Tips and Tricks for Learning and Practicing Guitar Scales

Scales are a fundamental part of music, so learning and practicing them is absolutely vital to becoming a successful guitar player. If you’re anything like me when I first started, then you may find the task of learning and practicing scales a little bit on the daunting side. This blog entry will be devoted to offering a few ideas of what you can do to help you master scales. First things first, for those of you who don’t know, a scale is a succession of notes arranged in a pattern of whole steps (the distance of two frets on the fretboard) and half steps (the distance of one fret on the fretboard), (eg. major scale : WWH WWWH). By using the notes of a scale you can create an infinite amount of melodies and chords. Alright now that that’s taken care of, let’s get started!

Learn the Notes on the Fretboard

It’s important to know where all of the notes are on the fretboard, especially on the 6^th and 5^th strings, since the root of most scales start on those strings. There are dozens of ways you could go about doing this. I highly recommend heading on over to Ricci Adams’ musictheory.net. If you go to where it says trainers and click down to guitar trainer you’ll find a program that will help you to learn your notes. It’s a great little program and I have found that it helps immensely. Try to practice learning your notes a little bit every day.

Learn More Than One Scale Form for Each Scale

Being able to play a scale in multiple positions on the fretboard can mean the difference between being a great player and a mediocre one. Learning many different scale forms in different positions will help to open up the fretboard and give you more options and offer more flexibility when soloing.

Learn the Individual Notes That Make Up a Scale

This is a much more effective way of learning scales rather than simply learning the various scale forms. Knowing exactly what notes make up a scale, and knowing what relationship those notes have to the chord they’re being played over will give you much more control over what you are playing. This is especially true when improvising. A great way to do this is to take a scale that you’re learning and to play it very slowly, ascending and descending, naming each note as you go along. You can also do this by replacing the note names with each note’s scale degree (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Then you can start making up little melodies and name the notes (or scale degrees) that you are using.

Get Yourself a Scale Reference Guide

It’s always a good idea to have a way of looking up scales, and there are dozens of books out there that do just that. Personally, I use the Incredible Scale Finder, from Hal Leonard. It has over 1300 scales and it’s designed so that they are all easy to find. But really any book that lists scales should do.

Make Sure You Practice Using a Metronome

I cannot stress the importance of a metronome enough. Practicing scales and other technique exercises while using a metronome allows you to develop a solid sense of timing and helps you to keep scales at a slow pace until you can are capable of playing faster.

Improvise

Creating improvised solos is a great way to practice scales. Pick a scale and play along with the radio, or your favourite CD. You can also check out jamcenter.com, which is a great site that offers a variety of backing tracks in different keys and styles for you to jam along with.

How To Prevent Wrist, Finger and Forearm Strain When Playing Guitar

It is often easy to forget how physically demanding playing the guitar can be. It is not uncommon to see guitar players who are suffering from a variety of problems, including tendonitis (an inflammation of the tendons) and carpel tunnel syndrome (when the median nerve is compressed at the wrist, leading to pain, paresthesias, and muscle weakness in the hand).These can be debilitating problems, but they are preventable. There are some important things you can do to protect yourself from having these problems now or later down the road.

First and foremost it is important to stretch before you play or practice, which not only helps to prevent injury, but will also allow you to play more effectively. The best way to do this is to start off by stretching the fingers one by one. Start by placing your left hand thumb against your right hand palm and pushing back slightly, not so far that it hurts but far enough so you can feel a stretch. Hold for about 30 seconds. Do this with the rest of your fingers on your left hand, and then repeat the same stretch for all the fingers on the right hand.

This next stretch is great for both your wrists and your forearms. Start by putting your palms together in front of your chest. Slowly push out your elbows and bend your wrists, holding once you feel a good stretch. Next, rotate your wrists forward so your fingers are pointing away from you. Stop and hold when you feel a stretch. After stretching it's always a good idea to warm up by practicing a few scales, riffs, or chords.

There are some things to keep in mind when you are playing that can help to prevent any problems. First of all, try to keep your wrists as straight as possible when you are playing. When your wrists are bent it will cause unnecessary strain, and also makes it harder to move your fingers. While there are some chords or passages that require you to bend your wrists slightly, it will be better in the long run if you can keep them straight for as long as possible. Just do your best. Also, try not to press on the strings any harder than is absolutely necessary, as doing so will cause a great deal of strain.

Another important tip is to take a break. 15 mins for every hour of playing should do, but take a longer break if you have to. And if you feel any pain or discomfort whatsoever while playing it is important to stop. Trying to play through the pain will only make things worse, so do yourself a favour and stop as soon as you feel any discomfort.

Take care of your hands and wrists and you will be able to experience the joy of playing the guitar for many years to come.

Stay tuned for my next blog!

Until then, take care!

Michelle