So, the essential building blocks of Western music. Doesn’t exactly sound like the easiest topic to be tackling. But the very strength of this topic lies in its reputation, on what it has founded. However, at its heart it’s no more difficult than basic mathematics, which the entirety of music in the West, theoretically or […]

Diligent and intelligent practise is key for learning in all its forms, and nowhere is this more evident than in the study of a musical instrument. The guitar especially lends itself to this ethos of success through repetition which, when harnessed intelligently and consciously, aligns in a seemingly post-human way all of these various aspects […]

Making the way up the ranks as a guitarist, one could be forgiven early on for feeling as though the modes were another language altogether, one that would evade understanding, like audio-linguistic eels. However, like much of Western music theory, they have much more to do with mathematics and formulas (cue the Pythagorean mode!), so […]

Making the way up the ranks as a guitarist, one could be forgiven early on for feeling as though the modes were another language altogether, one that would evade understanding, like audio-linguistic eels. However, like much of Western music theory, they have much more to do with mathematics and formulas (cue the Pythagorean mode!), so […]

Making the way up the ranks as a guitarist, one could be forgiven early on for feeling as though the modes were another language altogether, one that would evade understanding, like audio-linguistic eels. However, like much of Western music theory, they have much more to do with mathematics and formulas (cue the Pythagorean mode!), so […]

Western music begins with the major scale, establishing its central tenets of chromatic, diatonic harmony, as well as of equal temperament between notes. Even the minor and minor pentatonic scales contain the same notes as their relative major scales, though we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. At the centre of all of this, […]

In an earlier lesson we looked at how to play the major scale on guitar. In this lesson let?s take a look at the C major scale in multiple positions along the fretboard. Why Learn this Scale in other positions? Learning this scale all over the guitar will open up a lot more options for […]

Ever wanted to learn to play the blues? One of the fundamentals of learning the blues is learning the blues scale. So in this lesson I will show you how to play the blues scale for guitar. There are some different variations on the blues scale but for the sake of this lesson we will […]

Last week we looked at the minor pentatonic, this week I will show you how to play the major pentatonic scale on guitar. Recap on Pentatonics Remember that a pentatonic scale is simply any scale with 5 notes within the octave. The major pentatonic is no different. Like the minor pentatonic, the major pentatonic is […]

Learning how to play the minor pentatonic scale on guitar was one of the best things I ever did on guitar. It was the biggest breakthrough for me in terms of being able to improvise. The beauty of this scale is that it fits over so much. It works best with the blues but can […]

In previous lessons we have looked at the natural and harmonic minor scales. In this lesson we finish off the trio by showing you how to play the melodic minor scale on guitar. The 3 Minor Scales As we learnt in the previous lessons, there are 3 different minor scales. The Natural Minor Scale The […]

In the last lesson we looked at the natural minor scale and today, as promised, we will look at how to play the harmonic minor scale on guitar. The 3 Types of Minor Scale As we learned in the natural minor scale lesson, there are 3 types of minor scales: Natural Minor Scale Harmonic Minor […]

This page is dedicated to teaching you how to play the minor scale on guitar. When we are talking about minor scales it is important to distinguish which minor scale we are talking about. This is because there are 3 different minor scales. Natural Minor Scale Harmonic Minor Scale Melodic Minor Scale This might seem […]

Learning scales may sound boring ? and it can be a bit tedious at times ? but it?s also really beneficial to your playing. This post will show you how to play the major scale on guitar. In future posts I will cover the various minor scales and other scales such as the pentatonic scale. […]