Online Guitar Scales Lesson - Two Useful Guitar Scale Tips
Learning guitar scales can be a frustrating experience for many guitarists. They allow themselves to feel overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the world that is scales. I mean…there are literally hundreds of guitar scales you could learn. These frustrated guitar players often ask themselves questions like….
- How do I absorb it all?
- Which guitar scales do I need to learn first?
- What’s the best way for me to learn them?
You get the idea. They feel overwhelmed with the task of mastering guitar scales! Maybe you can relate to this? I know when I first started learning scales I really didn’t know where to start!
This online guitar scales lesson will give you two tips that I feel will help you to reduce this feeling of overwhelm. So let’s get started with the first tip…
Online Guitar Scales Tip #1: Become Laser Focused
This is a really important one. Rather than trying to learn dozens of guitar scales, just choose ONE to start with. The idea is to practice this one scale until you have mastered it to a level that you are happy with. Will this take a long time? Probably. But is there any point moving onto another scale until you have mastered the first one?
So what scale do you choose?
Well it depends on a few things…
- What style of music you like to play. For example, if you are a blues guitarist then the minor pentatonic scale or minor blues scale would be a great place to start. If you are a jazz guitarist, then the major scale is probably the best place to begin.
- What scales your favorite guitar players use. Analyze their playing, and find out what scales you need to learn to play like them.
- What your musical goals are. For example, if you would like to gain a strong command of music theory, then learning the major scale would be a great choice. If you want to become a Neoclassical shredder, then the harmonic minor scale would be a fantastic starting place!
Here is a link to an article that goes into this in more detail: Guitar Scales To Learn
OK. Let’s assume you that have chosen your scale to learn. Now it’s time for the second tip…
Online Guitar Scales Tip #2: Organization Of Scale Practice
Most guitar players are very disorganized with their guitar scales practice. They don’t have a clear plan of action for mastering scales. This lack of organization can slow down their scale learning progress tremendously. They jump from scale to scale, and exercise to exercise without really mastering anything! (I think we’ve all been guilty of this at times).
So, what do I exactly mean by organization of scale practice? How do you get organized? Here are a few ideas…
- Schedule a regular and consistent guitar scales practice session each day. It’s a super-simple idea, but so few guitarists do it! This consistent daily scale practice can really do wonders for your rate of progress.
- Have an organized set of scale exercises that you use each time you want to master a guitar scale. For example, you might have a list of ten scale exercise that you work through each time you want to master a guitar scale.
- Develop an organized approach to how you will practice each scale exercise. For example, you can decide ahead of time…
- How long you practice the exercise at each metronome speed.
- What speed you will build each exercise up to.
- When do you consisder the exercise “mastered”.
What I’m suggesting is developing a step-by-step written plan for mastering scales. There are a few major advantages to doing this…
- You have a plan that can be applied to learning any scale. This can give you a LOT of confidence, because you know that you can master any scale as long as you follow the plan.
- It allows you to learn scales faster. Rather than wasting time deciding what you need to practice at each practice session, you know exactly what you need to do.
- It stops you feeling overwhelmed. Often the feeling of overwhelm is caused by not knowing where the heck to start. If you have a plan of action you not only know where to start, you know each exact step to take in order to master the scale. Talk about empowering!
I hope you enjoyed this online guitar scales lesson! If gaining a mastery of guitar scales is important to you, then I recommend learning more about the Guitar Scale Mastery membership website.
