Learn Guitar Scales the Easy Way

If the piano is the instrument you want to learn, your instructor will start you out on scales. And for the beginning guitarist, mastering the scales is just as important. When you play the piano, your fingers play notes up and down the keys; in the guitar the fingers move across the strings. If you want to learn chords and start writing your own songs, getting the fingers right is essential.

A fantastic way to begin learning scales is by practicing them on only one string. Play each note between the fifth and eighth frets, stopping to strum on each note. Once you get the hang of playing the scale on one string, you can gradually advance to playing all six. Keep the 5th fret as your starting point and work down the frets to the 8th, strumming the first string simultaneously; then repeat this with the 2nd string, and on until you have played all six of them. Once you have practiced going up this sequence on each string, practice going down.

In order to truly learn guitar scales, you must practice them frequently. After you know the scales, they can serve as a great warm-up tool to get your fingers ready for a lesson or a rehearsal. Make sure you're holding the frets down as you play. If you don't, you are likely to make less-than-pleasant sounds.  In order to do this, it might prove advantageous to have your thumb positioned in the center of the neck.

If you want to be effective in your fingering, don't bend your wrist, and keep your left plan facing up, so that you can maintain proper form and prevent pain. Lastly, make sure that your fingers remained relaxed. It might seem stressful at first, but loose fingers are the only way to really progress at guitar.

Although we can't go into sufficient detail here on how to learn guitar scales, there are some great online guitar learning programs out there. One of the best that I've seen is Learn and Master Guitar which is an excellent resource for learning guitar.

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