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Hello, how are you doing? Justin here.
Welcome to Major Chord Scale Relations!

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What we're going to be checking out in
this lesson is the way that the C major scale

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in open position, relates and can 
be played along with the three major chords

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in the key of C, which are the
chords C, F, and G.

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So first of all, we're going to have a 
look at a close up of our C major scale

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in open position, and then we're going to
try to play it at the same time

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as the different chords.

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And I'm going to show you kind of what
fingering adaptations you have to make

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in order to do that and
why it might be useful.

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What we're eventually are going to be doing
is playing songs where we've got

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the chords and the melody
at the same time.

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So it's important that you see the 
relationship now between the chords

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of the scales, even though we're not gonna really
develop it fully for another couple of lessons.

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So, let's get to a close up and have a
look at that C major scale in the open position.

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I'm hoping you should be familiar with
the notes in the C major scale.

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'cause they are simply
C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

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We're going to start with the thinnest 
string, where we've got the notes

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G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C, 
B, A, G, F, and E.

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Normally I would recommend coming back 
to a C so that you can see that.

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So the first thing: make (♪) sure that you
are familiar with your C major scale in open position.

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Very, very important.

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OK, let's move straight into now looking at the C
chord and how we could play the C major scale

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while we're holding down most of our chord.

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The first note is pretty easy because we 
can drop our little finger down there on the 3rd fret.

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We could play the C chord on that note,
no worries.

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Now if we want to play the next note, F,
we'd have to use our first finger to kind of

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lay it down a little bit. I'm just 
playing the bass note there so you can

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hear the relationship between the two.

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And I'm trying to hold as much of the
chord down as I can, but you're gonna see

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as we progress down the scale that
you can't hold the chord down all the time.

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But you try. So, we've got there the G, the 
note F, if we lift up our 1st finger

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back to that, we get the top note
as being the E.

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Now, when we want the next note, D,
little finger just drops down there over onto

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the 2nd string, and what's really
important to realize now, is that when

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we've got a melody, say the D, we
want that D to be the highest note.

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Because if we play the thinnest E string
again, it's a nice sounding chord, but the

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E sounds like the melody because just
naturally, the note that we hear as the

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highest note is the one that our ears
perceive as being the melody note.

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So the top note you want to play there
if we want our D melody, is the 2nd string.

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Then we've got... lift off little finger and we've
got there the note C with our 1st finger already.

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We lift off our 1st finger and
we've got the note B.

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I'm just going to stop there,

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so that you can see this first little bit

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nice and clearly. That we can play our melody,

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♪

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We could go back up as well,

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♪

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That time I shifted over with my 1st finger.

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So you could...

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♪

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you can either drop that 1st finger down.

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♪

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So, continuing on, we enter our first problem,
which is getting onto this note here, the note A.

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I suppose it would be possible to
drop your 2nd finger over (♪)

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to get the note A; but it kinda makes
the rest of the chord hard to play

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and it's kinda awkward to do that. So,
generally, when I want to play that note A

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I move my 1st finger off the root note,
onto the A and then lift it off and generally,

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once it's off, I would put it back on the 
note C,- just kinda for good measure.

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♪

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You see, we've got a whole lot of
melody going on now.

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♪

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And this is part of the folk-think, you know,


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♪

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I just wanted to do that quick little demo,
so you can see the idea of it being used.

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♪

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Now, if we continue: little finger is
going down on the 3rd fret of the 4th string

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...lifting off, you do that, and then, kind of
that's really the end. One we've got to...

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the end of that, there's some other
scale notes, but they're not really gonna fit

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with our C chord. So as long as you can get:

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♪

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That would be the exercise. So strum, 
just play the scale and strum at the end.

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♪

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Just experiment a little bit. See how you
can find...the notes with our C chord.

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And C chord is fairly easy. We've got quite
a few little bits, where we have to kind of

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position, re-position our fingers. Luckily
for us, our G chord is kinda easier.

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Now, hopefully you remember folk G.
Good old folk G here, now we've got

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two fingers free already, I'm just using
my 3rd finger, I'm muting the 5th string,

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for now, 3 open strings and then our
little finger there on the thinnest sting.

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Now, because of that, we can get down
our scale pretty easily and remember

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we're staying with the C major scale, right?
This is the 5th chord in the key of C.

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We're not moving to G major scale. We're
still playing C major scale. - ♪

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That's a great little exercise.

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♪

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Again:

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♪

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I was just mucking around again,
with the C major scale and I was using the

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the folk fingerstyle sort of ideas.

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♪

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Now the fun part for our major chords
comes with the F chord: - ♪

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Now, I'm using here the thumb-over-F
technique, so the thumb is playing

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the bass note (♪); we're just using the
mini-F. We can kinda use the barre chord

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but the problem with the barre chord:
we've run out of fingers already.

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It's difficult to get notes off to play the
melody parts, if all of our fingers are tied up.

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So, normally, if I'm doing this style,
I'll play F chord like this.

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Now, again, looking at the scale, little
finger can go on the top, to get the G,

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lift it off, we can get the note F, (♪)
lift off our 1st finger, so it's not a barre anymore,

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and it's just playing the note C,
the 1st finger, 1st fret, 2nd string,- ♪

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It's an F major7th chord of course, 
but we've got the melody,- ♪

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then little finger on the note D, 
1st finger on the note C,

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1st finger can come off,- bit of a
funny chord,- but we've got the melody now.

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♪

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This is a lovely chord by the way,
having F and lifting off 2nd finger,- ♪

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Then, the last part (♪); you can kinda do it.
But to be honest, you don't tend to use it

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that much, 'cause it's quite tricky on the F.
So, generally if you can get:

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♪

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That would be enough for F. 
If you can deal with that. - ♪

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Just experiment! See, if you can play it.
Just play the chord: ♪

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You'll come out with all sorts of
super-duper cool stuff.

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Now, this might seem really difficult and
I'm sure you've got quite a few questions.

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Unfortunately, most of the questions,
I can't answer for you.

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You have to figure them out.

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Now, questions like: "What fingers should
I use to play that note?" - Well, it depends on

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the circumstance, you know. In one chord,
you might find that that finger's really easy,

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but if you're changing to a different chord,
becomes difficult. So you have to kind of

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nut these things out yourself and think,
well, if I'm gonna use that finger, maybe

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it's easier to do it this way. And it's what
works for you. Because a lot of the

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different finger style players do things
differently. James Taylor does all sorts of

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funny chord fingerings. But it works for him.
It's great, you know! So don't feel that you

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have to be totally restricted to a right way,
or a wrong way. Because I'm afraid,

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that there...probably there isn't one.

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I'm trying to give you as many guidelines
as I can and that's kind of the point of

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us looking at those fingerstyle patterns
that we've looked at before, was to kind of

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give you a default setting, where your
fingers would naturally go to.

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But if you're trying to play a melody on
the 4th string, one of your fingers is gonna

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have to come over and play the 4th string.

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And you probably don't wanna
do that with your thumb. So straight away,

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you're kind of braking them all a little bit.
Maybe the...you might wanna play a melody

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where the melody is on the same string
and using the same finger is difficult.

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So, one of the other fingers might come
over and play it. And that's fine.

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There's not really set ideas on this.

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What I'm trying to get you to do at this
stage, is just have a basic understanding

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on the concept of the idea that there's
this key of C, that we're in,

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and there are 3 major chords in the key of C
which is C, F and G,

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and that the major scale of C fits over
all of those chords, kind of matches up

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perfectly with them and that you should
start to explore the idea that you can...

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might play some of the scale along with
the chords at the same time.

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Tha's it! At this stage, that's all I really
want you to get. And I want you to

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have a go at doing those exercises I just 
showed you, where you kinda play the chord

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and muck around with some of the scale tones.


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That's not...you know, we haven't
finished yet, right? That's just

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what I want you to be able to do at this
stage, is explore it. We're gonna go into

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more detail now about how we actually
use it, when we learn how to play:

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"Happy Birthday".

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So, I'll see you for that lesson very soon,
take care of yourselves, bye-bye!