Using Diagonal Guitar Scale Patterns – The Best Way To Learn Scales On Guitar
Feel Incredibly Easy
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
If you're feeling stuck inside scale 'boxes' as you play guitar…
In this lead guitar article, I show you how to use diagonal scale patterns that massively improve your fretboard visualization, solidify your knowledge of scale patterns…
Without having to practice more or learn advanced music theory.
Best of all…
As you improve your knowledge of guitar scales...
Your ability to play cool lead guitar solos will quickly jump…
And everything about playing guitar will start to feel easier and more fun.
Plus, along the way...
I'll also lay out other fretboard visualization tricks that help you reach your goals much faster than you'd ever believe.
Feel Incredibly Easy
EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
To begin…
Watch this guitar scales video about using diagonal scale patterns in your guitar licks and solos:
Now, let's go deeper.
Here are 5 more fretboard visualization principles that make lead guitar playing way easier and more enjoyable:
Tip #1 For Learning Scales On Guitar: Practice *All* The Shapes Of The Scale You're Practicing.
Mastering fretboard visualization for lead guitar starts with knowing any scale across the entire fretboard.
And this is where many guitarists run into a problem.
Most only learn one or two scale shapes and think they are done.
This severely limits their rock guitar soloing options. (And it makes it much harder to play the diagonal scale patterns and licks that span the entire fretboard.)
Here is a tip for learning a scale all over the fretboard:
Know that there are just as many patterns to learn for the scale as there are notes in the scale.
For example: a pentatonic scale has 5 shapes, because it has 5 notes. (“Penta” means 5.)
Whereas, traditional major and minor scales have 7 shapes, because they consist of 7 notes.
When you know all the shapes of a scale, your lead guitar potential expands dramatically and you'll find it much easier to play the diagonal scale licks I showed you earlier in the article.
Here are a few powerful tips that help you master your scales and improve your fretboard visualization:
- Practice visualizing scale patterns away from the guitar. Place your fretting hand on your forearm and move your fingers as if playing scales, visualizing the frets in your mind.
- Work on scale memorization a little bit each day. It’s better to spend 5 minutes on this task daily than to do it for an hour once per week.
- (When you do have the guitar in your hands and are working on improvising) Challenge yourself to play guitar licks in the scale shapes that are less familiar to you (ignoring the ones you know well) to improve your fretboard visualization further.
- Challenge yourself to not always start soloing in the first position of a scale. (You can begin to solo using any guitar scale shape.) Likewise, you shouldn't always start your lead guitar licks from the 6th string. True fretboard visualization mastery makes it possible to begin your guitar licks from any string and any guitar scale shape.
Tip #2 For Learning Scales On Guitar: Practice Scales Horizontally
Most guitar players practice scales up and down (from the 6th string to the 1st string). But true mastery of fretboard visualization demands more than that.
This is why I coach my guitar students to also play guitar scales horizontally (from the lowest frets to the highest frets).
Create Awesome Rock Guitar LicksLearn how to make any guitar lick you play sound absolutely amazing.
How To Quickly Build Guitar SpeedLearn the secrets to building guitar speed by watching this free video.
How To Fix Sloppy Guitar PlayingUse this muting technique to clean up your guitar playing right away.
The most common way to do this is by playing scales on string pairs.
For example: play frets 1 3 and 5 on the B string, followed by frets 1 3 and 5 on the high E string. These are the first 6 notes of the C major scale.
Now, shift the 6-note guitar scale pattern up by 1 fret. This means you'll be playing frets 3 5 and 6 on the B string and 3 5 and 7 on the high E string. You're still playing the C major scale, but you've shifted up the guitar scale pattern horizontally by 1 fret.
Continue playing the scale (shifting it up horizontally 1 fret at a time) until you run out of frets.
Then practice the pattern until you can play it at a moderate metronome tempo – in time with the click – without forgetting notes or making mistakes.
This means you've made great progress in your fretboard visualization practice and improved at recalling scales on guitar.
After this, do the following:
- Move your horizontal fretboard visualization exercise to other string sets. (For example: strings G and B, D and G, A and D and (low) E and A). This isn't as difficult as it sounds. You'll quickly get the hang of playing guitar scales on different string pairs, because the patterns repeat from one string set to the next. (The only horizontal string set that's not like the others is the strings G and B.)
- Practice all your guitar scales this way, not just the major scale. (Harmonic minor, melodic minor, pentatonic scales, etc.)
This is how you develop true mastery over playing scales on guitar.
Plus, the better you become at visualizing guitar scales horizontally (as well as vertically), the easier it becomes to play the diagonal scale patterns I showed you earlier.
Tip #3 For Learning Scales On Guitar: Practice Scale Sequences
Practicing scales on guitar by playing them up and down gets boring fast. Not to mention, you rarely hear scales played up and down in real music.
Solution?
Spend some time creating scale sequences during your fretboard visualization practice.
When you sequence a guitar scale, you play a melodic pattern of 3-4 notes starting from each note the scale.
Like this, for example:
Play the first four notes of the C major scale starting from the 8th fret of the low E string. (The notes are: C D E F.)
Then, play four more notes from the C major scale, starting from the second note of the scale. (The notes are: D E F G.)
Next, play four more notes from the C major scale, starting from the third note of the scale. (The notes are: E F G A.)
Next, play four more notes from the C major scale, starting from the fourth note of the scale. (The notes are: F G A B.)
Next, play four more notes from the C major scale, starting from the fifth note of the scale. (The notes are: G A B C.)
Continue this process through all the strings of the guitar scale shape you are in.
Then, descend (move down in pitch) through the shape 4 notes at a time.
This is one possible scale sequence you can practice as part of your fretboard visualization training.
Practice this pattern through all (seven) shapes of the major scale… and apply it to all other guitar scales you know.
Guitar scale sequences like this are a great starting point for creatively using scales on guitar to create cool guitar licks. Check out this lead guitar lesson that shows you how:
On top of making guitar scales more musical, scale sequences make it fun to work on the skill of fretboard visualization. This helps you memorize scales faster and play guitar like a pro, without practicing a lot.
Question:" Tom Hess, there are lots of scale sequences to learn. How do I best memorize all of them?"
Answer: You don't have to memorize 'all' possible scale sequences. There isn't a guitar player alive (myself included) who knows 'all' the scale sequences (no matter how fluent they are at playing scales on guitar).
My advice is: learn a handful of them at a time and spend some of your guitar practice time creating your own. (A great guitar teacher can show you how.) Over time, you'll build a great vocabulary of scale sequences to use in your guitar licks and guitar solos.
Tip #4 For Learning Scales On Guitar: Practice Scales On A Single String
Playing scales on guitar using only one string has 2 powerful benefits to your guitar playing:
1. It gives you another way to practice guitar scales horizontally (which helps your fluency with fretboard visualization)
2. It helps you train your 2-hand synchronization (which helps guitar speed), especially if you do your single-string guitar scale practice using scale sequences.
For example, try this:
On the high E string, play the F major scale using these frets: 5 1 3 5 3 1, then move up one note (in the scale) and play frets 6 3 5 6 5 3. Continue moving through the scale one note at a time (playing the notes in a 16th note triplet rhythm of six notes per beat).
Another common (and fun) single-string guitar scale sequence could be this:
On the high E string, play the F major scale using these frets: 5 1 3 5, then move up one note (in the scale) and play frets 6 3 5 6. Continue moving through the scale one note at a time (playing the notes in a 16th note rhythm of four notes per beat).
How does this way of practicing scales on guitar help your 2-hand synchronization?
Answer: playing scales on one string makes it very obvious when your hands are not in sync. When you play guitar scale sequences that span several strings, your hands have a chance to reset their synchronization when you move to a new string.
But when you play on a single string, you don't have that luxury. This forces you to make your 2-hand synchronization tighter and cleaner (which helps the rest of your playing sound better).
Question: "Tom Hess, what are some other ways to improve 2-hand synchronization?"
Answer: Practice all your guitar licks using double picking. This means: play the notes of your guitar scale sequences by picking them two times. Your fretting hand will be moving at the same speed, while your picking hand will play twice as fast.
This (temporarily) makes it harder to keep your hands in sync, but helps you to play better when you go back to picking each note only once.
(Double picking can also help you create cool guitar licks that sound different from what you'd normally play.)
Next, spend some time practicing unplugged. Unplugged guitar practice exposes 2-hand synchronization weaknesses and forces you to fix them.
Also, practice picking with a strong pick attack (accenting the first note of every beat in your guitar scale licks). This forces your hands to be in sync (and makes 2-hand synchronization flaws much louder and easier to hear).
Tip #5 For Learning Scales On Guitar: Combine Scales With Arpeggios
To make guitar scales fully usable in your guitar playing, you need to combine your fretboard visualization knowledge with your other skills.
And as you get better at playing scales on guitar, start integrating them with arpeggios.
This helps you create cool guitar licks that sound great (but are relatively simple to play), while also improving your fretboard visualization – allowing you to create pro-level guitar solos.
Watch this video to see how to practice integration of guitar scales and arpeggios:
Now that you know how to improve your fretboard visualization with guitar scales, the next step is to improve your fretting hand guitar technique, so you can easily play the guitar licks and solos you may have once thought were unplayable for you. I show you how in my free eGuide Master Fretting Hand Finger Independence. Download it today and discover the guitar playing secrets most guitarists will never know.
TO EFFORTLESS FINGER
INDEPENDENCE FOR
YOUR FRETTING HAND
Improve your guitar playing with the best electric guitar internet lessons.
