Tutorial with explanations to learn the major scales and minor scales on guitar.
Major scales and minor scales
Major scales and “natural” minor scales (the most classical) are consisting of seven notes.
All scales are ultimately just sequences of notes governed by particular intervals.
Learn more :
In music, scales represent a sequence of notes played differently according to a specific key.
But you must know that there is a logic to all this. Indeed, a minor key for example, and the scale which forms it, is materialized by…
… a series of well-defined intervals between notes starting from the tonic (i.e. the first note of the scale, which is the one that gives its name to the chord).
To build your scale, you just have to start from the tonic (which gives the key of your scale) and then respect these particular intervals specific to the scale you want to play :
Major scale
1 tone – 1 tone – 1/2 tone – 1 tone – 1 tone – 1 tone – 1/2 tone
Natural minor scale
1 tone – 1/2 tone – 1 tone – 1 tone – 1/2 tone – 1 tone – 1 tone
Example :
So, to have a natural minor scale of G, we must start from our tonic (G) and respect the following interval : 1 tone – 1/2 tone – 1 tone – 1 tone – 1/2 tone – 1 tone – 1 tone.
I give you here the intervals for the major and natural minor scales. You can also have a look at our course on flamenco guitar scale and pentatonic blues scale.
We are not going to go into the theory but only look at how to play easy scale on guitar.
Important point !
Since we won’t go into the theory, keep in mind an important thing :
You can play all major and natural minor scales knowing only one pattern that we are going to teach you.
You just need to know how to find the right position on the neck according to the key of the song, which we will also show you.
However, unlike pentatonic scales, this does not work the same way for major and minor keys!
I’ll explain it to you right away.
Easy pentatonic scale on the fretboard
The idea is to show you how to play the mayor scales and the minor scales on any music. For this, we will use patterns.
Don’t panic !
First, I’ll show you the global pattern of the different patterns on the whole neck and then in the next section, I’ll show you each pattern independently.
So here is the global scheme on the whole neck of the guitar (I remind you that it works for major and minor scales) :
The seven notes of the mayor and natural minor scales are represented and, as you can imagine, the same note several times and on several octaves.
As you can see, there are different colors. Each color corresponds to a different pattern.
Let’s look at these different patterns together, how they fit together, where they are placed according to the key and how to use them to improvise.
Don’t dwell on it here, you’ll come back to it later when you understand the logic.
Why different pentatonic scale patterns ?
So there are several patterns that I have signified with different colors.
The different colors do not represent different scales but the same scale played differently in different places.
To put it simply, it is a pattern of the intervals between the notes to play the different scales.
Because, on the guitar, there is a multitude of notes present on the neck. Thus :
… the seven notes of the scale are repeated a multitude of times.
And, to make life easier …
… we will cut the neck in different pieces and look at the patterns of this scale on the different pieces.
So, on the guitar, and especially when it comes to playing scales, you shouldn’t think about the length of the neck but rather the width.
Learn more :
As we saw in the guitar notes course, for most strings, the note on the fifth fret corresponds to the next open string (except for the G string where it is on the 4th fret).
Easy guitar scale patterns
So I’m putting below the different patterns with their respective colors. We will then see how they fit together and how to use them to improvise.
Pattern 1
Pattern 2
Pattern 3
Pattern 4
Pattern 5
You will have understood that :
- Each pattern is played from top to bottom from low E to high E (or vice versa)
- You can go from one pattern to another (from one color to another) in the direction of the neck (from left to right). And, for that, it is necessary to respect the order of the colors :
But you will probably ask yourself :
“Ok but where do I start?”
This will depend on two things:
- Whether the key of the piece is major or minor
- Whether the tonic (i.e. the bass of the chord that defines the key of the piece) is chosen on the low E string or the A string.
According to whether the key is major or minor, I give you here two situations thanks to which you will be able to find your way and place the different patterns according to the key of the piece.
Major scales patterns on guitar
Situation 1 – Low E string
If the tonic note of your major piece (which is usually the bass of the first chord) is a note played on the first low E string, then you will find your way thanks to the orange pattern.
The first note of the orange pattern (circled in green below) is then the tonic note of the scale of your piece.
Example – A major scale
If your piece is in A (i.e., usually starts with an A), you will find your chord crossed out with A on the 5th fret :
Then the orange pattern will be positioned from the bass of this chord, i.e. will start on the low E string from the 5th fret :
Situation 2 – A string
If the tonic note of your major piece is a note played on the A string (second), then you will find your way thanks to the blue pattern.
The first note of the blue pattern (circled in green below) corresponds to the tonic note of the scale of your song.
Example – D major scale
If your song is in D (that is, generally, if it starts with an D), you will go and find your D chord on the 5th fret :
Then the blue pattern will be positioned from the bass of this chord, i.e. will start on the low A string 5th fret :
So, if you have understood our example with the two A and D chords, it is possible to locate yourself in two ways :
- On the low E string with the orange pattern
- On the low A string with the blue pattern
Minor scales patterns on guitar
Situation 1 – Low E string
If the tonic note of your minor piece (which is usually the bass of the first chord) is a note played on the first low E string, then you will find your way thanks to the green pattern.
The first note of the green pattern (circled in green below) is then the tonic note of the scale of your piece.
Example – A minor scale
For the minor examples and so that you understand the logic, we will use the same positions of A and D but this time for the Am and Dm.
If your piece is in A minor (i.e., usually starts with an Am), you will find your chord crossed out with Am on the 5th fret :
Then the green pattern will be positioned from the bass of this chord, i.e. will start on the low E string from the 5th fret :
If you learn guitar, you can have a look for our easy guitar tab.
Situation 2 – A string
If the tonic note of your minor piece is a note played on the A string (second), then you will find your way thanks to the red pattern.
The first note of the red pattern (circled in green below) corresponds to the tonic note of the scale of your song.
Example – D minor scale
If your song is in D minor (that is, generally, if it starts with an Dm), you will go and find your Dm chord on the 5th fret :
Then the red pattern will be positioned from the bass of this chord, i.e. will start on the low A string 5th fret :
To improvise : from a pattern to another
Thus, for the example of the piece played in A mayor, the orange pattern is located at the 5th fret and the other patterns are intercalated in the same order as on the global pattern, the blue pattern being at the beginning of the neck (with the first notes on the open strings).
And if you look again at our global pattern, you can see that the patterns have moved but the order remains the same :
So, when you have in mind this sequence between the colors and you know how to position yourself according to the key of the song, you can move from one scheme to another by going down and up the neck.
Good work !!