Tips for learning scales!

[@chrismaxwell1624]

I've been practicing my scales and your vidoes showed me to not just alternative pick up and and down or down up but have some fun in practicing them. playing them more musically and adding in Hammer ons, pull offs, slides and bend which I also need a lot more practice with. Putting them all together seem a more natural way to practice. The specifically focus on the spots I find struggles with.

[@kokotovicmile]

Hi Kristofer, A few years ago, I was trying to find a way to always know where the chord tones are within the scale I'm playing, and it wasn’t going very well. Then, while looking at a large chessboard on the wall, I found a solution. I removed the sixth note from the scale, and everything fell into place. For example, the A minor scale contains the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G. I started playing this scale without the F note (later I found out that some people call it the "avoid note," and a six-note scale like this is sometimes called the "YU scale"). To cut a long story short, I strictly used alternate picking in the following way: I would start with a downstroke on A, C, or E and play the scale up and down. No matter how many notes I played going up or down, the downstroke was always on a chord tone, and the upstroke was always on the passing notes B, D, or G. This helped me remember where the tonic, third, and fifth are and to visualize arpeggios this way. I’m not sure if this explanation clearly conveys what I wanted to say. English isn’t my first language, but if anyone is interested in this, I wouldn’t mind making a video about it. Cheers!

[@KristoferDahl]

Very cool, haven’t heard about this method before. Thanks a lot for sharing 👊

[@improvizor]

This is actually pretty brilliant.

[@kokotovicmile]

@@KristoferDahl Honestly, I don't tell anyone about this. I talked about it with two or three friends, but they looked at me a little strangely, so I stopped. :)

[@kokotovicmile]

@@improvizor Thanks, I'm very glad if it helps.

[@gregsumrall591]

Cool

[@improvizor]

Come on, man. The most important scale is not the easiest scale that will get you started quickly. The most important scale is the one that will make you understand the instrument and that it will get you the farthest in your guitar journey. And that is absolutely the major scale. I regret not learning the major scale first. I would have progressed a lot faster because I would get to that moment of understanding, that click in the brain a lot sooner.

[@KristoferDahl]

Don’t you learn to understand the instrument if you get started quickly? Most beginners put the guitar down because they can’t get any flow

[@improvizor]

@@KristoferDahl No, you learn how to use it up to a point. Which is very different from understanding it.

[@KristoferDahl]

But the very first step is jot not quit right away 😁👍