It’s All About The Scales

If you want to be able to play great guitar solos you have to absolutely master scales. By master I mean you have to really internalize the scales. You have to be able to hear them in your ears and visualize them (on the fretboard) with your eyes.

Learn A Variety Of Scales

If you want your guitar solos to avoid the boredom factor then you will definitely want to learn more than just the basic pentatonic scale. It’s a good idea to learn all kinds of scales from blues scales to jazz scales to more exotic “ethnic” scales.

The Blues Scale

A great scale to start off with is the blues scale as it’s so often used in rock n roll music. The blues scale is a 6 tone minor scale. It’s just like the minor pentatonic scale except a flatted 5th is added to it.

An Example Of A Blues Scale

In the key of E, a blues scale includes the following notes: E, G, A, Bb, B, & D. It’s a good idea to not just learn the “boxes” but to learn what notes you are playing too. This will allow you to have a better idea of what you are doing so that you can make your scales more musical sounding.

Be Musical

In order to really have a great guitar soloing technique by mastering guitar scales you need to approach them from a musical stand point. That means not just playing scales up and down but only using them as a foundation for your melodic expressions. In order to do this well you will need to be thinking in terms of notes, not in terms of patterns.



By: Johnny Moon

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