The Major Scale #3: Melodic Patterns (Guitar Lesson SC-022) How to play

Hi, How are you doing?

Justin here again,
for part 3 of your Major Scale study.

All of this information
can be found on my website,

which is: www.justinguitar.com

So you might want to go
and check that out

and print out the PDF file

because it might
make the lesson a little easier.

Okay so what I am going to discuss with you now

is how to break out
from your major scales,

instead of them sounding really scalular,

to make them sound
a bit more like music.

You know the expression
"you are what you eat",

it's the same with scales.

If you practice scales a lot,
when it comes to improvising,

you will tend to play scales a lot.

It's really important that,
as soon as you can,

you break out
of playing the scales up and down

and put them into
some melodic patters,

like what I am going to show you now.

So, what I am going to show you is

this little five-stage routine

that I used to use a lot,
still use a bit

for breaking out of scales.

The first step is just being able
to play your scale up and down.

Then you go to being able
to play the scale up and down,

changing direction at random.

Then you go to playing random notes
from within the scale,

but being really, really careful

that you only play notes
that are in the scale. OK?

Then you go into doing a thing
called "playing thirds".

Now, for those of you who know,

chords are built up of an interval
called a third.

It's kind of like playing:

One, two, three.

So, playing one note,
missing a note,

and then playing another note.

Then going back to the one you missed etc.

This is called "playing thirds".

It's a very melodic way of playing.

This is a very good exercise,
get into playing your scales in thirds.

Lastly, we are going to do
"four in a line",

which is playing four notes of a scale.

Then starting on
the second degree of the scale.

And the third.

Fourth.

Etc.

OK, so, now we are
going to go to a close-up

of my left hand here, Chet.

Hopefully, they will get to see
exactly what I'm doing,

if they are not following the tab already.
But you are, aren't you?

OK, here we go.

We are going to now explore

the five different techniques

that you can use for playing your scales.

So, the first one -
straight up and down.

We are just using position one
for this whole little lesson.

Of course, you should take this
through all five positions.

Once you get to each position,

remembering that you are not
going to go on to the next position

until you have mastered the last.

So, here we are in position one,
playing first of all

straight up and down.

Keep doing that for say, like a minute.

Then you would move into part two,

which is playing the scale up and down

but changing direction at random.

But you are not skipping notes yet,
you are still just playing the scale.

Etc. There is no pattern to it,

you are just really changing direction
when you feel like it.

OK.

The next step would be to play even,

and try and do it
really consistently evenly,

just playing random notes from the scale.

So you might go...

Etc.

Don't do it too fast,
make sure that you can play it -

just get to the notes.

Make sure you don't hit any notes
that aren't part of the scale.

OK.

After you have got that,
you would move on to doing thirds.

This is really important
that you check out the tab for this

and make sure you do it right.

Start on the first note,
which is the root note.

You miss one note and play the next one.

Then you go back to the one you missed.

Miss a note, play the next.

Back to the one you missed.

Miss a note, play the next.

Back to the one you missed.

Etc.

All the way up the scale.

Watch that E because you have got to do
two with the same finger.

It's a bit awkward.

And back down, you just missed one.

Get the next,
go back to the one you missed.

It's not that hard.

OK. Once you have got your thirds sorted,

then you would move on to this one
called "four in a line".

Start on the first note of the scale

and play up four notes.

Then start on the second note of the scale
and play up four notes.

Then on the third note of the scale.

Fourth note of the scale.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Once you get to the top we go -

down four to start
on the second highest note.

Again, always starting and finishing
on the root note

for those patterns of thirds and fourths.

So, I would suggest you go through
all of those patterns.

When you have got through all of those,

you will probably find
that when you go to improvise,

you will play a lot less scales
and a lot more nice melodic patterns.

OK. See you!