18 Aug Scales In Guitar

Scales In Guitar

In this article, we will learn about What Are Scales In Guitar?

A Scale is a group of notes placed sequentially by their pitch. These notes are played individually. These notes are played in ascending order(increasing the pitch) or descending order(decreasing the pitch). The notes thus used in a scale are differentiated by distance or intervals. These intervals makes a perfect scale. The scales are the most important thing one must know to improve his playing, these not only help to learn music but also you can find out chords of any particular song and also play tabs for any song.

Mainly there are 2 most common scales used in guitar as beginner point of view. These are Major Scales and Minor Scales.

Let us have a look at Major Scales, a Major Scales consist of seven notes placed sequentially in an octave, these notes can be find out using a simple formula (which we will discuss). These notes are played along with the root note to form a Major Scale. So, let us have a look at the formula of Major Scale along with C Major Scale.

Firstly the formula for Major Scale is :- W-W-H-W-W-W-H

Here W stands for Whole Step & H stands for Half Step, these are the distance between one note to other. Whole Step means there is a difference of 1 fret between 2 notes for example:- if we play 1^st string 1^st fret its F Major Note then the whole step to this note will be 1^st string 3^rd fret as we need difference of 1 fret between them so the note will be G note as we skip one note between F & G that is F#(see in the image).

Similarly in case of Half Step there is no skipping of Fret between notes the next Fret note is considered as Half Step, let us look at same example :- if we if we play 1^st string 1^st fret its F Major note so the Half Step for this note will be just next Fret note which is 1^st string 2^nd Fret that is F# Major, here we did not skipped any Fret as we moved from 1^st to 2^nd Fret(see in the image). So, that’s it for interval.

Now let us use this Major Scale formula in C Major Scale.

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#

I have written down all the notes that are in the music theory, it will be easier for us to now look at scales. So our formula for Major Scale is W-W-H-W-W-W-H.

• In C Major Scale the first note will be base Note so it’s C now according to formula we have first whole step.
• Now we have to move from C and skip one note(look at all the notes written above) after C there is C# which we have to skip so our next note will be D Note.
• We have done one step now let’s move to another we have again a whole step so after D we have D# note which we have to skip so our next note will be E Note.
• We have got 3 notes of our major scales until now C D E lets move ahead now we have a Half Step which means this time we do not have to skip any note so after E Note our next Note will be F Note as F comes just next to E.
• Let’s move ahead then we have a Whole Step so after F we skip one note that is F# so the next note of our scale will be G.
• Next is again a Whole Step after G skip one note that is G# so our next note will be A.
• Moving ahead we have one more Whole Step so after A skip one note that is A# we have our another note that is B Note.
• We have got all of our Seven notes of Major Scale but still there is also a last step left this is for the root note of another Octave (Means same base note but in different octave) so after B note we have one Half Step so the next note to B is C Note. Thus, this completes our C Major Scale. Let us have a look at all the notes we have finded out. These are :-

C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C

Last note is repeated back again.

Thus in this way we can find our Major Scales In Guitar for any Note.

Now lets come to Minor Scale. Just like Major Scale Minor Scale also consist of seven Notes and to find out a Minor Scale there’s a formula too. So, the formula for Minor Scale is W-H-W-W-H-W-W

Here too same rules are applied W stands for Whole Step in which we have to skip one Fret or Note and H stands for Half Step in which there is no skipping of any Fret or Note.

Now let us have a look at A Minor Scale.

A  A#  B  C  C#  D  D#  E  F  F#  G  G#

Similarly here too I have written down all the notes so that it will be easier to find out the Notes for A Minor Scale.

• So, let’s start our first note will be A as it’s the Base Note for A Minor Scale.
• Now according to formula there is a Whole Step so, a whole step from A Note after skipping one note A# will be B Note.
• Now we have a Half Step so from the Note B without skipping any note the next will be C Note.
• We have got our 3 notes, moving ahead there is a Whole Step so skipping one note that is C# our next Note will be D Note.
• Now we have again a Whole Step so, the after skipping one note from D that is D# Note our next Note will be E Note.
• We have got our 5 notes until now lets move ahead. Now we have a Half Step so a Half Step after E without skipping a Note will be F Note.
• Now we have again a Whole Step so after F Note skip one note that is F# our next Note will be G Note.
• So, now we have got all our notes of A Minor Scale but still there is one more step to go sp lets do it too and check whether our Base Note repeats or not. So, we have one more Whole Step here so a Whole Step from G we skip one more note that is G# our Final Step comes A Note that is our Base Note. It means we have successfully managed to get all the notes of A Minor Scale. So, all the notes of A Minor Scale are :-

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A

Here I advise you to try these on your own firstly write down all the twelve notes in a copy and then first try to find out any major Scale you want using the formula W-W-H-W-W-W-H just like we have done above and then similarly do the same with any Minor Scale using its formula W-H-W-W-H-W-W, this way you will get more practice and will be able to find out any Major or Minor Scales In Guitar by yourself.

So, these are the 2 mainly used scales in any music by the help of these scales we can easily find out the chords or other things required to play the music.

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