Comments on: Scales – No Nonsense Guide, Tutorials & Lessons

By: Kier

Kier — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:57:34 +0000

Thanks for your input Mike, looks like you came in the exact same direction as me. I played for years and avoided theory. Quit and started again from scratch. Sooner or later theory has to be conquered for your own peace of mind and you definitely feel a whole lot better once you’re into it.

For the chord guide suggestion, it’s on the cards. I have many posts and videos planned for this guide and a huge ‘to do’ list right across the blog, but things have had to be put on hold since I started my artisan business as I have to concentrate most of my time on making the business work.

Once I get things under wraps I’ll be able to concentrate more on the guitar side of things and get some more tutorials up. It might take a while but it will happen sooner or later.

As for memorising all the notes on each pattern, it might be helpful but would definitely be very time consuming so instead of learning all names of the notes with regards to each pattern (which will actually change depending on how you use the patterns in future) you would be better off learning the names of all the notes in relation to the whole fret board, (which could also be done in small sections as you work through the patterns).

So if you want to, learn all the notes on the fret board separately, that will always help you greatly in the future, and also learn the patterns and where the root notes are for each pattern. If you can do both, nothing will stop you.

Hope that helps. Cheers

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 03:39:38 +0000

Hey man, I played guitar for about 2 years and got to a very high level of technical playing (could handle a lot of Vai/Satriani/EJ type stuff) but put off everything and anything to do with theory and eventually just got bored of feeling “stuck” when playing.

After a couple years of not playing I’m just getting back into it and theory is where I’m starting so that I can gain that sense of freedom that pure skill can’t bring about.

I just want to say that the manner in which you’re presenting this is absolutely brilliant and very easy to follow/not too much at one time etc. Perhaps in the summer you could add a small segment to your theory on building chords and on understanding which chords are in which keys and how to transition between them etc (if there isn’t already something on these topics).

Thanks a lot though, this is definitely going to help my playing A LOT. On the second pattern now, you say we should only be concerned with memorizing the root notes right? Would there be much benefit to memorizing all the notes and just taking the learning extra slow so that in the end of the 7 positions you’ll not only be able to play all over the fretboard but also (through relationships) know every single note on it as well.

Thanks again and sorry for the exceedingly long comment.

By: Kier

Kier — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:07:04 +0000

The open notes are covered in my post on open scale positions http://www.streetmusician.co.uk/openscalepositions/

By: pat

pat — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:44:50 +0000

What about the open notes ?

By: Kier

Kier — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:14:02 +0000

Cool.. you'll find once you get the hang of each position the whole thing becomes quite fun and you can move onto majors, pentatonics and other scales relatively easily. Make sure you take a quick look at the post on alternative scale positions aswell, so you can recognise other commonly used patterns when people refer to them using other teaching methods.

By: Viktor k

Viktor k — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:36:51 +0000

Thanks for the advice. I just played positions 3-7 a few times each and now remember them pretty good. I am able to move between positions with a Gm backing track. I’ll practice this everyday until I can combine the flawlessly.

By: Kier

Kier — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:07:35 +0000

If you’re having problems remembering patterns it’s probably because although you think you know them, they haven’t been thoroughly ‘burned’ in your brain yet. It will take time for you to be able to visualise adjacent patterns while you are in mid play. As you progress up through the 7 positions over a number of days, you will find the earlier patterns you have learned become much more embedded in your mind.

My advice would be to keep learning more positions until you know all 7. Then go back and start combining them. It will still be a little tricky but I’m sure you will find it much easier by then. Hope that helps.

By: Viktor k

Viktor k — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:22:57 +0000

Hey can you give me some tips? I’m having trouble combining 2 positions. I remembered the 1st position and the 2nd position, but when I try to go across them and put them together, I always forget the one I’m not playing. If I start on the 2nd position, and can’t remember which frets the 1st position is on and vice verse. Any tips?

By: Kier

Kier — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:24:45 +0000

Thanks, I’ll also be adding some videos soon which should make the whole process pretty simple for just about anyone.

By: Anthony Martin

Anthony Martin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:49:03 +0000

Surprisingly, if a person looks for this being taught using the 7 positions you use, they will struggle. Yet I have theory teaching videos on Youtube and I can say that your method of teaching is quite brilliant. Why people teach this only using the 5 positions is bizarre.
Your patience and willingness to answer questions is admirable.
Considering I teach basic theory lessons, I must admit that I have never actually got round to this scale playing all over the neck. Every time I’ve taken a look I’ve been confused by the the information out there and people talking about the CAGED system etc. The snobbery and inconsistencies make this area very confusing and off putting. I’ve asked well respected teachers about this area and they still don’t give a clear explanation/demonstration. They are obsessed with this 5 position system. Well that’s all good and well but, if you do the G major scale staring on fret 3 on the 6th string then, fret 5 for the A, fret 7 for the B and fret 8 for the C, they all work to the EDCA chord shapes of the CAGED system but, when you get to the D you it doesn’t work to the G shape then, what about the E on the 12th fret or the F#? it’s all modal playing and very confusing.
Your simplistic approach and, your covering the 7 shapes (for the 7 natural note names ABCDEFG) instead of just 5 is the correct way and I commend you for your work and, I look forward to actually applying this to my Guitar playing & theoretical abilities.
Thank you.