Dramatic Scale Realization

[zbalz]

Wow I finally got around to start working with scales other than C major and I realized something so obvious. ALL the patterns down the frets that I picked out for c major are the same as every other scale in major...except moved down the amount of frets as there are in the intervals (a pattern on 7th fret c major is same as 4th fret a major scale). When I thought about this...This is extremely obvious when I think about it being that notes repeat down the string every five frets (plus the fact that i think stone stresses it in his lessons...must have passed through me http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/smile.gif). But this just makes scale learning much easier.

By the way, just a curiousity question...for those of you who play many instruments...is scale learning on any other instruments similar to the guitar at all?

-zbalz

[StoneDragon]

EXCELLENT!!... Once you start seeing those patterns, the fingerbaord will start to open up for you.

Learning scales on other instruments is exactly the same in theory but entirely different in execution. What I mean by this is that the same theory of whole-steps and half-steps applies regardless of the instrument, but what you have to do technique-wise to get those notes out of other instruments will be different.

Probably the closest thing to the guitar would be other stringed instruments such as violin, mandolin, banjo, cello, etc... But the guitar (and the bass guitar) are the only stringed instruments that I am aware of that are tuned in 4ths. The others (except maybe the banjo) are normally tuned in 5ths.

As far as the rest of the instruments go, piano, keyboards and tuned percussion (xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, etc.) are probably the easiest to see the scales on due to the fact that the notes are laid out end on end from low to high. When it comes to wind instruments (trumpet, sax, flute, harmonica, etc) each instrument pretty much has it's own set of mechanics for getting the different notes.

[Bofatron Sofasaurus]

congrats on the progress. and just wait till you realize that what you've learned about the major scale has prepared you for all the modes related to the major scale. And then, as time goes along, you'll discover that they were always just training wheels waiting to be taken off http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/wink.gif
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