SC-010 • Scale Practice Routine

[Mkkl]

I would like to know if there is a cetain method how to strum one snare lower while practicing the scale in alternating mode? Because if you strum down and then go one string lower, should you strum down or up at that one?

[Natey]

Hi, I'm currently practicing two scales. G major and G minor pentatonic in position 1 and 2, for 5 months now along with other things. So far I have been playing them at random, thirds, four in a line, up and down at random. I am at 60 bpm sixteenth notes single position only. I am able to comfortably blend all over the 2 positions at 50 bpm sixteenth notes. Playing level wise, I am able to play Ac Dc you shook me all night long start to finish with solo at the songs tempo. Which I learned from this site. I figured it out fairly quickly, of course my technique lacks still. I'm thinking I figured out the solo fairly quick because when I started guitar seriously,about 10 months ago, I learned the five positions of the minor pentatonic scale. But I didn't spend a hugh amount of time on them all. I have spent alot of time,I think anyhow, on the first 2 positions of the above mentioned scales. I had seen that you should get your scales to 120 bpm sixteenth notes before moving on to another position. My question is should I do that and be able to blend the 2 positions well in all the melodic patterns at that speed or should I add position 3.   Thanks for any tips.

[Michaly]

Hi,

I am interested if you have any information on keeping the time with scales, and working with different timings. Whenever I see people solo it is not always quarter notes throughout the solo.  I used the scale practice routine ie. the 'five stage' process and it was extremely helpful.  Do you have something similar if I want to work on my timing.  For example, use whole notes then half notes... and so on...  I am just having a hard time figuring out how to incorporate 'cool' sounds with timings with my solos - as sometimes they seem a little predictable and boring.

Thanks for the great site!

[VariousThings]

http://www.justinguitar.com/en/SC-022-MajMelPat.php

IMO it would be useful to have the above video embedded on the SC-010 lesson page. There's already a link to it near the top of the page, but an embedded video would be much more prominent.

That video lesson is given the title "Major Scale Melodic Pattern Basics", and in the index of scales-related lessons (SC-000) it's listed alongside the major scale lessons. So it's not immediately clear from the title alone that the information in the video applies directly to the generalised practice routine for learning any scale. (It misled me at it first - as someone who's currently just focussing on learning minor pentatonic position 1, I ignored that video lesson at first purely because its title and place in the index implied that I shouldn't look at it until I get onto learning the major scale.)

So I think that this video should be directly embedded in the SC-010 lesson page. Also, perhaps on the scale index it should be listed under the first section "Important or Interesting Scale Information", rather than under the section "The Major Scale"? Minor changes, but I think they'd help clarify the navigation in this section of the site!

[Orr]

there were no topics that matched my request so i decided to do it here.

Dear Justin!
can you please film or write a lessons about how should  I create scales and chords...this is important stuff man!

if you have already done tell me where...

love you man!

[BDC]

A two part question regarding breaking out of scalular play.
In the Melodic Patterns Lesson we're advised to start the "random stops" excersise as soon as possible.  I'm currently in Pos 1 and playing at 16th notes at 90bpm. Is this a good point to start or should I wait until I reach the 1/16th at 120bpm goal?
Secondly, how is this incorporated into the 5min scale practice?  The video recommends cycling the scale for a minute and then starting random stops.  Do you spend the next 4 mins practicing random stops or do you spend 1 min on stops, 1 min on random notes, 1 min on thirds etc?
Thanks in advance for any advice

[routerbooter]

A two part question regarding breaking out of scalular play.
In the Melodic Patterns Lesson we're advised to start the "random stops" excersise as soon as possible.  I'm currently in Pos 1 and playing at 16th notes at 90bpm. Is this a good point to start or should I wait until I reach the 1/16th at 120bpm goal?
Secondly, how is this incorporated into the 5min scale practice?  The video recommends cycling the scale for a minute and then starting random stops.  Do you spend the next 4 mins practicing random stops or do you spend 1 min on stops, 1 min on random notes, 1 min on thirds etc?
Thanks in advance for any advice

If you can play the major scale up and down at 90bpm at 16th note speed, I think you can relax the speed practice and move on to spend most of your scale practice on random notes and particularly melodic patterns.  Although the lesson mentions 3rds and 4 in a line, there's also 3 in a line and many more that you can devise yourself, and all these patterns will take time to get "under your fingers".  The goal of scale practice isn't just coordination and speed, its primary objective is to get to know the scale well enough to be able to improvise a solo, and these patterns are a good way of doing that.  Also, you may have minimum movement under control going up and down the scale, but you'll find that keeping that minimum movement during the patterns is more difficult that you might think, particularly when there are fingering issues/rolling in the 3rds and 4 in a line patterns.  If you only have 5 minutes to do your scale practice, I would spend the next one getting to know the 3rds pattern, and then practice that until your comfortable with it, then move on to another pattern.

[Loco]

i wrote tabs for 3rds and four in a line exercises in the first position (Am) but i don't know if they are correct, so could someone confirm them? i'm especially interested in those parts when they end going down and go back up

3rd:

E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
B|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|------5---------8----|
G|---------------------|---------------------|------5---------7----|-5---------7---------|
D|---------------------|------5---------7----|-5---------7---------|---------------------|
A|------5---------7----|-5---------7---------|---------------------|---------------------|
E|-5---------8---------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|


E|------5---------8----|-5-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
B|-5---------8---------|------5----8---------|-5-------------------|---------------------|
G|---------------------|----------------7----|------5----7---------|-5-------------------|
D|---------------------|---------------------|----------------7----|------5----7---------|
A|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------7----|
E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|


E|---------------------|---------------------|
B|---------------------|---------------------|
G|---------------------|---------------------|
D|-5-------------------|---------------------|
A|------5----7---------|-5-------------------|
E|----------------8----|------5--------------|

four in a line:

E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
B|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
G|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------5----|
D|---------------------|----------------5----|-----------5----7----|------5----7---------|
A|-----------5----7----|------5----7---------|-5----7--------------|-7-------------------|
E|-5----8--------------|-8-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|


E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------5----|
B|---------------------|----------------5----|-----------5----8----|------5----8---------|
G|-----------5----7----|------5----7---------|-5----7--------------|-7-------------------|
D|-5----7--------------|-7-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
A|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|


E|-----------5----8----|------5----8----5----|-8----5--------------|-5-------------------|
B|-5----8--------------|-8-------------------|-----------8----5----|------8----5---------|
G|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------7----|
D|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
A|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|


E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
B|-8----5--------------|-5-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
G|-----------7----5----|------7----5---------|-7----5--------------|-5-------------------|
D|---------------------|----------------7----|-----------7----5----|------7----5---------|
A|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|----------------7----|
E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|


E|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
B|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
G|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
D|-7----5--------------|-5-------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
A|-----------7----5----|------7----5---------|-7----5--------------|-5-------------------|
E|---------------------|----------------8----|-----------8----5----|------8----5----8----|


E|---------------------|
B|---------------------|
G|---------------------|
D|---------------------|
A|---------------------|
E|-5-------------------|