This is Chris Liepe.
JamPlay.com
Lesson number five.
Today we are going to be working on single string scales.
Before we do that we are going to look at a way to figure out all of the names of the notes on the guitar
You guys have probably seen charts that show you all the names of the notes
but as we look at the neck it is pretty easy to figure this out.
We have gone over the names of our open strings from there we can learn the rest of the names of the notes.
Getting them memorized just takes a lot of practice and playing a lot of different scales.
Hopefully these single string scales that we are going to work on today
will help drive home a good portion of the notes for you.
So open string names we've got E, A, D, G, B and e.
In the world of music you have what are called sharps and flats.
Sharps and flats I referred to in the last lesson as accidentals.
What sharps and flats are:
A sharp is if I've got for example a G. I am going to raise that G up a half step.
A half step on the guitar is the distance of one fret.
If I raise that up, if I raise the G up a half step on the guitar I am going to get what is called a G sharp.
If I lower that G a half step, the distance of one fret I am going to get a G flat.
Raising a note a half step sharps the note.
Lowering the note a half step flats the note.
Now if I am playing a G sharp and I sharp that note I am actually going to run into A.
We will get into key signatures more a little bit later and there are some tricky things that happen
with key signatures that you get some crazy note names but for the most part what I've just said is true.
For todays purposes we are going to be referring to everything on the neck as a sharp.
Now because of the way notes are laid out and if you look at a piano this is going to make sense because you've got
your white keys and you've got your black keys.
There are not as many black keys as there are white keys.
That is because in our twelve tone American music scale we do not have an E sharp we also do not have a B sharp.
Again there are exceptions to that but we are not going to deal with that right now.
An E sharp is simply going to be F because E and F are a half step or one fret apart.
There is also no B sharp because B and C on the guitar are a half step apart.
So if we've got an open E and you raise E a half step that is going to be an F
but if you raise F a half step that is going to be an F sharp.
The distance between F and G is what is called a whole step
A whole step is defined as two frets on the guitar or one note in between.
So from F to F sharp is going to be a half step.
From F to G is going to be a whole step.
This is really important.
Understanding whole steps and half steps is really important when we build a major scale.
Which are the scales that we are going to be learning today.
A major scale is made up of a certain chemistry of whole steps and half steps to give it the sound that it has.
If you look in the notes you can see this but the make up is you've got your first note, a whole step, a whole step,
a half step then three more whole steps and then a half step.
Let me illustrate that for you.
We are going to start with the single string E major scale.
So if I am playing an E major scale and we look at that order of whole steps to half steps
we are going to build a major scale off of E off of our low string here.
So my first note is going to be E.
So between my first note and my second note I've got a whole step.
So that's going to give us E and the distance of two frets which is a going to give us an F sharp.
I've also got another whole step.
So you've got two whole steps to start us off.
That's going to give me a G sharp.
Then the distance between my next set of notes is going to be a half step.
So I am going to go from G sharp up to A.
So we've got whole step, whole step, half step.
Then I've got three more whole steps so that's going to be the distance of 2 frets.
So that's going to be from A to B.
Then I've got another whole step from B to C sharp.
One more whole step from C sharp to D sharp.
Then from D sharp to E.
So if we play that again the order is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.
That's the combination of whole steps to half steps that make up the major scale.
So we've got whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.
If I play that just as a scale it is going to sound like this.
There is your first E major scale.
Refer to the supplemental materials a little more to get the tablature for that so that you can get it memorized.
But you can see how this major scale all of a sudden you've learned the placement of a lot of different notes on the guitar.
Again if you are walking up in half steps on this low E string and you are using the musical alphabet plus the sharps and flats
idea that we are talking about you've got E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B, C, remember there is no B sharp,
C sharp, D, D sharp and E.
After the twelfth fret on the guitar the notes start over again so the same notes that you would play on your thirteenth fret
is going to be the same note name as your first fret.
That is true with all strings once you get past the twelfth fret.
So we are going to come up with a major scale for each of the strings.
So you're going to have an E major scale that you will have learned.
An A major scale, a D major scale, a G major scale, a B major scale and then another higher e major scale.
If you name the notes while you are doing this while you are playing the scales,
again refer to the supplemental content, it is all tabbed out for you
and the note names are even written above the notes, the standard musical notation for you so you can begin to equate
which notes are where both on the neck and on the standard musical notation as you are looking at the tablature.
As you are doing this if you are naming your notes you are really going to start to get an understanding
of the names of the notes as they pertain to your guitar neck.
Let's go over that E major scale again.
The fingering that we are going to use here to get these scales is going to be the same on every string
and the form is going to be the same on every string.
This is a way for you to start playing down the neck a little bit and it's a way for you to start learning your notes.
So we're going to play open and then we're going to play first finger second fret, then third finger fourth fret.
Then we're going to come up here on our fifth fret and play with our first finger again.
Then second finger seventh fret.
Fourth finger ninth fret.
First finger eleventh fret and second finger twelfth fret.
So played a little bit more up to speed that's going to sound like this.
There is the E major scale.
Now down we're going to do the same fingering.
Again.
This fingering can feel kind of awkward at first because you are really stretching your hand out but it's a good exercise.
As long as you've got your hand positioning correct, in one of the last lessons we talked about keeping your thumb
the joint of your thumb here on the hump of the neck.
If you are doing that you should have plenty of hand out here to get these stretches.
Also don't worry about it for right now if you need to rock your hand a little bit to get these reaches.
That might look something like this.
Not as cool as being able to stretch your hand out.
That will come if you're using proper technique.