Guitar UpscaleHow to learn guitar scales on the fretboard
Read a scale chart, learn one shape well, then link the shapes across the neck. A practice plan that works for any scale.
By Oleg Chibikov, the author of Guitar Upscale
What a scale is
A scale is a set of notes that sound good together. Most songs take their melody, their riffs and their chords from one scale. Once you know the scale of a song, you know which frets are safe to play over it.
Each scale has a root, the note it is named after. The other notes sit at fixed distances from the root. That is why one shape works in every key: slide it up or down the neck and the root moves with it.
How to read a scale chart
The charts on this site show the neck as you see it when you look down at your guitar, turned sideways. The thin high e string is on top and the thick low E string at the bottom. Frets count from left to right. Highlighted circles mark the root. Light circles mark the other notes.
Start with one shape
Pick one scale and one shape, and stay with it for a week. The shape above is the best first choice. It has two notes on each string, and it is the scale behind most rock and blues solos.
Use one finger per fret. Your index finger plays the 5th fret, your ring finger the 7th and your little finger the 8th. Keep the thumb behind the neck so the fingers can reach.
A practice plan that works
- Play it slowly. Go up and down the shape with a metronome at 60 beats per minute, one note per beat. Speed comes later.
- Say the notes. Name each note as you play it. After a few days you will know where the roots are without looking.
- Play patterns. Play groups of three or four notes, then start the group one note higher. This breaks the habit of running the scale from bottom to top.
- Make music with it. Play short phrases over a backing track or a single held chord. Stop on the root and listen to how it feels like home.
- Move it. Slide the whole shape to another fret and you are in another key. At the 3rd fret it is G minor pentatonic.
Connect the shapes across the neck
Every scale fits into a few shapes that join end to end along the neck. The top notes of one shape are the bottom notes of the next. The guide to the five minor pentatonic shapes shows how this works.
Learn the next shape only when the first one feels easy. Then practise moving between them: play up one shape, slide to the next and come back down.
Learn the sound, too
Shapes are only half the job. Each scale has its own mood, and the mood comes from a few notes. The flat 3rd makes a scale sound minor. The raised 4th of Lydian makes it float. The flat 2nd of Phrygian makes it dark. Play those notes over a held root and listen.
See the scale on the whole neck
Guitar Upscale shows any scale on the full neck and plays each note when you tap it. It also plays the chords of the scale. To try it:
- Open A minor pentatonic in Guitar Upscale.
- Turn your phone sideways, or use a computer.
- Tap the notes along the neck and listen. The key button in the top corner changes the scale and the root.
Which scales to learn next
- Minor pentatonic for rock and blues.
- Blues scale, the minor pentatonic with one more note.
- Major scale, the base of music theory.
- Natural minor for sad and heavy songs.
- Dorian and Mixolydian when you want new colours.