whats a scale?

[rel5018]

i dont have a great understanding of what a scale is...i want to kno what exactly a scale is, what they help you with on the guitar, and where i can find some to learn or practice or whatever

[Poparad]

A scale is simply a group of notes. There are many, many possible notes, but the most commonly used scale is the "Major scale." The major scale is a specific group of notes that are each a specific distance apart. All the music that you are used to hearing is based on this scale. The melodies are simply the 7 notes of the major scale used in different combinations, and the chords you hear are built by taking notes from the scale and putting them together in various combinations.


When practicing scales, people usually start by learning to play the scale in order, i.e., the 1st note first, the 2nd note second, and so on. There are many ways to reorder the notes for practice, and since melodies are simply scales played in different orders, practicing the major scale in different patterns will help you build the physical technique for playing melodies (leads, guitar solos, etc).


I did a quick Google search for "major scale guitar" and came up with this:

http://www.essentialguitar.com/page5.htm


It shows one of the possible fingering patterns for the major scale (there are a total of 5 that link up end to end up the fretboard), with a tabbed example of a way to play the scale (like I was discussing earlier). The fretboard diagram they show displays all the notes of the scale at once, although obviously you won't be playing all the notes at once. You will (usually) only play one note at a time, in various combinations to make melodies.

[bertikus]

Also important about scales is that they are organized in "keys", which is the chord tones they are meant to be played over. If you have positional playing down for one key, simply move whatever pattern you have up or down the neck to change the "root", meaning the note that the scale gets it's key from. (Like E, B, D, A, etc.) also there are minor and major keys, so it is reccomended to play minor scales over minor chords and vise versa