Guitar Lesson Five

Scale Degrees

Each note of the scale has its own degree- it’s own numerical value. In the C scale for instance, C is 1, D is 2, E is 3 and so on. Knowing and understanding the notes in this way is useful for us to start thinking about notes as part of chords. Play all the C scale notes we looked at previously in order and name them by their degree. Start on the open E6 string. Since the E is the third note in the C major sequence, we will refer to that as “3”. F is the next note and so that will be “4”. We can start playing with E at the open E6 string and move across the neck all the way to G at the the 3rd fret of the 1 string

In the video you can hear me refer to the notes by their fret (open, one, , three etc.) by their name (E,F,G etc.) and by their scale degree (5,6,7,1 etc.) It might be helpful to try think of the notes more than one way!

Your challenge: smoothly play all the C scale notes in the first position referring to them by their degree. Play them 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.