger.

Whichever way you go - either stretching across or changing your whole hand position - as long as you keep track of which set of frets you're now centred over, and which finger is working which fret, you should be OK. And if you want to work on building up the ability to stretch, try working further down (where the frets are closer together) and gradually working back towards the wide ones.

Good luck,

Cheers,

Chris

[nitz]

hi i am nitz,new to the guitar and to the forum.i don't now abt the scales page.but i can sure suggest u where to put ur finger while fretting. try to put ur finger as close to the fret which is AWAY from the neck, ie, puliing ur hands towards u. this will help reduce the pressure on the fingers.
hope it'll help!

[solidwalnut]

Originally Posted by rocketman

I am practicing scales so I can solo one day. Where do you put your fingers when fretting? For example, is my interpretation (below) correct?

All of these on the E string...
E: no fingers
F: 1st fret, 1st finger (index finger)?
F#: 2nd fret, 2nd finger (middle finger)?
G: 3rd fret, 3rd finger (ring finger)?
G#: 4th fret, 4th finger (pinkie)?
A: 5th fret, 4th finger again (pinkie)?

I'm just wondering, because it seems like you would use your pinkie twice, or maybe there is another way to do this. What is the normal way most do this, ie. finger the 5th fret or other frets? Yes, I realize that instead of playing an A on the E string (5th fret), you can play an A on the A string, but in some situations this isn't possible. So, how do you do it???

So amongst other ideas remember that first you need (and I know you're trying to understand) to know about finger assignments. They are as you say (except for the 5th fret. It's not that you're wrong, but hear me out.)

The idea is to first get an understanding of the mechanical aspect of moving your fingers around the frets without regard to understanding the notes (necessarily). At least my brain works so I have to practice the mechanical aspect first and then the theory or scale intervals.

This is the beauty of Kirk's exercise. It really covers both topics well. It has the goals of showing that you can play all scales within 4 or 5 frets. At the same time it shows you the finger assignments as they usually work the best.

Try this. Without regard to playing any particular scale, begin with your index finger in the third fret and play up and down using all four fingers on each string in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth frets. This is the main idea behind finger assignments. The main reason is so your fingers won't trip over each other when you are playing different strings. No rules. Just do what works for you. But this is a good starting point. If you move up one fret, then keep the fingers in the same position. If you move up five frets, keep the fingers in the same position. When it comes time to cross over or extend over five or six frets, stretch or move, but keep the fingers in the same basic position.

Next understand the major scale and it's intervals. Then learn chord tones. Scales are last, imo. Scales are just a collection of notes from which to play when you want to play some solos. Chord tones are the basis of playing solos

Steve