Here is another Friday 10-second tip for you to enjoy. It’s all about…
Making your scales more practical
There are a lot of people who like to teach scales for the sake of it.
It’s often because they themselves have learnt loads of scales and they think you should too.
That can be annoying because there may be other, more important things you might need to learn right now.
Either way though, when it comes to scales, here are two ways I like to get students to practise them:
1 – Learn the notes on the fretboard as you learn the scale. I find it really surprising how many people learn scales, and on separate occasions, they try to learn the notes on the fretboard.
Why not learn the notes from the scale on the fretboard at the same time as you learn the scale?
It makes sense to do so, but that’s a simple yet overlooked tip.
2 – Break the scale up into smaller chunks. Most scales are 8 notes long (but can be 16 notes if you learn two octaves of the scale).
From a technical point of view, there are a lot of movements needed when playing scales and a lot of potential bad habits to get into.
To avoid this, I like to get students to learn scales in chunks of 2, 3, or 4 notes, play them precisely with a smooth and relaxed technique, and then learn the rest of the scale.
Breaking scales up into chunks while focusing on good technique can help you avoid bad habits.
Anyway, I hope you found those two quick power tips useful.
They’re simple, but I’ve found most people don’t really consider things such as the above.
For many more practical tips to help your playing, don’t forget you can check this out:
Improve your guitar playing with the 7-Day Guitar Transformation Course
Enjoy your Friday!
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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