Diatonic Major Scale Part 3: Connect The Dots La La La La

In this, the 3rd part of the series on the major diatonic scale, we are going to be connecting the patterns. By now you have built the scales, played them up on one string and then did the 7 three note per string patterns we had to death. Now we are going to connect the scales. What you are going to do is start on pattern 1. Start on the 1st fret (F Note) on the 6th, Low E, string and play through the pattern up to the last note on the High E string (the 7th fret, B note), slide up to the highest note of the next pattern on the high E string. Play this pattern backwards all the way down to the lowest note of the pattern on the Low E string (3rd fret, G note). Slide up to the lowest note of the next pattern(pattern 3) which is the 5th fret, A note. Play this pattern all the way up to the highest note of this pattern. You will repeat this process for every pattern. Going up one pattern, sliding up to the next highest note of the next pattern and playing it backwards. Doing this will get you knowing how all the patterns connect and how to weave in and out of each one. Once you get use to doing this all the way up all 7 patterns, start on pattern 7 and do the whole thing backwards. Become a master at this. Doing this needs to become 2nd nature. Become a Jedi young Skywalkers. Attached is a copy of the patterns. Follow the arrows that help illustrate what I explained for going from pattern 1 up to pattern 7. Have fun you will young Jedi you must. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Diatonic Major Scale: Three Note Per String Patterns

By now you probably have down doing the major scales on one string. You are more than likely bored with it and are ready for the next step. The next step is the scale patterns themselves. I like to teach the three note per string patterns. There are also the generic patterns. We will save them for another day. With the three note per string patterns we end up with 7 patterns. One pattern for every note of the scale. What you want to do with these patterns is attack each one without worrying about the root. Just start on the lowest note of the tab and go up the pattern to the highest note and then back down to the lowest note. This will get you familiar with the patterns. Do it for each pattern. We will do more with them once you get these down. Holla and have a great Holiday weekend! Click on the picture of the sheet to enlarge it.

Major Diatonic Scales:Part 1 Whole Whole Wholey McWholerton

One thing we have yet to touch on here in the blog is the major diatonic scales. There are two ways I teach them to the students. One is the generic patterns and one is the three note per string patterns. All of our examples will be the three note per string kind. Major Diatonic scales are 7 note scales. With our 3 note per string patterns that will leave us 7 patterns/positions to learn. The make up of a major diatoninc scale is whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half steps. Here is an example of this in C major:

C
>whole step
D
>whole step
E
>half step
F
>whole step
G
>whole step
A
>whole step
B
>half step
C

You can use this formula for any key. Just change your root. What you want to start out doing is find a C note on your guitar/bass/any stringed instrument, go up that string going whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. You are playing the scale on one string. You repeat this process for everywhere you have your root. Once you play the scale in said key everywhere you can, switch keys. This is going to get you use to hearing how a major scale sounds and get you use to moving around the neck and knowing where all your roots are. Once you get this down we will move on to part 2 next time.