< Return to Video

The Major Scale #2: 5 Positions (Guitar Lesson SC-021) How to play

  • 0:11 - 0:14
    Hi, how you doing? Justin here again.
  • 0:14 - 0:15
    In this lesson we are going to be talking
  • 0:15 - 0:19
    about the 5 positions of the major scale.
  • 0:19 - 0:20
    I'm going to take you through each
    position
  • 0:20 - 0:23
    the way that I play it.
  • 0:23 - 0:24
    Different guitar teachers and different
    guitar
  • 0:24 - 0:26
    players have different opinions about what
    the correct
  • 0:26 - 0:29
    fingering is for the five positions.
  • 0:29 - 0:31
    Some guitar players use another system
    called 3
  • 0:31 - 0:35
    notes per string in which there are 7
    positions.
  • 0:35 - 0:37
    However, most guitar players I know seem
    to agree
  • 0:37 - 0:40
    that the 5 positions system is the best
    one.
  • 0:40 - 0:42
    There is no right or wrong with the
    fingering,
  • 0:42 - 0:44
    the fingering I'm going to show you is the
  • 0:44 - 0:46
    fingering that I've worked out that I
    think is logical,
  • 0:46 - 0:50
    that suits me, just if your guitar teacher
    or
  • 0:50 - 0:52
    someone you know plays it a different way,
    that's
  • 0:52 - 0:54
    totally cool, I'm not trying to say that
    you should
  • 0:54 - 0:57
    do it this way, but if you don't have an
    opinion,
  • 0:57 - 0:59
    this might be a good one to start off with
  • 0:59 - 1:01
    You'd probably only change it if you could
    come up
  • 1:01 - 1:04
    with a logical reason why you should
    change it.
  • 1:04 - 1:06
    So we are just gonna go for a close-up now
    on the
  • 1:06 - 1:09
    left hand and just do each different scale
    position
  • 1:09 - 1:11
    starting with position one.
  • 1:11 - 1:14
    All of these scale shapes are on my
    website
  • 1:14 - 1:18
    which is www.justinguitar.com so you might
    want
  • 1:18 - 1:22
    to go and check that out, either download
    the pages
  • 1:22 - 1:25
    or print off the scale shapes.
  • 1:25 - 1:27
    So, yeah, I'll see you in a few seconds
    with my left
  • 1:27 - 1:29
    hand, thanks Jedi!
  • 1:29 - 1:32
    Okay, so here we are for position one.
  • 1:32 - 1:34
    Position one we start with the second
  • 1:34 - 1:36
    finger and play up the scale.
  • 1:36 - 1:48
    Guitar Scale Playing
  • 1:48 - 1:59
    Come back down
  • 1:59 - 2:02
    Making sure we start and finish on the
    root note,
  • 2:02 - 2:03
    also making sure that our fingers curve
  • 2:03 - 2:05
    up as we go up the scale.
  • 2:05 - 2:16
    Guitar Scale Playing
  • 2:16 - 2:19
    Okay, now we are moving up to position two
  • 2:19 - 2:22
    Move up to here, up to the fifth fret.
  • 2:22 - 2:23
    Following me here Jedi?
  • 2:23 - 2:26
    Okay, so now for position two, the root,
  • 2:26 - 2:29
    the lowest root note is right up here on
    the forth string.
  • 2:29 - 2:32
    Even if it seems a little but strange, I
    think it's very
  • 2:32 - 2:34
    important that you start up here on the
    root note.
  • 2:34 - 2:36
    The reason is that you will hear the major
  • 2:36 - 2:39
    scale the, do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do
  • 2:39 - 2:42
    idea if you start on the lowest note all
    of the time,
  • 2:42 - 2:45
    you tend to hear the modes which can be
    useful,
  • 2:45 - 2:47
    but right now you're learning the major
    scale.
  • 2:47 - 2:49
    So we start here with the second finger
  • 2:49 - 2:53
    Guitar Scale Playing
  • 2:53 - 3:00
    Slight position shift here
  • 3:00 - 3:07
    Back down the scale
  • 3:07 - 3:09
    Now at this point, 4th finger on the way
  • 3:09 - 3:19
    down and 3rd finger on the way up.
  • 3:19 - 3:21
    Now, I'll just explain that odd fingering
  • 3:21 - 3:22
    here because this is a little bit unique
  • 3:22 - 3:24
    to me.
  • 3:24 - 3:25
    Uhm, I got it off my old teacher.
  • 3:25 - 3:27
    Thanks John Mc Millan, great stuff man.
  • 3:27 - 3:30
    Uhm, and if I try and reach over here with
  • 3:30 - 3:33
    my third finger you can see that the angle
  • 3:33 - 3:37
    of my hand has to move to reach it.
  • 3:37 - 3:38
    You don't really want that, especially
  • 3:38 - 3:39
    when you start going faster.
  • 3:39 - 3:40
    It makes it quite a pain.
  • 3:40 - 3:43
    It's ok slowly, but once we get quicker it
  • 3:43 - 3:45
    makes it really awkward.
  • 3:45 - 3:47
    So, this way we use the little finger
    there
  • 3:47 - 3:48
    because the little finger is already in
  • 3:48 - 3:50
    the right place to go.
  • 3:50 - 3:51
    We follow up here a little bit, and that's
  • 3:51 - 3:53
    a really easy transition to make to your
  • 3:53 - 3:55
    first finger.
  • 3:55 - 3:57
    Now we could just cramp up here again with
  • 3:57 - 4:00
    little finger, but it gets a bit squashy
  • 4:00 - 4:02
    so we use our third finger still there.
  • 4:02 - 4:04
    Our first finger can always reach back
  • 4:04 - 4:06
    without the, you can see the flat of my
  • 4:06 - 4:09
    hand here is not having to move anywhere
  • 4:09 - 4:10
    for my first finger to reach back.
  • 4:10 - 4:11
    Cause you always got more flexiblity with
  • 4:11 - 4:13
    your first finger.
  • 4:13 - 4:20
    So.. [plays scale]
  • 4:20 - 4:22
    Making sure again that the fingers round
  • 4:22 - 4:23
    up when they get to the top and making
  • 4:23 - 4:25
    sure you watch out that funny note that
  • 4:25 - 4:26
    changes between the fourth finger and
  • 4:26 - 4:34
    the third finger. [Plays scale]
  • 4:34 - 4:37
    Ok, now we move onto the third position.
  • 4:37 - 4:38
    Ok, we there still with me Jed?
  • 4:38 - 4:39
    Jed: Right on
  • 4:39 - 4:40
    Cool Mate.
  • 4:40 - 4:42
    Ok, now this one. Root note is under
  • 4:42 - 4:45
    the little finger.
  • 4:45 - 4:46
    It's pretty straight forward for the
  • 4:46 - 4:46
    fingering this time.
  • 4:46 - 4:49
    Each finger gets allocated it's own fret.
  • 4:49 - 4:50
    Start with the little finger.
  • 4:50 - 5:13
    [Plays scale]
  • 5:13 - 5:14
    Pretty straight forward again.
  • 5:14 - 5:16
    Making sure you start on the lowest root
  • 5:16 - 5:17
    note. Up as far as you can.
  • 5:17 - 5:19
    Down as far as you can, and back up and
  • 5:19 - 5:20
    finishing on the root note.
  • 5:20 - 5:23
    Ok, now we go onto position 4.
  • 5:23 - 5:25
    Just a little farther up the neck now.
  • 5:25 - 5:26
    K, this time we're starting with the
  • 5:26 - 5:30
    second finger. We're playing here.
  • 5:30 - 5:47
    [Plays scale]
  • 5:47 - 5:48
    Again, starting and finishing on the
  • 5:48 - 5:49
    lowest root note.
  • 5:49 - 5:50
    Really important.
  • 5:50 - 5:56
    [Plays scale]
  • 5:56 - 5:58
    It's worth noticing as well that if you're
  • 5:58 - 6:01
    playing these scales with a metronome, you
  • 6:01 - 6:04
    probably want to get up to four notes per
  • 6:04 - 6:06
    metronome click.
  • 6:06 - 6:07
    And if you follow the scale shapes that
  • 6:07 - 6:10
    I've got, you'll see that every scale form
  • 6:10 - 6:12
    has three notes on each string except for
  • 6:12 - 6:15
    one string which has two notes on it.
  • 6:15 - 6:16
    I think that makes a total of seventeen
  • 6:16 - 6:17
    notes.
  • 6:17 - 6:18
    And what that means is if you play the
  • 6:18 - 6:20
    scale up and down that you'll always end
  • 6:20 - 6:24
    up back on the root note for the beat.
  • 6:24 - 6:35
    [Plays scale]
  • 6:35 - 6:37
    You can see that I accented each group of
  • 6:37 - 6:39
    four then and started and finished on the
  • 6:39 - 6:41
    same note.
  • 6:41 - 6:44
    Ok. That was position four.
  • 6:44 - 6:45
    Now we're going to move up to
  • 6:45 - 6:48
    position five. Right up the neck now.
  • 6:48 - 6:49
    Starting with our little finger on the 6th
  • 6:49 - 6:51
    string.
  • 6:51 - 7:10
    Play up the scale. [Plays scale]
  • 7:10 - 7:11
    Ok now, on this girl we've go the same
  • 7:11 - 7:14
    little trick as we had before with the
    third
  • 7:14 - 7:17
    finger on the way up and the 4th finger on
  • 7:17 - 7:19
    the same note on the way back down.
  • 7:19 - 7:34
    [Plays scale]
  • 7:34 - 7:36
    Ok, so please, what's really, really
  • 7:36 - 7:38
    important. After you've finally got those
  • 7:38 - 7:40
    5 positions down is that you remember what
  • 7:40 - 7:42
    I said originally in the lesson 1 for the
  • 7:42 - 7:44
    major scale.
  • 7:44 - 7:46
    It's really important that you can use the
  • 7:46 - 7:47
    scales.
  • 7:47 - 7:49
    Don't learn lots of scales and not be
    able
  • 7:49 - 7:52
    to use them. There's absolutely no point.
  • 7:52 - 7:53
    So learn position one.
  • 7:53 - 7:55
    Learn to do a solo using the position one
  • 7:55 - 7:57
    scale.
  • 7:57 - 7:59
    Then learn position two and then start to
  • 7:59 - 8:01
    join position one and position two
  • 8:01 - 8:02
    together.
  • 8:02 - 8:04
    There's hundreds of different ways of
  • 8:04 - 8:06
    doing it. You can slide between them, you
  • 8:06 - 8:07
    can shift between them.
  • 8:07 - 8:09
    It's really a good exercise just to sit
  • 8:09 - 8:12
    down and start playing one and try to get
  • 8:12 - 8:15
    into position two and back.
  • 8:15 - 8:26
    [Plays scales]
  • 8:26 - 8:27
    Just trying to combine position one and
  • 8:27 - 8:29
    position two. Once you feel really
  • 8:29 - 8:31
    confident that you can combine positions
  • 8:31 - 8:32
    one and two, then you'd add the third
  • 8:32 - 8:35
    position and start to combine position one
  • 8:35 - 8:40
    with postion two into three.
  • 8:40 - 8:48
    [Plays scale]
  • 8:48 - 8:50
    Etc... And keep joining them together.
  • 8:50 - 8:52
    Don't just sit there and play the scales
  • 8:52 - 8:54
    up and down. It's really, really just a
  • 8:54 - 8:55
    not happening thing.
  • 8:55 - 8:56
    Ok.
  • 8:56 - 8:58
    In the next lesson, I'll show you some
  • 8:58 - 9:02
    ways to break up the major scale. Into
  • 9:02 - 9:04
    making it sound like music instead of it
  • 9:04 - 9:06
    sounding like a scale, so I'll see you for
  • 9:06 - 9:07
    part three in a minute.
  • 9:07 - 9:13
    Cheers. Take care.
Title:
The Major Scale #2: 5 Positions (Guitar Lesson SC-021) How to play
Description:

Justin's Completely Free Guitar Lessons, Complete Guide To Scales Lesson SC-021

All 5 of the common positions of the major scale and suggested fingerings and practice techniques for each.

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/SC-021-MajFivePos.php

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

.

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
JustinGuitar (legacy)
Project:
Scales (SC)
Duration:
09:16

English subtitles

Revisions