Question:
Just now getting into scales (nice for when I begin cussing at my guitar from all the chord practice, ugh!). I know I can just map it out manually but only been doing this for a few days and that's above my head just yet. Although I'd love to learn it later, I'm still in search and peck mode on my trusty fretboard. Anyone have a site with TAB for major/minor scales? Pentatonic too would be great. I'm just looking for something to print out and take home for practicing this weekend.
Answer:
I'm still in that mode as well, but if you stick with it, it will be more rewarding to pick them out yourself. I don't have to search as long anymore, and when I'm messing around in any key, I find I don't have to think too much to stay in key - all you need to know are your patterns (learned by drawing them out by hand in 5 minutes) and 3-4 reference points on the fretboard (anchors if you will) I played for 5-6 years but strictly learned tab. After I did all that I realized all I knew was a bunch of songs but I still didn't know anything about music. I couldn't improvise in anything besides blues in E (duh) and it was very frustrating. I dumped the guitar because I didn't have the discipline to sit down and learn basic music. I'm back at it again after 6-7 years, and have what I think is the perfect base: my fingers can play, but I don't remember ANY of the old songs I knew. I have been refusing to look at tab until I learn this stuff. And voila - after a month or two of just running scales and finger drills I had my biggest musical breakthrough: I understand modes. Not just the mechanics of modes (which I understood before, but thought it was weird and senseless), but why guitarists use them. Something which playing 5-6 years of Metallica and Van Halen tabs could not teach. on that note, I second the vote for http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~desmith/guitar/index.html this site is GREAT for learning actual music with a guitar perspective if any beginners are interested, here's how I understand modes, which is probably inaccurate, but it makes sense in my head. I have heard modes explained similarly to keys, in that they have certain flavors if you will, but I don't hear that yet. Modes make sense to me for a simple reason: you want to move around on the fretboard. You may know this G major scale pattern: -2--3----- ----3--5-- -2--4--5-- -2--4--5-- -2--3--5-- ----3--5-- That pattern allows you to play in key on frets 2-3-4-5 and 14-15-16-17. What about the rest of the fretboard? Follow the G major scale on the low-E for a few more notes instead of changing to the next string (for those who do not know, the major scale pattern is T-T-S-T-T-T-S, where T = tone (2 frets) and S = semitone (1 fret)). ----3--5--7--8--10-- Now move to the next string - you'll have to rethink your pattern a bit. You'll notice that after a few adjustments now you can find all the notes in the 7-8-9-10 fret box in the key of G like so: --7--8--10-- --7--8--10-- --7--9------ --7--9--10-- --7--9--10-- --7--8--10-- Voila - that is B phrygian mode. It sounds weird (I guess that's the flavor that I just haven't gotten used to), but more importantly, I know why guitarists like modes: while I'm playing in key, I'd like to move around. If I move to this 7-8-9-10 area while playing in G, there are 5 notes lower than my first root note (10th fret of the A string). Those are in key, so why should they be wasted? Whew - I didn't expect this to be as long winded, but I hope that either someone learns something new, or someone corrects me if I'm misunderstanding this!
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