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Visualizing the Fretboard - Major Scales and Modes

Tom Quayle
IntermediateAny styleScales 10 lessons18m

Hi there guys! Welcome to this tutorial on how to Visualize the Fretboard. This tutorial is going to deal with learning major scales and their modes and how to visualize them on the guitar. I'm sure in your time as a guitarist you've come across those books that have diagrams of scales all over the fretboard. You know, the ones with a fretboard covered in dots looking like it's got the worst case of measles known to man! These make learning scales a huge challenge - there's just no way you're ever going to remember where all those notes are. We need a more concise method for learning and remembering scales all over the fretboard. I'm going to present a system to you which I devised using only 3 repeating fingering patterns to learn a Major scale and it's modes all over the neck. In this case G major. Once you've finished this lesson, it's vital that you try these ideas in other keys in order to really understand how they relate to being able to play all over the fretboard. In the next video I'll show you the 3 fingerings and we'll start to apply them to scales. Let me know in the forums if you have any questions or requests! Cheers, Tom

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10 Lessons

  1. 1 1:49 Lesson · 2m Visualizing the Fretboard - Introduction Hi there guys! Welcome to this tutorial on how to Visualize the Fretboard. This tutorial is going to deal with learning major scales and their modes and how to visualize them on the guitar. I'm sure in your...
  2. 2 2:16 Lesson · 2m Visualizing the Fretboard - Learning the Fingerings We're going to be using 3 fingerings only to learn these scales all over the neck. Fingering number 1 uses our 1st, 2nd and 4th fingers with a gap of 1 fret between each. On the video and in the diagram I use...
  3. 3 3:30 Lesson · 4m Visualizing the Fretboard - Major Scale Application Okay! Let's put these fingerings to work. We're going to be doing everything in the key of G major for this tutorial but these ideas will transpose into any key you wish. Our first scale is going to be the G...
  4. 4 2:10 Lesson · 2m Visualizing the Fretboard - Dorian Scale Application So here's our first modal scale - dorian. Dorian is the second mode of the major scale and in the key of G starts on the note A. We'll start our scale on the 5th fret of the low E string. If you look at the...
  5. 5 1:26 Lesson · 1m Visualizing the Fretboard - Phrygian Scale Application Moving on to Phrygian we have a scale starting on the note B. This occurs on the 7th fret of the low E string giving us B Phrygian. Our phrygian scale starts on the second of our fingering no.2's. So we have...
  6. 6 1:21 Lesson · 1m Visualizing the Fretboard - Lydian Scale Application So, moving on we have Lydian. In the key of G we have C Lydian so our scale starts on the 8th fret of our low E string. We start the scale with the third of our fingering no. 1's. Because this is the third...
  7. 7 1:14 Lesson · 1m Visualizing the Fretboard - Mixolydian Scale Application Now we move onto the Mixolydian Scale. In the key of G our Mixolydian Scale starts on the note D at the 10th fret of the low E string. When we apply our fingerings sequence we can see that the scale starts on...
  8. 8 1:19 Lesson · 1m Visualizing the Fretboard - Aeolian Scale Application Here is the idea applied to the Aeolian Scale. In the key of G our Aeolian scale is E Aeolian. This starts at the 12 fret on the low E string with the note A. Now, in terms of our sequence of fingerings...
  9. 9 1:17 Lesson · 1m Visualizing the Fretboard - Locrian Scale Application So next we'll apply this idea to the Locrian scale. Be sure to look at the diagram below for guidance whilst watching the video. The locrian scale in the key of G starts on the note F# which is up at the 14th...
  10. 10 1:31 Lesson · 2m Visualizing the Fretboard - Closing Comments So what have we achieved here? Well, basically we've mapped out the entire key of G Major over the majority of the fretboard using just 3 different fingerings. This gives us a strategy for learning major...

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