How to Learn Guitar Scales

Co-authored by Ron Bautista and Christopher M. Osborne, PhD

Last Updated: November 17, 2021 References Approved

Scales are an instrumental part of any musician's repertoire. They provide crucial building blocks for composition and improvisation in virtually every style and genre. Taking the time to master the most fundamental scales can make the difference between an average player and an excellent one. Luckily, when it comes to the guitar, learning scales is mostly a matter of memorizing simple patterns through practice.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Mastering Basic Concepts and Terminology

1
Identify the guitar fretboard’s numbered frets. On a guitar, the front of the long, skinny part where you put your fingers is called the fretboard. The raised metal bumps on the fretboard divide it into frets. Scales are formed by playing notes on different patterns of frets, so it's important to be able to identify them.^{[1]
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- The frets are numbered from the tip of the neck towards the body of the guitar. The fret at the very end of the neck is the 1st fret (or fret 1), the next fret in is the 2nd fret, and so on.
- Holding down the string on a certain fret and strumming the string over the body of the guitar plays a note. The closer the frets get to the body, the higher the notes get.
- The dots on the fret are just for reference—they make it easier to know where you're putting your fingers without having to count the frets up the neck constantly.
2
Learn the names of the notes on the fretboard. Every single fret on the guitar plays a note that has a name. Luckily, there are only 12 notes—the names just repeat over and over. Take note that some notes have two different names:^{[2]
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- This list includes A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/ Gb, G, G#/Ab, with “#” denoting a sharp and “b” a flat. After this, the notes start at A again and repeat.
- Learning the positions of the different notes isn’t overly difficult, but it takes some time to explain properly—check out this helpful wikiHow article if you need guidance.
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3
Call the guitar’s strings by their proper names. It's a lot easier to discuss scales if you know the strings' proper names, rather than calling them “thickest,” “2nd thickest,” etc. The strings are properly named after the note that they play when you don't press any of the frets. On a normal 6-string guitar in standard tuning, the strings are:^{[3]
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- E (thickest)—A—D—G—B—E (thinnest)
Note: The thickest and thinnest strings have the same name, so many people will say “low” (thick) and "high" (thin) E to tell them apart. You'll also sometimes see a lowercase "e" used for the thinnest string (which has a higher pitch than than the low E string).
4
Figure out whole and half steps in a scale. In simple terms, a scale is just a sequence of notes that sound nice when you play them in order. All scales are built from patterns of "whole steps" and "half steps." These notations are simply ways to describe different distances on the fretboard:^{[4]
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- A half step is a distance of one fret up or down. For example, if you play a C (A string, third fret), moving one fret up will give you a C# (A string, fourth fret). We can say that C and C# are one half step apart.
- A whole step is the same thing except that the distance is two frets. For example, if we start on C and move two frets up, we'll play a D (A string, fifth fret). Thus, C and D are a whole step apart.
5
Name the degrees of a scale in sequence. Since scales are sequences of notes that are supposed to be played in order, the notes get special numbered names called "degrees" to help you identify them:^{[5]
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- The note you start on is called the root or 1st note.
- The second note is called the 2nd, the third the 3rd, and so on up through the seventh note.
- The eighth note can be called the 8th, but is usually called the octave.
- After the octave, you can either start over again from the second or keep going on from the ninth. For instance, the note after the octave can be called the 9th or the 2nd, but it's the same note either way.
- You may also hear other terms used: tonic for the 1st and 8th notes (since they’re the same note, just with the 8th being higher), supertonic for the 2nd, mediant for the 3rd, subdominant for the 4th, dominant for the 5th, submediant for the 6th, and several names (depending on the scale) for the 7th.
EXPERT TIP

Ron Bautista
Professional Guitarist & Guitar Instructor
Ron Bautista is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher at More Music in Santa Cruz, California and the Los Gatos School of Music in Los Gatos, California. He has played guitar for over 30 years and has taught music for over 15 years. He teaches Jazz, Rock, Fusion, Blues, Fingerpicking, and Bluegrass.

Ron Bautista
Professional Guitarist & Guitar Instructor

Think beyond just playing the scales up and down. The scale is really a diagram of related notes that can be used for making melodies or building chords. When you're practicing scales, it's actually a basis for understanding melody and related chords. It's basically a diagram of how music works.

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Practicing Major Scales

1
Pick a starting note (root) for your scale. The major scale is a good choice to learn first because many other scales are based off of it. To begin, pick any note below the 12th fret on the low E or A string. Starting on one of the lower strings gives you plenty of room to move up and down the scale.^{[6]
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- For example, start on G (low E string, third fret). This means you'll learn how to play a G major scale, since scales are named after their root note.
2
Memorize the pattern of steps for a major scale. All scales can be written as patterns of whole and half steps. The step pattern for a major scale is especially important to learn, because many other scale patterns are derived from it. Start on the root (for example, G), then go “whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.”^{[7]
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- If you start on G, move up one whole step to A. Then, move up another whole step to B. After that, move up a half step to C. Following the pattern above, continue up the scale, playing D, E, F#, and ending on G.
Tip: Remember that a whole step moves up or down (in this case, up) 2 frets, and a half step moves up or down (again here, up) 1 fret.
3
Practice the fingering pattern for a major scale. You can play a whole scale on one string, but this is very awkward—you won't usually see guitarists do it. Instead, it's much more common to move up and down through a few different strings as you play your scale. This minimizes the amount of motion that your hand has to make.^{[8]
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- For the G major scale, start on the 3rd fret of the low E string. Play A and B on frets 5 and 7 of the E string.
- Then, hit C on the 3rd fret of the A string. Hit D and E on frets 5 and 7 of the A string.
- Then, hit F# on fret 4 of the D string. Finish by hitting G on the 5th fret of the D string.
- You don’t have to move your hand up and down the neck to do this—just change strings and stretch your fingers.
4
Recap the step and fingering pattern as you practice it. All together, the major scale pattern (starting at G) should look like this:^{[9]
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- Low E string: G (fret 3), A (fret 5), B (fret 7)
- A string: C (fret 3), D (fret 5), E (fret 7)
- D string: F# (fret 4), G (fret 5)
5
Try sliding this pattern up and down the neck. As long as you're starting on the low E or A string, the major scale fingering pattern you just learned can be played anywhere on the neck. In other words, just shift all the notes up or down by the same number of frets/steps to play a different major scale.^{[10]
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- For example, to play a B major scale, just move up the neck to the 7th fret of the low E string. Then, use the same fingering pattern as before to play the scale like this:
  - Low E string: B (fret 7), C# (fret 9), D# (fret 11)
  - A string: E (fret 7), F# (fret 9), G# (fret 11)
  - D string: A# (fret 8), B (fret 9)
6
Learn the scale going up and down. Usually, scales aren't just played in one direction. Once you master going up the major scale, try playing it back down again once you reach the octave. All you need to do is play the same series of notes in reverse order.^{[11]
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- For example, to play the B major scale up and down, play these notes:
  - Going up: B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B
  - Going down: B, A#, G#, F#, E, D#, C#, B
- If you want to get the scale to match up with a 4/4 beat, play each note as a quarter or eighth note. Hit the octave twice or go up to the ninth (just a whole step above the octave), then go back down. This will give you the right number of notes for the scale to line up with the measures.
EXPERT TIP

In addition to playing scales up and down, you can also play them in certain patterns, which is good for your technical agility.

Ron Bautista
Professional Guitarist & Guitar Instructor
Ron Bautista is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher at More Music in Santa Cruz, California and the Los Gatos School of Music in Los Gatos, California. He has played guitar for over 30 years and has taught music for over 15 years. He teaches Jazz, Rock, Fusion, Blues, Fingerpicking, and Bluegrass.

Ron Bautista
Professional Guitarist & Guitar Instructor

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Working on Minor Scales

1
Note the difference between a minor and major scale. A minor scale has a lot in common with a major scale. Like a major scale, it's also named for its root note (e.g., E minor, A minor, etc.) Most of the notes are even the same. There are just a few changes you need to make:^{[12]
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- The minor scale has flat 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees.
Tip: To make a note flat, just move it down one half step. As such, flat notes in a minor scale will be one fret lower than in a major scale.
2
Commit the step pattern for a minor scale to memory. Having a flat 3rd, 6th, and 7th in a minor scale changes the step pattern from the major scale. Memorizing the new pattern can be handy as you get familiar with minors.^{[13]
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- The step pattern for a minor scale, starting from the root, is: whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step.
- For example, to make a G minor scale, start with a G major scale and move the 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees down a half step each.
- A G major scale is: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G; so a G minor scale is: G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G.
3
Study the fingering pattern for minor scales. Just like with majors, the notes in minor scales are played with a certain pattern of frets, which you can slide up and down the neck to play different minors. As long as you're starting on the low E or A string, the minor pattern is the same.^{[14]
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- For example, to play an Eb minor scale, take an Eb minor scale and slide the 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees down one fret, like this:
  - A string: Eb (fret 6), F (fret 8), F# (fret 9)
  - D string: Ab (fret 6), Bb (fret 8), B (fret 9)
  - G string: Db (fret 6), Eb (fret 8)
4
Practice playing the scale up and down. Just like with major scales, it's most common for minors to be played going up, then back down again. Again, you're just playing the same sequence of notes in reverse order with no changes.^{[15]
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- For example, to play an Eb minor scale up and down, play Eb, F, F#, Ab, Bb, B, Db, Eb going up and Eb, Db, B, Bb, Ab, F#, F, Eb going down.
- Like with major scales, you can add the ninth (the F above the octave in this case) or play the octave twice to get the beats to line up with a 4/4 beat.

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Learning Other Useful Scales

1
Practice chromatic scales for form and speed. In this scale, all the degrees are a half step apart. This means that a chromatic scale can be made simply by going up and down the frets in order.^{[16]
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- Try this chromatic exercise: First, pick one of the guitar's strings (it doesn't matter which). Start counting a steady 4/4 beat. Play the sting open (no notes fretted) as a quarter note, then the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd frets. Without stopping, play the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th frets. Keep the beat steady and play the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th frets. Continue this pattern until you reach the 12th fret, then go back down!
- For example, if you're playing on the high E string, your chromatic exercise would look like this:
  - Measure one: E (open), F (fret 1), F# (fret 2), G (fret 3)
  - Measure two: F (fret 1), F# (fret 2), G (fret 3), G# (fret 4)
  - ...and so on up to the 12th fret, then back down
2
Learn the 5-note pentatonic scale. This scale is used often for soloing, and the minor pentatonic is especially popular in rock, jazz, and blues music. The minor pentatonic contains these degrees: root, flat 3rd, 4th, 5th, and flat 7th, plus the octave. It's basically a minor scale without the 2nd or 6th.^{[17]
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- For example, if you start on the low E string, the A minor pentatonic scale is:
  - Low E string: A (fret 5), C (fret 8); A string: D (fret 5), E (fret 7); D string: G (fret 5), A (fret 7)
- From here, you can keep going, playing the same notes on higher strings:
  - G string: C (fret 5), D (fret 7); B string: E (fret 5), G (fret 8); E string: A (fret 5), C (fret 8)
3
Move on to the blues scale. Once you know the minor pentatonic scale, it's very easy to play a related scale called the "blues scale." All you need to do is add the flat 5th scale degree to the minor pentatonic. For example, to turn the A minor pentatonic into the A blues scale, you play:^{[18]
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- Low E string: A (fret 5), C (fret 8); A string: D (fret 5), Eb (fret 6), E (fret 7); D string: G (fret 5), A (fret 7); G string: C (fret 5), D (fret 7), Eb (fret 8); B string: E (fret 5), G (fret 8); E string: A (fret 5), C (fret 8)
Note: The flat 5th is known as the "blue note." Even though it's in the scale, it sounds a little weird and discordant by itself, so if you're soloing, try to use it as a leading tone—that is, play it "on the way" to another note. Don't hang on the blue note for too long!
4
Work on the 2-octave versions of all the scales. Once you reach a scale's octave, you don't always have to go back down. Just treat the octave as the new root and use the same step pattern to play a second octave. Starting on one of the bottom 2 strings generally makes it easier to fit 2 whole octaves in the same area of the neck.^{[19]
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- For instance, you can try a 2-octave scale in G major. Start with:
  - Low E string: G (fret 3), A (fret 5), B (fret 7); A string: C (fret 3), D (fret 5), E (fret 7); D string: F# (fret 4), G (fret 5)
- Keep going, using the same step pattern—whole step, whole step, half step, and so on:
  - D string: G (fret 5), A (fret 7); G string: B (fret 4), C (fret 5), D (fret 7); B string: E (fret 5), F# (fret 7), G (fret 8)
- Then, go back down!

Expert Q&A

Question

Are guitar scales worth learning?

Ron Bautista
Professional Guitarist & Guitar Instructor
Ron Bautista is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher at More Music in Santa Cruz, California and the Los Gatos School of Music in Los Gatos, California. He has played guitar for over 30 years and has taught music for over 15 years. He teaches Jazz, Rock, Fusion, Blues, Fingerpicking, and Bluegrass.

Ron Bautista

Professional Guitarist & Guitar Instructor

Expert Answer

Scales will help you improve your musicality, but it takes time. With scales, you have to work with them over time to get any results. I think people expect a scale to make music for them, but that's not the way it works. However, if you practice every day, you'll gradually notice that your ability to be melodic has improved.
Question

Can you provide more technical steps for the right and left hands and give more information about scales?

Community Answer

Just practice. There are many tutorials online and in books on building your hands and fingers. As for scales, the notes contained therein are the building blocks for any style of playing or melody.
Question

I saw a C major scale that started at the open E, aren't scales supposed to start at their roots?

Jelke de Jong

Community Answer

Well, normally speaking, yes, a C major scale would have to start on C. Each scale has 7 modes, though, which tell you on what note they start. So, for example, E in the Frygic mode would be the scale of C, but starting on E.