Learn Guitar Scales For Lead Guitar Mastery

By Nick Dillon


It is vitally important to learn guitar scales as it creates a framework for your entire guitar playing, whether it be lead guitar, rhythm guitar or both. Scales are essentially the fundamental building blocks in which music is created. By learning even just a few scales and being able to apply them in a musical context, your skills will grow and you will ultimately become a better guitar player and musician.

Applying certain guitar scales will allow you to portray a sense of mood with your music. Certain guitar scales will also help you zero in on a particular sound or genre of music, and are the backbone to lead guitar and soloing.

When listening to music have you wondered why some songs feel sad and others make you feel bright and happy? Scales ultimately affect the mood in music. The major scale, as an example, will convey a happy feel. In contrast, a minor scale can bring a sad feel to a song. The next time a song makes you feel a certain way, understand that this was most likely intentional, and as a result of the scale chosen.

Knowing guitar scales is critical for lead guitar playing. To solo with the guitar and sound good, it is important to know exactly which notes will work and which ones will sound the best. By matching the scale to the backing music, this can easily be accomplished. Once the scale patterns and note placements become familiar, soloing becomes an effortless task.

To learn guitar scales will allow you to fully explore and understand different genres of music that you may be interested in. For example you may love to play the blues. In this case your playing depends upon whether you can apply the most common scales for this genre of music - ie, the minor pentatonic, major pentatonic and blues scales.

To create a specialised sound we first must use a specific scale. For example, we can create a Spanish or flamenco sound by using the gypsy scale or phrygian mode. If your playing is focused to a certain type of music, it is best to start learning the scales that correspond to that genre before learning other types of scales.

Learning guitar scales can be an enjoyable exercise if practised correctly. I recommend to learn guitar scales with a backing track, to not only make the learning process fun, but also to promote creativity. It doesn't have to be a painful experience!




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