Understanding the Guitar Scales and How its created

When you have understood upon the fretboard and its relation to the keyboard, further you will feel comfortable in knowing more on this that how the scales are defined and how easily you can play any scale.

Scales are named after the node from where it starts. Eg: a C scale would mean, that you are starting from the C node of the guitar/keyboard and thus playing C D E F G A B.

You can see below the fretboard from the previous lesson and from the entire seven musical nodes C D E F G A B, we will elaborate and also consider the nodes in between these seven nodes, which we skip and dont play in order to play any actual scale. In the below image, focus on the string B, and start from fret number 1. That is, the C node.

This is just to elaborate as I said, all the nodes which are played as well as skipped when playing a C scale are: C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B (Focus on String B in the above image).

So all in all, there are total 12 nodes if we count the skipped nodes also. With this elaborated scale, we can say that, if we number it from 1 to 12, then the C scale is played if we hit the : 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th node.

Now make it a formula, that if you hold C node on the fretboard, and then you hit the nodes in the said numbered fashion, considering C node as number 1st, then you will get a C scale.

1=C, 3=D, 5=E, 6=F, 8=G, 10=A and 12=B. Thus C D E F G A B.

Now this was C scale. If you now want to play any other scale out of the 12 nodes, say D scale, or D# scale or any other, just remember this formula of 1,3,5,6,8,10,12. Just consider the node of the scale you want to play as number 1 and then hit the nodes in the said numbered fashion. And you will be playing that scale. Let me give you an example for D Scale.

In this case, D=1. Therefore, the scale will be: 1=D, 3=E, 5=F#, 6=G, 8=A, 10=B, 12=C#

You may find it confusing, but refer the fretboard and number the scales. It will take time to understand this but eventually you will get to know, how you can play any scale of your choice.

This is an overview of the theory what I learnt with my experience behind the scales, but I will show you in my future lessons, that how you can actually play it as well.

You can get back to me on my details mentioned in Contact Us page or you can leave comment in case of any queries. I will get back to you.

Enjoy..!!

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