Thursday, February 3, 2011

Top Five Reasons To Learn Guitar Scales

By Nick Dillon


It is crucial to learn guitar scales as it provides a solid framework for any lead or rhythm guitar player. The notes contained in scales are essentially the most basic components in which music is constructed around. By understanding and applying even a few scales, your skills as a guitar player will improve dramatically.

Applying certain guitar scales will allow you to portray a sense of mood with your music. Certain guitar scales will also help you zero in on a particular sound or genre of music, and are the backbone to lead guitar and soloing.

Have you ever wondered why certain songs make you feel happy, while others elecit a feeling of sadness? The notes in scales affect the mood in music. For example, to create a happy feel, the major scale is often used. On the other hand, the natural minor scale can portray a sad feel to a song. So when listening to music it is important to understand that the scales used will have a emotional effect on the listener.

To know and learn guitar scales is especially important in lead guitar. For example if you're interested in improvising a guitar solo, you must know which notes are contained in the musical backing piece and the key that the piece is in. By knowing the scale that fits the piece of music, this allows you not to think so much about what notes work, but more importantly, how to express yourself by using the notes that you know fit perfectly. By having a framework in your head of what notes are available to you when improvising a guitar solo - you can create a better solo in much less time and never hit a wrong note. By knowing the appropriate scales, this will make your playing effortless and unlock your creativity.

Different genres of music each have an individual sound and corresponding scale or scales. A good example is the blues, which relies upon many scales, in particular the blues and pentatonic scales.

Perhaps you're interested in a very specialised sound with your guitar playing such as Spanish or flamenco guitar - there are scales that will give you the exact flavour to any type of music that you're into. The point here is that you don't need to know every scale that exists for guitar. Start by learning only the scales that are commonly used for the genre of music that you're interested in.

When learning guitar scales it is important not to view the learning process as a boring and difficult exercise. To learn guitar scales in a musical context, for example with a backing track, the learning process can be fun and often creative. You don't have to learn scales in a boring repetitive, robotic manner!




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