What are scales and how do you use them?

Right then, a scale is essential a pattern of notes that gives off a certain sound when the notes in it are played over certain chords or a certain root note. Don’t worry if you are not familiar with these terms as I will explain everything as clearly as possible.

A root note is the note that a scale starts and ends on. For example, if you were to use a regular minor blues scale (again don’t worry, I'll show you later), and the scale starts on a C note, then the next time a C note appears in the pattern, the scale will repeat itself. Because it repeats every time it hits a C note and keeps its sound, the C note is said to be the ‘root’ of the scale, like the roots of a tree. It’s that simple.

Hang on a minute. If the scale repeats itself then every note is repeated, so how do I know which is the root note?

You look carefully at the shape of the scale, and listen to see if there is one note that the scale seems to want to come back to (I’ll explain this well just below this).

You see, no matter which scale is being used, the root note will always be the note the ‘fits’ the best. More often than not it’s the note that the song keeps coming back to. For example, the root note of the scale used in the song ‘paranoid’ is an E note, and you can hear that E note constantly being played throughout the song. A lot of songs use more than one scale though, so you will have to listen out for any changes. I already have lessons up about scales as well as quite a few other teachers on this site, the user dc.oneil being one of them, so I’m not including many in this lesson to keep it brief and easy to understand.

How do I know what scale to use in a song?

Every song uses a scale of some description when the chords are being laid out. Look at the root note of the chords (which is the lowest note in the chord, just like a scale it’s the root note that decides the key of the chord). Let’s say that you want to play a solo over something like this:

    E minor            G major             A major            D major

E||-0----------------|-3----------------||------------------|-2-----------------|
B||-0----------------|-0----------------||-2----------------|-3-----------------|
G||-0----------------|-0----------------||-2----------------|-2-----------------|
D||-2----------------|-0----------------||-2----------------|-0-----------------|
A||-2----------------|-2----------------||-0----------------|-------------------|
E||-0----------------|-3----------------||------------------|-------------------|

Here are the root notes to the Chords

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|--------0----------|
A||------------------|------------------||-0----------------|-5-(or)------------|
E||-0----------------|-3----------------||------------------|-------------------|

Now if you can find what scale(s) could have been used to get these chords, then you can use that scale/those scales to solo over these chords. Here’s the minor blues scale in E that I mentioned earlier. I have highlighted the root note E whenever it appears.

Minor Pentatonic Blues scale in E

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-----------10---12-|
B||------------------|------------------||--------------10--|-11---12-----------|
G||------------------|----------7----9--||-9--11---12-------|-------------------|
D||---------------7--|-8----9-----------||------------------|-------------------|
A||-7---9----10------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Now this probably won’t mean a lot to you at first, but watch what happens if I write out the scale one octave lower:

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|-----------0----2-||------------------|-------------------|
A||----------------0-|-1----2-----------||------------------|-------------------|
E||-0----2----3------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Look at the notes that I’ve highlighted in green. They are the root notes of the chords I showed you before. That means that this scale could be used to solo over those chords. That’s all there is to it.

You will also hear a lot of people going on about 3^rd’s and 5^th‘s and so on in guitar lessons. What they are talking about is simply the 3^rd and 5^th notes in a scale. These notes can be different depending on which scale they are using, but the same method for finding them applies, just use the scale they are using and count up to the note.

I will be putting up more lessons on how to get your soloing technique up to the next level sometime soon, but other than that I think that’s it for this lesson. The only other thing you can do to improve your scale application would be to learn by example, and watch how other guitar players have used scales as well.

I hope that this lesson has helped some of you out there; peace and harmony to all of you and I’ll see you next time!