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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Why Do I Need 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.

Learning guitar scales and applying them is important to create a sense of mood with your music. Scales will also be very important in the context of any lead guitar playing, as they are the backbone to guitar solos. They will also define the genre and sound that you are looking to create.

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.

Lead guitar playing relies heavily upon knowing scales. In order to improvise a guitar solo you must know the key of the music you are playing with and the notes contained within. In order to do this you must know which scale or scale correspond to the backing music. Once you know the appropriate scale and are familiar with the note placements, improvising becomes effortless and more enjoyable.

If you are interested in a certain genre of music, learning guitar scales will allow you to fully explore and re-create a specific sound. If we take the blues for example, we find that in order to play the blues well, we must first be familiar with the pentatonic and blues scales.

Very specialised sounds can only come from using particular scales. As an example, to create a Spanish or flamenco sound, we might use the gypsy scale or phrygian mode. So if you are very focused on, or interested in a certain type of music, you can start by learning only those scales common to that genre. It is not always necessary to learn many different types of scales.

It is important not to think of learning guitar scales as a boring, repetitive and difficult exercise. By learning guitar scales in an actual musical context, the learning process can be fun, exiting and something to actually look forward to. I have been able to learn guitar scales simply by improvising over backing tracks.




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