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Guitar Discussions -> 5 Patterns of the Major Scale
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5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Dan - 20:55 24-11-05
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My instructor taught me the five major patterns in the key of G and how to
play the same five patterns in the key of A by simply moving each pattern up
two frets. The neat thing about it I just discovered tonight is that the
root notes automatically fall into the same place in each pattern. So
eventually I will be able to play in any key and not worry about finding the
root notes - they will always be in the same places. Man, I love the
simplicity of it! I practice these scales all the time. I think they will
be valuable, but I'm not able to see into the future. I can't play any lead
yet, but hope to. Do you more experienced players think I'm on the right
track? Thanks.
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Vanessa - 23:00 24-11-05
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On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 20:55:29 -0500, Dan wrote:
> My instructor taught me the five major patterns in the key of G and how to
> play the same five patterns in the key of A by simply moving each pattern up
> two frets. The neat thing about it I just discovered tonight is that the
> root notes automatically fall into the same place in each pattern. So
> eventually I will be able to play in any key and not worry about finding the
> root notes - they will always be in the same places. Man, I love the
> simplicity of it! I practice these scales all the time. I think they will
> be valuable, but I'm not able to see into the future. I can't play any lead
> yet, but hope to. Do you more experienced players think I'm on the right
> track? Thanks.
Practicing? Why yes. All scales are derived from the major scale anyway.
To know minor scales, you simply have to know major scales.
:)
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - General Specific - 01:59 25-11-05
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Dan wrote:
> My instructor taught me the five major patterns in the key of G and how to
> play the same five patterns in the key of A by simply moving each pattern up
> two frets. The neat thing about it I just discovered tonight is that the
> root notes automatically fall into the same place in each pattern. So
> eventually I will be able to play in any key and not worry about finding the
> root notes - they will always be in the same places. Man, I love the
> simplicity of it! I practice these scales all the time. I think they will
> be valuable, but I'm not able to see into the future. I can't play any lead
> yet, but hope to. Do you more experienced players think I'm on the right
> track? Thanks.
Follow your instructor.
Playing these you will learn on so many levels. Sure you learn scales,
but you also build the strength and dexterity in your hands and train
your ear. Keep it up and not only will you be able to play in any key,
but you will hear what key a song is in.
One word of advice: It's a marathon not a sprint and you're in it for
the long haul. Expect to play these scales forever.
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - DNS - 03:19 25-11-05
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> One word of advice: It's a marathon not a sprint and you're in it for
> the long haul. Expect to play these scales forever.
Good advice ;-)
>
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Paul - 07:46 25-11-05
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Dan wrote:
> My instructor taught me the five major patterns in the key of G and how to
> play the same five patterns in the key of A by simply moving each pattern up
> two frets.
This may seem easy, but I don't think it gets you anywhere,
really. The problem I see with blindly playing a pattern
is that you don't know which notes you're playing. So,
while you may be able to play a scale in any key, you won't
be able to do anything with it.
A song is written with general notes, not their positions
within a scale. With a pattern you'll know automatically
where the fifth of the scale is, any scale, but you won't
be able to find a G.
With a pattern you can learn to play a scale blindingly
fast, but there are no scales in most music. You have
to learn the pattern of a song (or lick) and practice
:that: till it's in your brain and muscles.
What I'd do is speak each note out loud while your doing
a scale. Do all the scales and learn all the notes.
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - harryj - 10:29 25-11-05
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"Vanessa" <vampiress@vampiress.fuckoff.net> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.11.25.04.00.57.928435@vampiress.fuckoff.net...
> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 20:55:29 -0500, Dan wrote:
>
>> My instructor taught me the five major patterns in the key of G and how
>> to
>> play the same five patterns in the key of A by simply moving each pattern
>> up
>> two frets. The neat thing about it I just discovered tonight is that the
>> root notes automatically fall into the same place in each pattern. So
>> eventually I will be able to play in any key and not worry about finding
>> the
>> root notes - they will always be in the same places. Man, I love the
>> simplicity of it! I practice these scales all the time. I think they
>> will
>> be valuable, but I'm not able to see into the future. I can't play any
>> lead
>> yet, but hope to. Do you more experienced players think I'm on the right
>> track? Thanks.
>
> Practicing? Why yes. All scales are derived from the major scale anyway.
> To know minor scales, you simply have to know major scales.
> :)
>
-------------
Hummm, no, all scales or modes do not come from the Major scale. Don't
forget Melodic Minor, Harmonic Minor etc...
To the original poster: What you are experiencing is what some call modal
fingerings derived from the diatonic modes of the major scale. Lydian, and
Locrian are usually omitted because they are a 1/2 step from Phrygian, and
Ionian.
Sounds like a lot of useless crap to some, and to some extent I agree. This
approach is a great way to learn where the notes of the major scale are in
various regions of the neck. I do agree with Paul's post. Blindly playing
patterns will sound like blindly playing patterns without knowing where your
chord tones are.
Lets say you are playing over a G major chord (functioning as a Imaj) You
can use the 5th position A Dorian fingering, 7th pos. B Phrygian, 10th pos D
Mixolydian, 12th E Aeolian as alternative fingerings for the G Ionian mode
(G Major) since each of these modal fingerings all contain the same notes as
G Major.
This approach will make the "vocabulary words" available to you in 5 regions
of the neck, but you still must choose your "words" carefully to tell a
story.
It is very helpful to learn where all the chord tones are in each region.
The "c.a.g.e.d." system is a great way to begin to visualize where these
chord tones lie.
You can then practice a G maj arpeggio (1,3,5) in each of the 5 regions.
Later you can use these notes as targets and use various other notes as
passing tones, or extensions (color note) to get to and from these chord
tones.
With this more focused approach, you can learn to actually address various
chords all over the neck. It will not sound like blindly playing patterns,
but more like well balanced melodies containing tensions and resolving to
more consonant tones.
The extra cool thing is that you can use these same simple fingerings in
situations that call for any of the modes of the G major scale.
For instance, Lets say you have an Amin7 chord going to a D7(9) chord. This
is a typical modal vamp calling for the A Dorian mode (the 2nd mode of G
Major). If you learn your Amin7 and D dominant7 arpeggios in the 5 regions
of the neck, you would then have the necessary tools to create strong, well
balanced melodies using the 5 diatonic modal fingerings of Gmaj.
There are some great recourses on the net for more info. Not to mention the
new www.workshoplive.com site when they launch.
I also have plenty of instructional materials on my site. Here is a link to
my very simple to use color coded fingering chart that has helped my
students a good bit: http://www.harryj.net/major_modes.jpg
I hope this made sense, and perhaps helps someone out there... I'm a 2
finger typist and they are both hurtin' :-)
Harry Jacobson
Senior faculty National Guitar Workshop
www.harryj.net
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Mo - 12:40 25-11-05
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Paul <a@b.com> wrote in news:hIDhf.11901$b25.338833@weber.videotron.net:
> The problem I see with blindly playing a pattern
> is that you don't know which notes you're playing.
You don't really need to know the notes playing guitar...depends on your
approach. Obviously, if you're going for classical music, it's different.
I'm simplifying, of course.
But the caged/berklee method was developed to take into account the
specifics of the guitar...and the fact is, there are a lot of built-in
patterns to the fretboard. It's a neat little interlocking puzzle.
My teacher is actually guiding me through the same process...started with
the blues scales, now I'm working on the 5 major scale positions (6
degrees of each). Makes a lot of sense to look at the guitar that way --
knowing that a song follows a I V II VI III I position, for example is
more helpful than knowing the exact chords --just tell me what key the
song is in, and I'm good to go (well, that's the theory, it's still early
days for me!)
And yes, if you always know where your root/3rd/5th/7th are, how can that
hurt? Does it matter what note it is? Seems that its position within the
key itself is more important.
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Paul - 14:21 25-11-05
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Mo wrote:
> You don't really need to know the notes playing guitar...depends on your
> approach. Obviously, if you're going for classical music, it's different.
I'm beginning to see this, at least for improvising a lead. I've
just read through Joseph Befumo's book "Boxes Beyond the Blues",
free at :
http://www.exotic-scales.com/Boxes_Beyond_The_Blues/FREE_book.htm
and see that you can in fact talk a lot about music in terms of
their positions within a scale (3rds, fifths, etc).
When it comes to playing other people's music, though, you're
sort of stuck with the notes. I'm learning delta blues from
books, cds and dvds and scale patterns are of little use.
Knowing where the notes are helps in reading the transcriptions.
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Grumpy - 19:55 25-11-05
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>
> When it comes to playing other people's music, though, you're
> sort of stuck with the notes. I'm learning delta blues from
> books, cds and dvds and scale patterns are of little use.
> Knowing where the notes are helps in reading the transcriptions.
>
I'm a big fan of the delta blues style, but let's be honest here: it's
got to be the simplest form of 'modern' music. Most of the guys who
invented it/played it could not read music and had no notion of musical
theory, much less any need for 'notes'. Hell, they were lucky enough to
have a working guitar, in tune or not.
The music is just basic blues scales played over more or less standard I-
IV-V blues progressions, give or take a 7th or two. The fact that they
could make such amazing music with so little taught me a lot about the
power of simplicity.
Obviously they're not playing the scales note for note --you're supposed
to break out of that. Anyway, most of the transcriptions I've seen stick
to the tab --makes a lot more sense! I mean, how do you transcribe
'feeling'?
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Re: 5 Patterns of the Major Scale - Rick Del Savio - 11:09 26-11-05
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Dan wrote:
> My instructor taught me the five major patterns in the key of G and how to
> play the same five patterns in the key of A by simply moving each pattern up
> two frets. The neat thing about it I just discovered tonight is that the
> root notes automatically fall into the same place in each pattern. So
> eventually I will be able to play in any key and not worry about finding the
> root notes - they will always be in the same places. Man, I love the
> simplicity of it! I practice these scales all the time. I think they will
> be valuable, but I'm not able to see into the future. I can't play any lead
> yet, but hope to. Do you more experienced players think I'm on the right
> track? Thanks.
>
>
Hi Dan. I've got 7 patterns for the modes of the Major scale. Were the 5
patterns you're talking about for the Major pentatonic? They're at my
lessons page; http://www.rickdelsavio.com/lessons.html Peace out, Rick
Christmas songs for solo guitar, charts free at above link.
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