Ah, scales.
I don’t talk about them that much in these posts.
Yet they are the building blocks and the backbone of most music…
Practising scales over and over can bore people to tears, especially if you don’t make real music with them.
The thing is though, if you learn a scale and how to use it all over the fretboard, it can be extremely liberating and fun.
Not only are they great for rock guitar solos, blues leads, and country playing, but they are super useful for fingerpicking melodies, improvising “licks” and just noodling around and getting lost in the music.
In fact, one of my favourite things to do, and one which will help you to run up and down the fretboard, is this…
- Pluck an open low E string as a drone note
- Play scale notes up and down the high E string to create simple melodies
- …And pluck the occasional G or B string to fill out the sound
If you know any scales, give this a go.
This process can give you hours of fun.
…Especially when you combine it with some of the ideas I teach in one of the new Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy lessons for February.
In case you don’t know, each month 3 lessons are released. One of these is on this exact style of playing a scale.
It’s called the “Big Cycle” and in the lesson, you’ll learn how to play a simple scale, but in a way where you can run up and down the fretboard.
Best of all, it uses just two simple “shapes” to learn.
You might wonder why it’s called the “Big Cycle”.
The simple reason is that once you learn this shape, I show you how to play it on an endless loop going up and down the fretboard, which eventually you will be able to do with ease.
This lesson takes focus, of course, but after a while, it becomes a joy and being able to play it as a loop is fun.
To get this lesson, simply go to the page below and check out the Dan Thorpe Acoustic Academy (DTAA for short). If it sounds good, join and you’ll get this lesson in your inbox on the 1st of February.
>> How to run up and down the fretboard
Enjoy your Thursday…
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. If you join, you will also get two of my most important books delivered to you for free, just for joining. I should say though, after the 1st of February, this offer will no longer be available.
P.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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