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Easy Online Guitar Lessons- How to turn scales into music by using the three note per string scale system
By Mike Hayes | July 26, 2009
Guitar players are often faced with a crippling problem that can
bring their progress to a grinding halt. It’s not a physical
problem it’s a dreaded case of scale overload.
Guitarists of all levels of proficiency can suffer from this
problem and often lament … “all my solos sound like scales” or
“all my solos sound the same”.
The problem is actually quite easy to overcome … stop playing
scales! It’s not scales themselves that are the problem, it’s how
we practice and apply them.
Before we proceed with a number of ways to overcome a serious
case of scale overload here’s something I want you to understand
… “we play what we hear” and “hear what we play” so as you can
see there’s the problem right there, if all we practice are scales, then all we will hear will be scales.
This in itself creates a ‘bind’ where when we want to be creative
we will keep hearing scales in our head and therefore our fingers
will continue playing the same tired scale patterns.
Now for a great way to play music rather than standard scales!
Introducing the “Three Note Per String Scale System” …
A larger number of the standard fingering patterns tend to lock
the guitarist into a lateral pattern; whereas many of the notes you are hearing in your head are found outside these shapes.
A good system for covering the guitar fingerboard is the three
note per string scale system.
It’s a very simple system were you simply play three notes from the scale; then move to the next string and play the next three notes of the scale; again on to the next string and play the next three notes and so on.
Let’s say you wanted to practice the C major scale using the
three note per string system.
You could start on the 6th string as follows: F = 1st fret, G =
3rd fret and A = 5th fret then move to the 5th string.
5th string strategy: B = 2nd fret, C= 3rd fret and D = 5th fret
now moving to the 4th string.
On the 4th string the notes would be E= 2nd fret, F = 3rd fret
and G = 5th fret
The 3rd string would be A= 2nd fret, B= 4th fret and C= 5th fret
When you move to the 2nd string you will have to shift your left
hand slightly as the notes are played: D = 3rd fret , E = 5th
fret and F = 6th fret
Moving to the first string the notes are G = 3rd fret, A = 5th
fret and B on the 7th fret.
When you play this scale it will sound incomplete, that’s because you are not starting or finishing on the keynote of “C”.
Try playing the three note per string scale starting on the note
C on the fifth string; play down to the low F on string six, then
play the scale ascending up to the high “B” on the first string,
then back down to the “C” on string three.
Playing this scale will start to free up the way you approach the
guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com
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