| Intervals | Mini-Patterns | Major Scale Patterns | |||
| Let's start with the note. There are twelve of them, that's it. So how hard could this possibly be... The notes are named A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab and back to A. |  | On
a piano keyboad they lay out very nicely side by side. Notice
that some notes have a half step in between them. For example, the
distance from A-B is NOT
the same as B-C. In between A and B is a half step (A#/Bb), there
is none between B & C. In other words, B#/Cb does not exist.
The same for E#/Ff, that does not exist either. In music our lowest denominator is a step. The distance between A and B is one step. The distance between B and C is a half-step. On a piano this is shown by the black keys. |
| Truth: There are 12 half steps (12 notes) in Music. These notes have a relationship of one half step in distance from the note immediately to either side. |  | Scale:
A scale tells you what the relationship is between the notes.
Scales can be any number of notes (up to 12) but most common are
5 and 7 note scale. The Major Scale has the following
relationship: starting at any note move a whole, whole, half, whole,
whole, whole, half step. In other words if we started off with C
we would end up with : C D E F G A B C (W W H W W W H) |
| A
'note about scales. The scale is not 'man-made, perhaps, man
discovered.... But it is physics which has determined this scale.
It comes from natural ratios between sound freqencies which blend
together in a mathematical way. |
| On a keyboard, it is very easy to see. From the white key C to the D key, there are two keys (Two Half Steps). |  | On
a guitar it is a little more difficult to see at first. Each
string when hit open has a note assciated with it. It goes from
the thickest string to the thinnest: E A D G B E But if you
take one string and show the notes it becomes much easier. Now think of the guitar as having six scales laying next each other, one on each string. Start at the top one string and go down the neck by half-steps until you reach the twelth fret than you start over. Then the other string etc. Now pick any note (fret) and try again. The pattern for a Major Scale will never change (W W H W W W H) but the notes will depending on what note you started at. If you have realized this idea, you now know the notes to 12 different Major Scales. Let's start on A this time... (A B (W) C# (W) D (H), E (W) F# (W) G# (W) A (H). Again this is relatively easy to visualize moving down one string. |
| But
more commonly on guitar we will see a scale depicted within a 3-4 fret
range. These can also be referred to as "positions". The
idea is to more or less dedicate a finger to each fret. This can
also be called "playing horizontally". Most people can visualize moving vertically a half or whole step but most people have difficulty seeing half or whole steps horizontally.... at least at first.... Many people memorize the pattern, but don't learn why the pattern exists and in that shape. | Once you learn that, you free yourself on the fretboard. We will get ALL the other scales by two methods. 1) Altering the WWHWWWH relationship (which will in turn alter the pattern) 2) Adding or more common, omitting notes  | So how do I know how to move a whole step when moving between the strings. For a thorough discussion please see intervals. So in the key of C Major lets pick out the pattern. We know since it is a major we have the relationship of WWHWWWH. So Starting on C we want to move a whole step. We could simply move our finger down two frets or if we want to keep our hand in position we move over one string and up (towards the top) 3 half-steps for a major second (Whole Step) which brings us to the open D string. Another whole step and we can simply move down two frets to E. Now a half-step brings us to F. Going to the G on the open string is another Major Second and so on until we reach C again. Which bring us to scale patterns or what I like to call a "mini-Pattern". |