Guitar Lesson Four

Guitar Lesson Four: All the C Major scale notes in the first position.

C scale can be played in the first position (first three frets and open strings) as we played in lesson 2 but we can find a lot more C scale notes than those few in the first position.

For instance the E6 string is a C scale note, so we can start playing that scale right from the ope E6! The next note would be the F (first fret) and the G (third fret). Then we can go directly to the open A string because A is the next note in our sequence (following G). You’ll actually be playing part of the octave below the C on the 3rd fret of the 5 string and part of the octave above the C on the first fret of the B string!

Notes that are a whole step apart are 2 frets apart and notes that are a half step apart are on frets right next to one another on the same string of course but we can play a scale on more than one string because the notes overlap!

Major scales follow the pattern “whole step, whole step, half step,
whole step, whole step, whole step, half step”.

Your challenge: smoothly play all the C scale notes in the first position so that each of the notes you play is the same length as every other note and they move smoothly up and down the scale. Start with the E6 open string and end on the 3rd fret of the E1 string. Another scale to try is G: play this from the 6th string to the 1st string, starting on the 3rd fret of the 6th string. the notes are: G, A, B, C, D, E, F# and G. You will be able to play two complete octaves.