As I said before, I just started playing guitar and I practice three different scales.
Blues scale and the other two are penatonic scales.

Is there some rule of thumb in terms of how many scales you should practice? Do you need to know a certain amount? Or does it depend on the style of music you are playing?


The three that I am practicing......Is that sufficiant for a beginner?

How many scales do you practice and which scales give you better results?

Right now I'm doing my best to learn the modes up and down the neck, I have a great teacher but it's still a bit confusing. Other than that major and minor pentatonics.

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--- John

Five pentatonic positions with blue note. All the modes. Some diatonic chord scales. I have yet to dive into harmonic minor or variations on the modes (Dorian b5, b2 ect.). I keep putting it off. Got plenty to work on.

I would recommend practicing the 5 pentatonic patterns with the blue note (b5) in all 5 patterns. Also, learn how to play them as major scale patterns. It's the same patterns just move over a few frets. Once you have this down you will know 5 notes of 5 modal patterns then just fill in the other 2 notes (7 total) and you will know 5 modal patterns.

Minor pentatonic comes from: Aeolean=pattern one, Ionian=pattern two, Dorian=pattern three, Phrygain=pattern four, Mixolydian= pattern five.

You are just playing the 1,b3,4,5,b7 of the full modes pattern. (5 of the 7 notes)

It can become confusing using numbers to identify the pentatonic patterns because the pattern number changes according to major or minor.
Pattern 1 minor is pattern 5 in major. I don't like that. So I refer to the pentatonic pattern based on what modal pattern it comes from. For example Aeolean pentatonic is always Aeolean pentatonic (pattern 1 minor pentatonic).

Please note that I am calling them patterns and not modes, those are different things.

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I feel really comfortable with pentatonic now, so I don't really practice them anymore. I used to though. Right now I'm getting fairly comfortable with modes, but I still practice them and improvise using them over some chord progessions I recorded. I'm working on melodic and harmonic minor now. Interesting stuff. I've always enjoyed practicing scales as weird as that may be. It's kind of relaxing, like changing strings. Lol

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well, yeah, i have to practice scales for VCE class. but my rule when writting music, do whatever the $@!& i want, it doesn't really matter if its in a scale or out of a scale, just as long as it fits the feeling of the song

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former user radio_friendly_unit_shifter

Thanks for everyone who responded.

Deluxe Matt

Thanks for your input and for the break down of the Minor Penatonic lingo. Sounds like Greek or Latin . . . ie . . . Aeolean, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygain, Myxolydian.

As you stated . . . work with 5 Penetonic patterns with the blue note (b5) You are right it is a bit confusing . . . at least for me. I am rather slow at this. So when I see new lingo or jargon it takes a while for me to process new information. Chances are, I will be asking more questions in the future.

Thanks for your time!

When you are practicing scales it's very important to know how the scale you're playing relates to the chord (or bass note) you're playing it over. This is the way you will really develop your ears and really be able to "hear" what you're playing.

For example, if you're working on Phyrgian, typically you'd play this scale over some kind of minor chord, it's important to get a feel for the notes that give this scale it's distinct sound and makes it different from the other minors. Those would be the b2 and the b6. Find where those notes are on the fretboard and experiment with using those notes in a musical situation.

It's important to really hear how the notes relate when you practice, otherwise you're just running your fingers and not really using your ears. If you have more questions about this way of practicing, I'd be happy to elaborate further and give more examples.

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David Irelan, Community Leader, http://www.sharemyguitar.com