Major Guitar Scale For Lead Guitarist

You’ll see that the scale diagram has many dots on it, and some dots are filled in while the rest are not. The dots that are filled in are the root notes for the scale you’re playing. Since the scale we are learning now is the G major scale, these root notes are all G notes. The circles that are not filled in are simply the rest of the notes in the scale.

Inside the circle you’ll see a number, which represents which finger you should play the note with. That brings us back to the designated finger concept, which I mentioned in the first video. This technique means that you will have one finger designated to each fret. With the G major scale, your first finger will play any notes on the second fret, your second finger will play notes on the third fret, and so on.

The major scale has seven notes, but looking at the scale diagram, you’re probably wondering why there are more than seven notes in this scale shape. Essentially, once you’ve played the first seven notes in the scale, you’re going to repeat those notes in a higher octave.

Okay, let’s jump into this scale shape. The first note you’ll play is the lowest note of the scale, the G root note. Play this note with your second finger on the low E string on the third fret. The second note is on the fifth fret, and you’ll play this with your fourth finger.

Now we’ll move to the second string, where your first finger will be on the second fret, then second finger on the third fret, and your fourth finger on the fifth fret. Those are the three notes on the A string. After trying out the first two strings of this scale, you’re already seeing how the designated finger concept kicks in.

Take a moment here to practice the notes on these two strings to get really comfortable with them, and like I did in the video, practice going both up and down the scale.

Now let’s add in the notes from the third string. We’ve got the first finger on the second fret, third finger on the fourth fret, and fourth finger on the fifth fret. Adding in these three notes on the D string completes the seven notes of the first octave, and brings us to the next G root note. First try working on these three notes, and then add them into the rest of the scale.

Moving to the next octave, let’s look at the notes on the fourth string. The G string is easy because the pattern is the same as the D string you just learned. It’s the first finger on the second fret, third finger on the fourth fret, and fourth finger on the fifth fret again. Noticing similarities and patterns like this in scales will make memorizing the scales easier for you as you learn.

Moving on to the fifth string, the B string only has two notes. Second finger on the third fret and fourth finger on the fifth fret. As usual, get comfortable with those two notes and then practice them with the rest of the scale.

We’ll finish the scale with the last string. On the high E string there are three notes. First finger on the second fret, second finger on the third fret, and fourth finger on the fifth fret.

Now that you’ve seen the entire major scale, work on memorizing the scale shape and getting comfortable with the notes. Don’t worry about learning it as quickly as this video because you can take your time to practice the scale as much as you need to.

Something else I want you to realize is this scale is movable. If I take the G major scale shape and move it to another set of root notes, it becomes another scale. For example, if I move up two frets, it becomes an A major scale using the same shape as the G major. Going forward, it will be helpful for you to memorize where the root notes of scales are.

I’ve made a jam track so you can work on this major scale with some real music behind you. Pull up the jam track I’ve given you and start using the track like metronome to get comfortable with your scale shape. Once you’re comfortable, you can start to emphasize the root notes of the scale by starting, ending, or even pausing on the root notes when playing. After you’ve got the scale shape and root notes down, you can start to improvise and make up your your own melodies and solos using the G major scale.
The guitar is a popular musical instrument classified as a string instrument with anywhere from 4 to 18 strings, usually having 6. The sound is projected either acoustically or through electrical amplification (for an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar, respectively). It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the right hand while fretting (or pressing against the fret) the strings with the left hand. The guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. The modern guitar was preceded by the gittern, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar, all of which contributed to the development of the modern six-string instrument.

There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the strings' vibration, amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerpicking technique. The term fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass, and country guitar playing in the US.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, use an amplifier that can electronically manipulate and shape the tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was eventually found more suitable, as it was less prone to feedback. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture.

The guitar is used in a wide variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.Classical guitars; also known as Spanish guitars are typically strung with nylon strings, plucked with the fingers, played in a seated position and are used to play a diversity of musical styles including classical music. The classical guitar's wide, flat neck allows the musician to play scales, arpeggios, and certain chord forms more easily and with less adjacent string interference than on other styles of guitar. Flamenco guitars are very similar in construction, but are associated with a more percussive tone.

In Portugal, the same instrument is often used with steel strings particularly in its role within fado music. The guitar is called viola, or violão in Brazil, where it is often used with an extra seventh string by choro musicians to provide extra bass support.

In Mexico, the popular mariachi band includes a range of guitars, from the small requinto to the guitarrón, a guitar larger than a cello, which is tuned in the bass register. In Colombia, the traditional quartet includes a range of instruments too, from the small bandola (sometimes known as the Deleuze-Guattari, for use when traveling or in confined rooms or spaces), to the slightly larger tiple, to the full sized classical guitar. The requinto also appears in other Latin-American countries as a complementary member of the guitar family, with its smaller size and scale, permitting more projection for the playing of single-lined melodies. Modern dimensions of the classical instrument were established by the Spaniard Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817–1892).All three principal types of resonator guitars were invented by the Slovak-American John Dopyera (1893–1988) for the National and Dobro (Dopyera Brothers) companies. Similar to the flat top guitar in appearance, but with a body that may be made of brass, nickel-silver, or steel as well as wood, the sound of the resonator guitar is produced by one or more aluminum resonator cones mounted in the middle of the top. The physical principle of the guitar is therefore similar to the loudspeaker. The original purpose of the resonator was to produce a very loud sound; this purpose has been largely superseded by electrical amplification, but the resonator guitar is still played because of its distinctive tone. Resonator guitars may have either one or three resonator cones. The method of transmitting sound resonance to the cone is either a "biscuit" bridge, made of a small piece of hardwood at the vertex of the cone (Nationals), or a "spider" bridge, made of metal and mounted around the rim of the (inverted) cone (Dobros). Three-cone resonators always use a specialized metal bridge. The type of resonator guitar with a neck with a square cross-section—called "square neck" or "Hawaiian"—is usually played face up, on the lap of the seated player, and often with a metal or glass slide. The round neck resonator guitars are normally played in the same fashion as other guitars, although slides are also often used, especially in blues.Electric guitars can have solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies; solid bodies produce little sound without amplification. Electromagnetic pickups convert the vibration of the steel strings into signals, which are fed to an amplifier through a cable or radio transmitter. The sound is frequently modified by other electronic devices or the natural distortion of valves (vacuum tubes) in the amplifier. There are two main types of magnetic pickups, single- and double-coil (or humbucker), each of which can be passive or active. The electric guitar is used extensively in jazz, blues, R & B, and rock and roll. The first successful magnetic pickup for a guitar was invented by George Beauchamp, and incorporated into the 1931 Ro-Pat-In (later Rickenbacker) "Frying Pan" lap steel; other manufacturers, notably Gibson, soon began to install pickups in archtop models. After World War II the completely solid-body electric was popularized by Gibson in collaboration with Les Paul, and independently by Leo Fender of Fender Music. The lower fretboard action (the height of the strings from the fingerboard), lighter (thinner) strings, and its electrical amplification lend the electric guitar to techniques less frequently used on acoustic guitars. These include tapping, extensive use of legato through pull-offs and hammer-ons (also known as slurs), pinch harmonics, volume swells, and use of a tremolo arm or effects pedals.

The first electric guitarist of note to use a seven-string guitar was jazz guitarist George Van Eps, who was a pioneer of this instrument.[citation needed] Solid body seven-strings were popularized in the 1980s and 1990s in part due to the release of the Ibanez Universe guitar,[citation needed] endorsed by Steve Vai. Other artists go a step further, by using an eight-string guitar with two extra low strings. Although the most common seven-string has a low B string, Roger McGuinn (of The Byrds and Rickenbacker) uses an octave G string paired with the regular G string as on a 12-string guitar, allowing him to incorporate chiming 12-string elements in standard six-string playing. In 1982 Uli Jon Roth developed the "Sky Guitar," with a vastly extended number of frets, which was the first guitar to venture into the upper registers of the violin. Roth's seven-string and 33-fret "Mighty Wing" guitar features a six-octave range.