Video:Tips for Playing a Scale

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Transcript:Tips for Playing a Scale

Understanding Finger and String Notation

Hi, my name is Amatis and today we will speak about how to play a scale. It's very important to be familiar with the notation of the fingers when playing the guitar. So we have on the left hand the thumb, which goes behind, and first, second, third and fourth finger. One, two, three, four. Now I will show you a chromatic scale drawn here. We have the standard tuning: E, B, G, D, A, E low. We have the high E here and the low E here. The open string is represented by 0. E low, then first fret, finger one; second fret finger two; third fret, third finger; fourth fret, finger four.

Playing Chromatic Scales on Guitar

The chromatic scales goes like this: open E low string, then first fret, finger one, second fret finger two; third fret, third finger; fourth fret, finger four. Now, the next string, the A: A (zero), one, two, three, four. The next string, the fourth string is the D. Zero, one, two, three, four. Now we have an exception: on the third string, the G one, we play only for notes: zero, one, two, three. That's all, not the fourth fret. The B string is zero, one, two, three, four. And the high E is zero, one, two, three, four. It goes like this.

Advice for Playing Guitar Scales

My first piece of advice is to play the scale by putting the finger on top of the fret. So, don't play here because you will get this sound. Move the finger to the top of the fret. If you are using a guitar pick, you should know also that is better to use upstrokes and downstrokes because this is how you get a better speed. After doing the chromatic scales, my advice is also to play it backwards.

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