Guitar Scales: The Beginner's Bible: The Complete Handbook to Learn Scales, Shred Solos, and Master Modes: Fast And Fun Guitar, #2

By Chris Mac

Every successful lead guitarist knows their scales inside out... and you're just a short journey away from joining them...

Scales are the bread and butter of the lead guitarist – after all, to play the lead, you need to be able to play a series of notes over the top of the rhythm track… and that requires a firm understanding of notes and how they interact.

You need a clear understanding of how they work, and the skills and dexterity to apply them to your playing.

The secret? Clear guidance and dedicated practice – and that's exactly what you'll find in this comprehensive yet straightforward guide. Inside, you'll discover:

• A clear understanding of exactly what scales are and why they're important
• The essential tools you'll need in order to guarantee your practice is effective every time
• Why your mindset matters – and handy hacks for making sure yours is in good shape
• A complete guide to scale finger positioning (your foundation for successful application)
• Common stumbling blocks explained, so you can navigate them easily
• Everything you need to know about major and minor scales – with all the key lingo explained and demystified
• Famous examples of each scale in action – including examples from Bruno Mars and The Beatles
• Why understanding 'modes' isn't as hard as many guitar teachers make it sound – and how you can master them easily
• Your guide to the pentatonic and hexatonic scales… and why you'll want to know them
• The 'scale catalog' (you'll want this by your side on every step of your journey as a guitarist)

And much more.

You have everything it takes to master the foundation every lead guitarist's career is built on - You just need the right guidance and a little dedicated practice.

And you're just one step away from exactly that… You know what to do!

There's a lead guitarist inside you crying to be trained up… it's time to put them out of their misery!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meyer House Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215523001

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Exploring scales is both foundational and critical to your success as a guitar player.

UNKNOWN

Hello, and welcome! The fact that you’ve picked up this book means that you’re not only interested in mastering the guitar, you’ve also taken practical steps to achieve that goal. I feel honored that you've chosen me to help guide you on this exciting journey of learning musical scales.

The guitar is an incredibly versatile instrument, and to get the most out of it and to be able to access all the creative potential it holds, you need a solid understating of the foundational structures that combine to make the guitar what it is.

Here’s what I mean:

You can play a few chords on the guitar - often known as rhythm guitar. This sound deceptively simple as, to do this effectively, you need to have a full understanding of chord structures, how they are formed, their various voicings, and of course, their application on the guitar neck.

On the other hand, you can play what some people call lead guitar. This usually involves playing a series of single notes (with some double notes or more every now and again) over the top of a rhythm guitar track. To be effective at this kind of playing, you need a solid understanding of notes and how they interact with others up and down the neck.

Simply put, you need to know your scales inside out.

So, am I saying that you need to understand scales in order to play the lead guitar? No, not at all. But if you want to play lead guitar well - then yes, you do. The good news is that learning scales will do more than just help you play leads or solos well.

Mastering scales will give you a deep understanding of the most fundamental building blocks in music (single notes and how they interact with each other). And, in simple terms, scales are simply a collection of single notes.

By having a good understanding of the basics (theory), you can interpret and even play pretty much anything you want. You might want to read that last line again so you can fully appreciate just how important this subject is.

Don’t get me wrong, theory is important, and you’ll be learning a lot of musical terms throughout this book, but, the approach will be a lot more practical than theoretical. Everything you learn in this book will be aimed at improving your guitar playing, not just your knowledge.

So, if you’re ready to start on this journey, pick up your guitar and get in tune!

Your guitar and this book will be your companion over the next few weeks and I suggest that you treat this book as a step-by-step guide. There’s no need to overload your brain with too much information or expectation from the outset. Just take each section as it comes and practice a little every day. Becoming an awesome guitar player is a marathon, not a sprint.

By the end of this book, you should have learnt and mastered not only the theory, but the practical application of all of the key scales. To do this, you’ll need to spend time working on each scale, understanding the underlying systems and structures of them.

In the same way a skilled builder knows how to use individual bricks to create any type of building, you as a guitarist need to know how to use these foundational building blocks of music theory to be able to create anything musically.

A single brick can't make a building and, when looked at individually, it doesn’t look like anything special. However, if you know what you’re doing, those seemingly simple bricks can be put together to form giant, beautiful structures - in the same way that all music is pretty much made up of 12 notes, and the infinite combinations and variations on how they’re put together can give you anything from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to Eugene's Trickbag.

The same 12 notes that make up a soulful, heart wrenching piece like Strange Fruit (Nina Simone), are the same 12 notes that make up Get Lucky (Daft Punk).

To do this, you need to know how individual notes interact with each other in different scenarios.

This book covers both theory and practical guitar play. you'll get the most from this book when you read and understand it and then apply this understanding practically by picking up the guitar and practicing the scales the way I tell you to.

The purpose of this book is to give you practical tools that will improve your guitar playing, not just fill your head with knowledge that never get’s applied.

Just in case you were wondering what gives me the right to talk about or teach you scales, I would like to introduce myself.

I started playing the guitar at the age of 9. Although I was pretty young, I was self-taught and 30 years later, here I am still actively involved in music as a music director, music consultant and music producer.

I dare say that I’ve learnt enough over my 30 years to be able to teach you a few things on most musical subjects.

Also, since I was self-taught, my approach is practical and not boring theory.

What this means is that you need to focus on one scale at a time. As we progress, I will show you how to practice each scale so you both know it and can master its application. don't try to move on to another scale if you are yet to master the one before it.

You will only make progress by taking small but steady steps forward. If you’ve not yet formed the habit of practicing guitar in a structured and target oriented way, then you most