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Beginner Guitar Lessons: The 5 Favorite Mistakes When Learning Scales On The Guitar

By Mike Hayes | March 5, 2009

Guitar players devote an enormous amount of their practice time
to playing scales. Hands up all the exhausted, frustrated and
confused guitarists who are addicted to scale practice.

I thought so, 97% of the guitar population, the other 3% what are
they doing … playing music of course!

Everyone tells us how important it is to practice our scales,
did they lie? No, they just didn’t tell us how to practice the
scales.

If you have ever had the feeling that your guitar playing is at a
stand still and no matter how many hours you devote to your scale
practice things just don’t seem to improve … read on, as we
identify the top 5 mistakes guitar players make when practicing
scales.

Mistake #1 – Learning scales via patterns – I see it all the
time… guitar players learning via TAB who are buzzing all over
the guitar like a bee in a bottle with absolutely no idea what
they are playing! What’s the point of doing something if you
don’t know what you are doing?

Solution: Learn the names of the notes in each scale, away from
the guitar. Remember, it is the notes that make up the scales.
For example, once you know the notes that make up the G minor pentatonic scale are G, Bb, C, D and F you can make up your own patterns that suit your fingers.

Mistake #2 - Practicing scales too fast – public enemy # 1
for every guitar player is practicing too fast! Playing fast and playing accurate are entirely different things. Why would you want to play fast and sloppy?

Solution: Use a metronome to train with, start by setting your
metronome at mm = 60, make certain that both your left hand and right hands are perfectly synchronized. Using a medium to heavy guitar pick will also improve your co-ordination and tone.

Mistake #3 – Practicing only lateral versions of scales – guitar players tend to get trapped in little guitar scale boxes so popular in guitar method books, it’s a quick way to get started however it rapidly stifles your creativity.

Solution: Practice playing all your scales on a single string
(linear fashion) i.e., an E major scale played entirely on the
first string would be played as follows:

E – open, F# – 2nd fret, G# – 4th fret, A – 5th fret, B – 7th
fret, C# = 9th fret, D# – 11th fret and octave E – 12th fret.

Mistake #4 – Learning random scales, not knowing which scales to
learn, there’s no shortage of scales to learn the trick is to
find out which scales are relevant to your music.

Solution: Start with the minor and major pentatonic scales, you
can cover a lot of musical ground with these two scales.

Mistake #5 – Unable to relate scales to harmonic progressions not
being able to spot the key centers. To improve your ear, scales
need to be practiced over chord progressions derived from a key
center.

Solution: Select a key, learn the chords derived from that key
i.e., the triadic and/or scaletone seventh chords.

Here is an example of the triadic chords created from the key of C Major:

C  Dm  Em  F  G  Am  B dim

Create a chord progression from these chords such as …

||: C /// | F /// | G /// | F /// :| |

record this background for 10 minutes then practice your C major
scale over this background.

I invite you to use these tips and tools when you play the
guitar.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System

http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com

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