Ive played for like a year but ive just ignored the fact your ment to learn scales..
what do they actually help you with.. people say they help you form chords etc but how do they? example?
thx
Without getting into the music theory of it all (which I love and which makes a lot of sense to me) I can say in general that scales are useful for two big reasons:
1. Scales are a collection of notes that when taken collectively help form a certain feeling, mood, or texture. For instance, if you want to write a sad song, you wouldn’t take chords from the major scale, you’d take them from the minor scale. To me, that’s one of the biggest benefits of grasping the concepts of scales (and in music theory in general)… it helps give you a direction to start from if you want to create a certain mood or feeling.
2. Scales help you write melodies in a certain key or over a certain chord. Yes, melodies written based on a certain scale will often imply the moods, feelings, and textures I mentioned above, but to me the benefit is that if I am trying to play a lead over a dominant 7th chord, it helps me out a *lot* to know which scales match up well with a dominant 7th chord – the mixolydian and major pentatonic, for instance.
Without getting too far into chord construction, the basic way to build chords from a *diatonic* scale (ie, based off of the major scale in some way) is to stack thirds. So if we take the C major scale
C D E F G A B C
and start at C, if C is 1, then the third is E. Another third above that is G. Bingo – it’s a chord. In this case because we know the interval from C to E is a major third, its a major chord – a major triad, to be specific.
It’s like music theory in general – it won’t tell me exactly what to play, but it gives me a great place to start from. It can also really help you out, too…
Let’s take an example. Someone comes to you, gives you a melody they’ve written, as asks you to create a 4-part harmony for his group of singers.
You can either panic, go through it and start guessing notes, or you can take some basic voice-leading and counterpoint theory and at least have a basic framework already fleshed out for you – giving you something you can spend time tweaking and refining, rather than continually guessing what notes will work!
You can take it further – you can use music theory to harmonize a small orchestra, as long as you know things like what each instrument’s range is. Try doing that without any background in music theory!
So I see music theory and knowing scales as a tool in my arsenal that can really help me if I want it to.
Saul
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
they help your finger movement, finger muscles, and sight and…all that….
IDK! i do them because they’re there and i see no reason not to
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they help with chords and reading full sheet music as to stay in key….i donno i made most of that up i think i know nothing about guitars lol
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http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090731033627AA4jEoX
im not sure if this is the real reason but you learn the scales to get used to the finger movement and strumming
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They don’t necessarily help you with chords, they just are like excersizes to help your fingers harden up and perfect the technique. It helps you with speed also.
If you learn the scale notes they also teach you the position of the notes on the fretboard.
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Hi i think they help you with tuning your guitar if you don’t have one of those tuning gismos.
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Listen up. Let us take the chord G7 as an example. The major scale is g a b c d e f g. To create the 7th sound u use the 7th note (1st finger on first fret, 1st string). A major chord consists of 3 notes starting with the root (g) a third (b) and a 6th interval (d). If u fiddle around with ur fret notes and allow only these 4 notes to sound, hey presto – you’ve discovered the g7th chord. If u know all the notes on the guitar u can form g7 chords all over the guitar. And without ever buying a chord book. Some chords higher up on the guit require a barred chord, but I’ve answered ur main question.
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Ray: listen up!!!….. your really wrong!!! a chord is made up of the root, the third and the fith for starters…. the Gmajor scale is G A B C D E F# are you a charlatan or just amusing yourself?
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Scales are the alphabet of music. All music is designed around scales, intervals and chords.
It is like learning to read with out knowing the letters. It is possible to read words just because you see them enough times and are told what the word is, but if you do not know letters you can not read new words or write something new.
Good Luck
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First things first: learning scales isn’t the same thing as memorizing the pattern. You need to learn how the scale is constructed. For a simple example, for any note you play, the third would be on the next string up and one fret back (with the exception of going from the 3rd to 2nd string).
Learning the scale means knowing where the intervals are relative to the note you’re playing. Maybe it doesn’t sound clear by reading, so here is what I’m saying in my head as I learn scales: "If this is the root (and I just pick any string & any fret), then I know the root is also on this other fret, and that I can play the 3rd here and here, and I can play the 5th here, here and here" etc.
The patterns are very simple, but it takes repetition before it comes to you without even thinking about it. Once you learn where the 3rds & 5ths are, add the 7ths. Eventually, you’ll see the fretboard is a simple, organized layout. Now that you have a solid foundation, building upon it will be easier. (Like playing minor chords, you know where the 3rds are located, just flatten it one fret, etc.)
References :
Without getting into the music theory of it all (which I love and which makes a lot of sense to me) I can say in general that scales are useful for two big reasons:
1. Scales are a collection of notes that when taken collectively help form a certain feeling, mood, or texture. For instance, if you want to write a sad song, you wouldn’t take chords from the major scale, you’d take them from the minor scale. To me, that’s one of the biggest benefits of grasping the concepts of scales (and in music theory in general)… it helps give you a direction to start from if you want to create a certain mood or feeling.
2. Scales help you write melodies in a certain key or over a certain chord. Yes, melodies written based on a certain scale will often imply the moods, feelings, and textures I mentioned above, but to me the benefit is that if I am trying to play a lead over a dominant 7th chord, it helps me out a *lot* to know which scales match up well with a dominant 7th chord – the mixolydian and major pentatonic, for instance.
Without getting too far into chord construction, the basic way to build chords from a *diatonic* scale (ie, based off of the major scale in some way) is to stack thirds. So if we take the C major scale
C D E F G A B C
and start at C, if C is 1, then the third is E. Another third above that is G. Bingo – it’s a chord. In this case because we know the interval from C to E is a major third, its a major chord – a major triad, to be specific.
It’s like music theory in general – it won’t tell me exactly what to play, but it gives me a great place to start from. It can also really help you out, too…
Let’s take an example. Someone comes to you, gives you a melody they’ve written, as asks you to create a 4-part harmony for his group of singers.
You can either panic, go through it and start guessing notes, or you can take some basic voice-leading and counterpoint theory and at least have a basic framework already fleshed out for you – giving you something you can spend time tweaking and refining, rather than continually guessing what notes will work!
You can take it further – you can use music theory to harmonize a small orchestra, as long as you know things like what each instrument’s range is. Try doing that without any background in music theory!
So I see music theory and knowing scales as a tool in my arsenal that can really help me if I want it to.
Saul
References :