How To Play All the Diatonic Scales On The Fretboard

By Rod Ferreira

Thursday, November 17th 2016

Playing scales is something that every guitar player has experienced before and it’s definitely something we should master. Every time I am working with a student I like to review scales and show some tricks to make someone think faster or in a different way about whatever scale they are working on.

Today we are going to get the basics out of the way and learn all five shapes of scales throughout the fretboard.

Lets with a C Major Scale: C D E F G A B C

E--------------------------------
B--------------------------------
G------------------2-4-5---------
D------------2-3-5---------------
A-------3-5----------------------
E--------------------------------

Now when we are playing this scale we are only using three string so we can extend this scale to different strings using the same notes that already belong to the scale:

E------------------------------3-5-
B------------------------3-5-6-----
G------------------2-4-5-----------
D------------2-3-5-----------------
A-----2-3-5------------------------
E-3-5------------------------------

and we can apply the same idea in a different place of the fretboard to find more shapes of the scale still using the same natural notes (no sharps, no flats)

E--------------------------------------------5--7--8---
B-----------------------------------5--6--8------------
G--------------------------4--5--7---------------------
D--------------------5--7------------------------------
A—----------5--7--8------------------------------------
E--5--7--8---------------------------------------------

E---------------------------------------------7--8--10-
B---------------------------------------8--10----------
G------------------------------7--9--10----------------
D---------------------7--9--10-------------------------
A--------—--7--8--10-----------------------------------
E—7--8--10---------------------------------------------

E---------------------------------------------10-12-13---
B------------------------------------10-12-13------------
G---------------------------9-10-12----------------------
D------------------9-10-12-------------------------------
A-------—---10-12----------------------------------------
E-10-12-13-----------------------------------------------

E------------------------------------------------12-13-15
B--------------------------------------12-13-15----------
G-------------------------------12-14--------------------
D---------------------12-14-15---------------------------
A-------—---12-14-15-------------------------------------
E-12-13-15-----------------------------------------------

Observation: if you have learned those scales above as a minor scale please take a look at “Understanding Relative Keys” article to clarify any questions.

Now even thought there is a lot of value practicing those scales up and down until you are comfortable with them, remember that is also important to be creative and try to come up with simple melodies, so you can learn to navigate on the fretboard without the need to play the shape of the scale.

We are going to keep building on this Scales Series! So Stay in tune and as usual if you have any question please feel free to send me a message.

Rod Ferreira has been a guitar teacher for over ten years. Rod specializes in acousitc, electric, blues, and rock guitar. Sign up for a one-on-one lesson today!

Comments

Scott Jenkins

Wed, 05/17/2017 - 7:03pm EDT

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Easy Way to Remember Diatonic Scales Shape

I have been reading about easy to remember shapes for the Major scales, but Rod is the first person to explain it in such simple terms. Thank you for turning on the lightbulb.