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Can someone help me out with a few questions?


planet shh

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What does pentatonic mean?

 

What scales should I focus on learning first?

 

In order to practice scales should I just sit and pluck up and down them?

 

Should I do hammer ons and pull offs while practicing or just a single pluck of every note?

 

When do I use what scales?

 

What does lydian mean?

 

What does mixolydian mean?

 

Where do I start?

 

Haha, thankyou. I've been playing guitar for years now and have never considered actually figuring out the right way to play until now. And I feel like an idiot.

 

Tobias

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Posted

 

Originally posted by planet shh


Where do I start?

 

 

You are asking a lot of questions. I recommend a good book, such as "The Guitar Player's Handbook", by Ralph Denyer.

 

It will explain your questions about scales.

 

Briefly, pentatonic scales are five-note scales. They are most useful in soloing. To get started, I recommend you learn the major and minor pentatonic patterns in root position, and then practice soloing with them over a blues progression.

 

In the key of A, the two patterns in root position are:

 

A minor pentatonic

 

E 5--8

B 5--8

G 5--7

D 5--7

A 5--7

E 5--8

 

A major pentatonic

 

E 5--7

B 5--7

G 4--6

D 4--7

A 4--7

E 5--7

 

practice the scales with one pluck per note, hammers and pull-offs, all kinds of different ways. Try some string bends and try to make little melodies.

 

Try to play some solos against a blues in A, like Cream's "Crossroads".

 

The fifth fret on the low E string is an A. To transpose these positions to other keys, just move everything up by as many frets as you need to have the root note be in that position. i.e., key of B starts on the 7th fret, key of D starts on the 10th fret, etc.

 

You can play a riff in one scale, then a riff in the other, if you like.

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Thanks a lot, I also found this cyberfret.com webpage which has some decent information. There's a lot of little things I already know, I guess I'm just ready to take it seriously.

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http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0711979960/qid=1127162940/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-1586755-3649725?v=glance&s=books

 

is a good book that covers your questions.

 

 

 

What does pentatonic mean? 5 note scale

 

What scales should I focus on learning first? major scale

 

In order to practice scales should I just sit and pluck up and down them? learn the fingerings for them first.

 

Should I do hammer ons and pull offs while practicing or just a single pluck of every note? learn the fingerings for them first, then play them over a backing track however you want to

 

When do I use what scales? depends on when you want to use them

 

What does lydian mean? a modal scale

 

What does mixolydian mean? another modal scale

 

Where do I start? with the scales 'jazzbo' set out, they are a very good place to start.

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I've got the basic scales... Major/minor pentatonic, and blues. I'm working on natural major/minor. What next? I want to learn to play jazz and metal the right way. Point me in the right direction with what type of theory and scales I should learn.

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Posted

 

Originally posted by planet shh

I've got the basic scales... Major/minor pentatonic, and blues. I'm working on natural major/minor. What next? I want to learn to play jazz and metal the right way. Point me in the right direction with what type of theory and scales I should learn.

 

 

You can learn a lot from this site, The major scale. the 5 major scale pattern shapes.. etc.. all the Essential stuff is there.

 

http://chrisjuergensen.com.hosting.domaindirect.com/the_major_scale.htm

 

If I was you, I would print out the 5 major scale patterns and learn them by heart. once you have learned them you can move on to learning to play Modally which will really open up the way your music sounds !!

 

Like when you were asking earlier, what is LYDIAN? what it is MIXOLYDIAN?

Well the answers to that will come from learning your major scale shapes and applying them to certain chord progressions to get the modal sound.

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