Scales Are Crucial For The Fingerstyle Guitarist!

This "One Of The Best" Guitar Lessons Introduces Scales.

The most basic type is the chromatic. The chromatic is made up of every note in an octave. Here's what I mean.

Play the 2nd string at the 1st fret, then play it at the 13th fret. They sound sort of the same, even though one is higher in pitch than the other. The 2nd string at the 13th fret is one octave higher in pitch than the 2nd string at the 1st fret.

So a chromatic is every note between the 2nd string at the 1st fret and the 2nd string 13th fret. All of the other types are found in the chromatic.

The first one that we'll take out of the chromatic is the major. There is a formula for making the major from the chromatic. First, though, we need to learn what a whole step and 1/2 step are.

A 1/2 step is the distance of 1 fret. So if you go from the 3rd fret of any string to the 4th fret of the same string we've gone 1/2 step.

A whole step is a distance of 2 frets. If we played the 3rd fret of any string and then played the 5th fret of the same string, we have played a whole step.

The formula for the major goes like this; W, W, 1/2, W, W, W, 1/2.

Knowing scales is important for fingerstyle guitar players.

They are what we build intervals and chords from, two things that are a must for fingerstyle guitarists.

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