Guitar Scale Patterns

Do I have to learn every note on the fretboard?

I got a question from a subscriber, asking this:

“Is it necessary to learn every note on the fretboard?”

My answer to that is the classic: It Depends.

Because it does depend… on whether or not you want to play that thing very well!

If you’re content to only ever pick away at the guitar in a haphazard and half-hearted kind of way, then no, you don’t really need to learn all the notes.

In fact, probably just a handful of chords will do.

Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of people out there who can only play a few chords on the guitar and enjoy themselves quite nicely at that level. That’s cool.

But please don’t confuse that with KNOWING how to play WELL.

If you’ve ever wanted to get beyond that most basic of playing levels, then YES, you need to learn somethings about your instrument.

It’s like learning to drive standard, and asking if you need to know what the gear numbers mean.

Anyone who has ever driven standard will quickly agree with me that it makes a BIG difference if you shift into fifth by accident instead of second!

In a vehicle, not knowing the gears and their relation to each other could get you into an accident…

Thankfully, the stakes are lower with the guitar, but the principle is the same.

The notes on the fretboard aren’t mysterious secret agents, wearing black hats and running around changing position on you every time you pickup the guitar.

They’re all in order, and they stay in the same place!

On top of that, they’re arranged in patterns which makes it quick to learn a whole lot of scales in a very short time

… with very little memorization required.

Click Here: Learn Guitar Scale Patterns the Easy Way

If you’ve ever felt intimidated at the prospect of learning the fretboard…

Or perhaps you started once, only to quickly get confused and drop it shortly after…

Then take heart.

The fretboard CAN be learned.

It ISN’T rocket science.

And I’ve explained the whole thing in a nice easy-going two hour video, which you can find here.

Yeah, people say I’m easy going hehe 🙂

Over ‘n’ Out

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Guitar Scale Patterns

Moving Guitar Scales

A question I get asked somewhat often is how do I move guitar scale patterns around on the fretboard?

Well, hopefully this video will answer those questions. If you’re still unclear afterwards, please leave a comment below.

The basic idea is recognizing which note in the scale pattern is your root note, and then to understand how when you shift the entire pattern to a different root note, that whole scale changes into a different key.

Moving Guitar Scales

If you’d like to download the worksheet I used in the video, you can do so here. (Right click on the link, and select save target as)

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Guitar Scale Patterns

Can’t Play A Scale Without Looking?

If you can’t play a scale all the way through without bending awkwardly over your guitar like a chimpanzee peeling a banana….

Don’t sweat it!

It’s okay!

We’ve all been there, at some point. The trick is to get past that point – ideally as quickly as possible!

Part of the issue I find is when the student hasn’t yet connected with the fact that scales can be looked at as PATTERNS.

When you approach the scale as a pattern, after a few times through you no longer need a cheat sheet to tell you where to put your finger next.

A bunch more times after that, your fingers are now starting to get the hang of the pattern, and after a while, you don’t need to be looking at the fretboard anymore either.

If you skip the pattern step though, you’re forever wondering where that next note is going to be…

Hey – nobody said the learning the guitar has to be complicated!

Speaking of…

Checkout my course on Guitar Scale PATTERNS!

It covers the scale patterns in every key, all over the fretboard, and although it comes with cheat sheets, the goal is to have you playing without them.

You’ll never again be at a loss as to where & what to play…

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