There are literally hundreds of scales you can learn on guitar. But where do you start? What’s the best scale to start with? Major scale? Minor Scale? Dorian? Phrygian? Harmonic Minor? Blues scale?
I’d like to make a suggestion and say you should learn the minor pentatonic scale… Why?
THE Minor Pentatonic is one of the most popular scales for all styles of music when improvising and playing solos. Some of your favourite solos may even just use this scale the whole way through. The Scale has 5 notes in it and is the perfect scale to give you a great foundation to learn others.
FIRST LEARN EACH SHAPE
Exercise 1 - G minor pentatonic scale (E Shape)
Exercise 2 - G minor pentatonic scale (D Shape)
Exercise 3 - G minor pentatonic scale (C Shape)
Exercise 4 - G minor pentatonic scale (A Shape)
Exercise 5 - G minor pentatonic scale (G Shape)
THEN PRACTICE EACH SHAPE STARTING FROM THE ROOT NOTE
Exercise 6 - G minor pentatonic scale (E Shape) - from the root
Exercise 7 - G minor pentatonic scale (D Shape) - from the root
Exercise 8 - G minor pentatonic scale (C Shape) - from the root
Exercise 9 - G minor pentatonic scale (A Shape) - from the root
Exercise 10 - G minor pentatonic scale (G Shape) - from the root
ONCE YOU HAVE THESE DOWN, EXPERIMENT WITH MOVING THEM AROUND TO DIFFERENT KEYS AND IMPROVISE OVER SOME BACKING TRACKS.
We are in the key of G minor, so first start there! Here is a backing track for you play over. Get each position memorised in your head.
