Good sites for scales

schubox · Unread post by **schubox** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 8:29 pm

Well its been a year since I started playing and I've come from picking Amazing Grace very badly to playing the stone. I am ready to move on to some soloing now and I was wondering if there were any good sites that had tabs for scales for different keys and such. Thanks in advance.

bugman96 · Unread post by **bugman96** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 9:20 pm

http://www.zentao.com/guitar go to the lessons for advanced players

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/13 ... xotic.html

The Man of The Hour · Unread post by **The Man of The Hour** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 9:36 pm

And another great scales/chords site. My absolute favorite

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/g ... ex_rb.html

saleen · Unread post by **saleen** » Sat Apr 26, 2003 11:48 pm

bugman96 wrote:http://www.zentao.com/guitar go to the lessons for advanced players

that site is uh.................. awesome!

I just read the whole thing and it cleared up a lot of the stuff I didn't understand about chord structure, after playing trumpet I had the scales pretty much down but not the triads and 7th ect.

Lying In My Grave · Unread post by **Lying In My Grave** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 1:10 am

i have the mentality that scales are harder than they actually are.
because this is the internet and i cant be as easily embarrassed :roll:

, i've got a question or two about scales.
when you see the dots along the fretboard for whatever key youre in, does that mean you can play any one of those notes, and it will sound right?
and how do i know what key i am in? if a song starts in E, am i in E?
i've never really had anyone to ask these questions, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks for the links, too.

The Man of The Hour · Unread post by **The Man of The Hour** » Sun Apr 27, 2003 12:25 pm

Yes! You can play any note in the scale and it will sound great. Thats how solos are formed, and you probably know how random they can sometimes be. Even playing notes Outside of the scale can be pleasing to the ear....

As for the starting point of the scale, I wish I knew. I am only guessing it is the first note, but there is also a way to identify a scale by the notes played.... Aghhh I don't know

Ando · Unread post by **Ando** » Sun May 04, 2003 7:09 pm

what is the point of scales.. i feel stupid, but i dont quite understand.. do you need to learn them?? would it help alot if i did?

DustyDave · Unread post by **DustyDave** » Sun May 04, 2003 7:54 pm

andyrice_13 wrote:what is the point of scales.. i feel stupid, but i dont quite understand.. do you need to learn them?? would it help alot if i did?

It would sure make it easier for your writing abilities , such as writing solos

grock · Unread post by **grock** » Mon May 05, 2003 9:26 am

if you wanna break music down to it's easiest simplest form, you get scales. cuz all music is based around a certain scale. any song you play is based around a scale and all chords are just made up of intervals in that scale. so if you know scales and have those down then chords/solos/songwriting/music all comes much easier. i can usually pick up on what key i am in pretty quickly and after about 4 "practice" notes (read: wrong notes) i am able to play ab=round in the scale. my next step will be to have a working knowledge of the notes on the fretboard. i forget where i am so often.

and you can tell what scale/key you are in by what notes are being played. if a song starts on G chord and i see a D chord in there and maybe later on there is an Am i wound be pretty sure this is a G scale cuz the notes of all these chords make that scale. so just looking at the chords and/or the riff you can easily pick out what scale/key you are in.

this can even help to "guess" what chords might be next. so when i am playing a song and i kinda forget what comes next i can make a pretty good guess based on what i know of the key the song is in.

really i think that there is no better thing a musician can do than to add a working knowledge of theory to his playing.

Ando · Unread post by **Ando** » Wed May 21, 2003 6:24 pm

sweet.. i'll get on it

God_Fearing_Man · Unread post by **God_Fearing_Man** » Wed May 21, 2003 7:33 pm

Also, be sure not to get major/minor mixed up...

(just grock's post said "in G,".. that can mean G major or G minor, be sure to remember to make that distinction, because they are different scales, and thus contain different chords ,and with that, a different sound).

and how do i know what key i am in? if a song starts in E, am i in E?
i've never really had anyone to ask these questions, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Every scale is comprised of a different set of notes/chords...

So, yes, if you play an E, you are playing in E major, and E minor, and C major, and D major, etc. etc... any scale that has an "E" in it (hope that kind of clears things up).

A scale is a range of notes (7 notes +1) where you start on one note, and end on that note an octave higher (or lower if you are descending)... Moreover, each scale follows a particular pattern.. I have just kinda memorized it by msucle memory on the guitar, so I'm drawing back to theory I did 7-8 years ago....

but the major scale pattern always follow

Whole step (2 frets)
whole step (2 frets)
half step (1 fret)
whole step
wholte step
whole step
half step.

So, using the most basic scale (C major) as an example (I am using C major because it is the only major scale wihtout any sharps or flat).

C
D
E
F
G
A
B
and then up to C an octave higher.

Now, lokoing at a fret board..

E - F - F# - G - G# - A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E
A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# - A
D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# - A - A# - B - C - C# - D
G - G# - A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E - F - F# - G
B - C - C# - D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# - A - A# - B
E - F - F# - G - G# - A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# - E

(first note is the open string, up to the 12 fret)...

As you can see, there is no sharp between the B and the C and the E and the F.

So, starting from a C note anywhere on the neck, you can follow the aforementioned pattern and play the C major scale (W,W,H,W,W,W,H)

Now, this scale can be played by itself (the Stone is actually played in the C-major scale)... or, over music (if you wish to solo)...

So if you are going to solo using hte C-major scale, you can only play the chords contained in the C-major scale...

Let's say you played an F# major chord... it would sound out of place, and throw the song out of tune.. so, that means the root note of each chord played (if you are soloing with the C-major scale), must be contained within the C-major scale...

Thus, the roots of the chords you can play will be

C, D, E, F, G, A and B

again, this follows a particular pattern that is constant with each major scale...

the first note (in this case, C) is a major chord,

so you play C-major (X-3-2-0-1-0)

the second note (D) is a minor chord

D-minor (X-X-0-2-3-1)

the third note (E) is a minor chord

E-minor (0-2-2-0-0-0)

the fourth (F) is major

f-major (1-3-3-2-1-1)

the fifth (G) is major

g-major (3-2-0-0-3-3)

the sixth (A) is minor

a-minor (X-0-2-2-1-0)

the seventh (B) is diminished

B-dim (X-2-3-1-4-X)

**don't worry you don't really use that diminished chord too often..

so anyway, take hte C scale, and play around with it over hte chords i mentinoed.. remembered you don't need to play it in any specific order.. C is the root but it is not the basis of your soloing...

other notes can sound good (to start and end with) as well... so play around...

and try to learn the entire fret board.. learn where every C, D, E, F, G, A, and B is on the fret board, because, regardles of what order they are played in or where htey are, you can play them on the neck.

C is probably hte easiest scale to begin with because it is so basic/simple (both the scale and the chords)..

Another thing to remember is every major scale has a "relative minor." that is, a minor scale tht contains the exact same notes as that major scale.. C -major is the relative major to A-minor (if you're wondering)...

and I gotta get going, so if I get a chance I'll go into detail about the minor chord after.

oh yeah, and when picking chords to play over, the most basic, common and simplistic pattern is the "I-IV-V" pattern... that is, the first, fourth and fifth chords of each scale..

in the key of C:
C major is the one (I)
D minor the two (II)
E minor the three (III)
F major the four (IV)
G major the five (V)
A minor the six (VI)
B diminished the seventh (VII)

God_Fearing_Man · Unread post by **God_Fearing_Man** » Wed May 21, 2003 7:36 pm

also keep in mind that while most songs start on the I, not all songs do (i.e. tripping billies is in D-major/B-minor but starts on the F-minor chord)...

Ando · Unread post by **Ando** » Wed May 21, 2003 7:36 pm

i've found that the zentao the bugman listed is the best one so far. I think it's a lot easier to understand

DMBTabs.com

Good sites for scales

Good sites for scales

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