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. Try this: press on the 5th fret, then move your fingers down to the 8th fret, strumming the string each time you stop on a fret. Then move back up the frets, still strumming. Once you get the hang of playing the scale on one string, you can gradually advance to playing all six. Much as you did on the first string, play each note between the fifth and eighth frets. Play through this pattern on each string. When you've finished going down the scale on each string, use all four fingers on each string to return to the top.

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. When you play a note on the string, be sure to press your finger down enough that you don't hear a buzzing sound when you play; if you need to, put your thumb on the guitar necks' backside in order to get to all of the strings.

Also, try to ensure that your wrist is not bent.  A bent wrist makes playing significantly more difficult. Relax your fingers and bend them just a little bit, so that you're ready to perform scales and move your hand up and down the 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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