I'm getting quoted, and I didn't really say:
I find teaching individual scales to be pointless, if you don't understand how a scale coordinates in specific key how can you improvise or compose in that key?
Matter of fact, I don't fully understand it.
One can compose and improvise with hardly any theory at all.
As you learn some, it moves you forward, of course.
I wouldn't say that individual scales are pointless, though. If you learn a scale, you know a scale. If you learn the intervals that make a scale, then you know a lot of scales. I'd recommend the minor pentatonic (most used in a lot of rock) then major and minor scales, then the major pentatonic as scales for a newb to learn, and in that order.
Seven anything is too many for THIS newb to learn at once. One thing at a time, I say.
Best,
Ande
I'm getting quoted, and I didn't really say:
I find teaching individual scales to be pointless, if you don't understand how a scale coordinates in specific key how can you improvise or compose in that key?
Interesting....
Example - Someone is playing C F & G progression, and a guitarist improvises notes from the C major (C Ionian) scale over it. When the chord changes to F, they shift position to the F Lydian mode (FGABCDEF) and play those notes. The notes are exactly the same, of course. Only the scale fingering has changed so that F is the main starting note.
Of course, musically, it's not the Lydian mode at all. It's still C major but ow based on F although the tonal centre hasn't changed - it's still C - so the mode is still major/ Ionian.
I didn't say that, either. Let's all be careful with our coding so we don't misrepresent one another, OK? Yes, BBCode is difficult, but it's no harder than the minor pentatonic scale, eh?
:::sigh...:::
Back on topic: The visual factor is part of it, I'm sure, but there is more. I fear that guitar has become a dumbed-down instrument, for a variety of factors, and I think I will start a new thread in the "Theory" column so we can kick it around without wasting the OP's time.
Meanwhile... I'd recommend major scales, plus a careful study of the whole fretboard, so that eventually you can put a finger anywhere and know what you're playing.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
I learned all the postions, as far up the neck I can go for the keys of A, D & E. Then I mix major & minor scales just to see cordal relationships......whoop-dee-do
