Why Major Scales Play Nice With Major Chords.

Keys

How are keys made?  How do we know that in the key of C there is a C chord an F chord and a G chord?  If you are like me, a friend or family member just told you that is how it is, and you and I took that knowledge for granted; we did not question it, not for one a moment, because it is true. 

Now I'm a why guy, someone who asks, "why?" a lot! This why-ness runs very deep, so deep that I am like a little boy tugging at his mommy's pant leg saying, "why" to every answer she gives.  I continue until her answers are abbreviated to "because," and I reply with an tug,  "but,why?"

"Because,"

"Why?"

and finally with all her patience wearing thin, she snaps, "BECAUSE!"

Ok, the long and short of it is that I asked why keys work the way they do, not at first, but later on.  I will go out on a limb here and say that most of the questions get answered through formulas, and this one is no different. 

When building a Key all you do is start to with the note of the key you want to play in, like C for instance.  Then recite the C scale; CDEFGABC.  Knowing the scale, we add the formula 145, (not to be confused with the major chord building formula 135) and we get CFG.  That is it.   If you want to build the Key of A you just say the A scale, pick out the 145 notes and you have ADE. 

The question you should be asking right now is why are F and G chords in the Key of C when you know that F has a B flat, and G has an F sharp in their scales.  Here's why:

As you can see, the F and G chords do not have any sharps or flats in them.  Their scales do, but the chords do not. You can easily pick up their notes with the C scale, because the C scale has no sharps or flats.

The two formulas do more for you then build chords and keys, they show position.  For example; In the key of C, the F note is 4 notes away from the C note, and the G note is 5 notes away from C, or 1 note away from F.  If you think about it in steps, which I think all things guitar should be converted into steps, F is 2 whole, plus 1 half away from C, and G is 2 whole, plus 1 half, plus 1 whole, or just 1 whole step up from F.

Sounds confusing I know, but it's not because in the end, when you have your guitar in hand, you will see the steps and not just read about them.  I picture the steps as 2 +.5 = F, 2 + .5 + 1= G.  When playing you cannot get bogged down with words, so try to see the steps in numbers.

Knowing that the formulas help with finger position, let me break down what notes to play and when to play them. Going back to chord building, the C chord is comprised of CEG.  Finding the notes on the C scale is easy, because you can play the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes--it looks like this:

This works just as long as your accompaniment stays on C chords, but what if they change to an F?  Bring the key formula 145 back to mind, all you do is pick up the 4th note in the scale (because the 4th is F) and repeat the 135 formula. It looks like this:

What happens if they switch to G?  Again, the key formula shows you where to play.  G is the 5th note in the scale, so quickly move up to the 5th position and play your 135.   It looks like this:

I know I cheated and grabbed the D in the next octave, instead of the D note sitting above the G note nestled on the A string on the 5th fret. I did this because that is how I play it most of the time.  At this point, there are two things you should notice:  one is how the formulas work to give you finger position, the other is the similar pattern all three share .  The 3rd note of the scale is a half step down on the string above (backwards sounding I know, but your 1st string is the high E)  and the 5th note is .5+1 steps away from the 3rd note.  If you play the 1st note with your middle finger and the 3rd with your index and then make the long stretch over with your pinkie to reach the 5th, you can practice this idea easily.  Here they are all together:

I suggest doing this: C,135;  F,135;  G,135 and repeat in different ways. you can get a good slide up and down the neck between the F and G notes.   Do not stay in order, you need to hop about because that is what songs do.  When you feel comfortable remove your hands and practice playing them without the memorized positions. 

On a side note:  I would put a guitar player up against anyone in the game of memory.  You know, the one that starts with all of the poker cards face down and the goal is to get as many matches as you can by remembering where the card you need is located after seeing it turned over for a moment.  Guitarists are just prone to memorize position, it stems from their reliance on chords.  I would go further and say that they can even remember each technical position done in the songs they play without the use of scales, it is just something that they focus on. But when the chords are removed, steps and scales must take their place or all the notes get lost in the shuffle.   

Moving Away From Chords

What may seem like backwards thinking is sometimes forward motion.  One of the biggest concerns you probably have when learning to play the guitar is: Where do my fingers go? 
Though finger placement is the most important thing to acheive, in order to attain it we need to set it as the longterm goal, and focus on the notes and the steps that link them together.   If we just look at finger placement, we will be able to play songs we like, and even come close to the original sounds, but we will not be able to take what we have learned and play outside of the songs we have memorized. 


When you buy a book at the store to help you learn guitar, you get pages of prebuilt chords.  This is great for learning to play fast, but it also makes your mind see the rest of the neck as blank.  If we progress past the first 3 frets and move on to bar-chords, or power chords, we then grow aware of the other sounds further up the neck, but we only gain bits and pieces of knowledge.  I think this is because we have learned chords first, so naturally we expect chords to answer our questions.  I suggest we diminish our reliance on chords and see the scale as being the dominate factor in music, because it is whether we admit it or not.

On the typical neck shown in books you would see the chord as the start, but as you can see, although I start at the chord, I have placed the chord in the distance and made the scale the dominate area, because the scale builds the chords.  This I am calling the inverted neck, just because I have taken the normal and turned it around.


As I have mentioned before there is a disconnect between chords and scales, but there is also a disconnect between singing and riffing (playing lead guitar).  How many notes do you sing at a time?  Hopefully you have landed on the answer of one, if not you have two heads, have two voice boxes or you are just that good!  Playing lead and singing are closely linked especially if we look at skatt in Jazz.  For example: Skiddli, Skattli Diddli, Doo; could be seen as A, B, D, E on a scale.  If you have a good ear for music you do some stuff automatically.  When you strum a C chord your mind tells you that you can sing a C an E or a G note and still sound in key but when it comes to playing riffs it becomes a little more difficult.  Why? Let me crunch the numbers.


The moment you take your fingers off the neck, the chances of finding the right notes at the right time haphazardly is almost impossible.  Just by using the first 13 frets you get 13 notes on each string, multiply that by 6, because that is how many strings there are, you get 78 notes.  If you own a cutaway and you can reach up to the 15th fret you get a total of 90 notes.  I say good luck. Without scales it is like shooting in the dark.  Granted some notes are duplicates just an octave above or below, but still there is nothing like fumbling for a spot to play on the neck when you need to have a definite location.


I can remember a time before I saw the need for scales when I removed my hands off of the C chord and attempted to play something cool while my friend continued to play the chords of the song.  I felt like the neck suddenly grew a couple extra feet and that my fingers were forced to brave the note minefield, praying that I would find a good sound and not explode with an out of key BOMB!  I do not remember how I did, I think I blocked it out of my mind, so I am assuming it wasn't the best. 

Finding the 135 in Scales

The scales show us where to play, but not how to play with our accompaniment; in this part we will look at what to play and when to play it.  Last time I talked about chord building with the 135 formula and that will be our base for this lesson.  This formula allows you to build the major chords on the guitar. 


Let us look at the C scale:  CDEFGABC.  The 135 in this is CEG your goal when riffing around with the C chord is to play those notes the most and for the longest times.  To do this you first need to split the notes in the scale into three groups: Root note, Harmonizing notes, Traversal notes.  The root is the note that gives the chord definition, in this case it is the C note.  The Harmonizing notes are E and G they make the chord sound full but do not alter the tone.  Like if you sing harmony with someone, one person sings the lead or melody and the other can choose to sing a 3rd above or a 5th above.  If you can find a 3rd person then you could cover all of the parts, luckily on the guitar these 3 notes are just a finger's stretch away.  


The final group are the most cool; in my opinion, they make you look good.  A quick travel up the neck to G can tell an audience you are in control of your instrument--this effect works because the notes not being played in the C chord DFAB still exist, their sounds are still relevant.  Do not stay on them for very long, however, just use them to help you get to where you are going.

Counting the Steps



The best way to learn this is to slow everything down and break down my first step formula

(2+1, 3+1) into manageable bits like this.  Using the C scale:

C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C

                                                       2+1             3+1  

                                                 (1+1) (.5+1) (1+1+.5)         

Here is what it is: Start at C move up two whole steps and stop you are at E, but you have used D to get there.  Then go .5(1/2 step) plus a whole step and stop you are at G.  Moving on with whole step, whole step, half step you have reached the octave.  You want to think about it as 2 stop, 1/2+1 stop, 2+1/2 Stop. In essence you are doing a 1351 (CEGC) on the scale. So when someone is playing a C chord you can count your new steps to find the notes to stop on and use the others to show off with. I admit with this concept you would be changing scales each time someone played a new chord, and that is not practical, but this is only the start.  Now go on and make those strings sing!   

On a side note: the power chord or rock chord uses a 151 formula making it CGC, if you put your fingers in that position, they are in perfect form for making the 1351 easy, just let off of the fifth with your ring finger and pick up the 3rd with your index finger.   

 

Playing With Major Chords

For reasons I do not fully understand, many guitarists, myself included at first, have created a disconnect between chords and scales.  My theory is that most of us learned guitar through chord memorization and not chord building. I mean, who wants to do that when the goal is to play the guitar.  Getting bogged down with a bunch of knowledge about the guitar is crazy at first, that is why I say wait until you have a good year under your belt before looking at scales.  Play the guitar and have fun then add the other stuff, learn the chords, and explore the guitar.  In the words of one of the greatest songwriters of all time in the song Into the Great Wide Open Tom Petty put it best, "She had a guitar and she taught him some chords, the sky was the limit."  I know that some of this stuff stifles the fun very quickly, but hang in there--it gets better, the sky is truly the limit when we learn the answers to the ultimate question:  Where do my fingers go on the neck?

Chords do not make scales, scales make chords.  Simple right?  (Just nod and agree for the moment.)  In a book that my mom gave me, there is a chart printed on the back inside cover called The Magic Chord Accompaniment Guide.  It may not be magic, but it is awesome! The book is called Alfred's Basic Guitar Method, by Alfred d'Auberge and Morton Manus.

At first I thought the magic was what was revealed on the chart, things like in the key of C you have C, F, G as the major chords, then D minor and A minor and G7 and so on, it was eye opening.  Two years into my guitar playing, I knew only about the major chords and sevenths but not about minors.  Today I owe a lot to that chart for showing me E minor, which by the way, is my favorite chord, and I do not mean that it is one of my favorite chords, it is hands down my favorite.

What the chart does not show is how the writer put all of that information together.  Today I realize that the true magic is what is done in forming the chart, but sadly after learning this, guitar playing becomes less magical and more mathematical.  This should not be unbelievable or even catch you by surprise, because music is based in scales, and scales equal notes, and notes equal beats, and beats equal time, and time equals numbers and numbers have time signatures.  For example like this; one and two and one and two and . . . equals 2/4 time. 

Now back to the part where you nodded along, or nodded off; scales make chords.  All you need is the scale then add a formula and voila, you can build the chords you painstakingly memorized.   Take the C scale for example, CDEFGABC and the Formula 135 and you will get this:

That is it.  You have successfully built a chord.  The thing to remember is to use the scale of the chord you wish to build, for A use A scale, for B use B scale and so on.  This is only how you build major chords though, the others have their own formulas.  The notes can be arranged in any order and in any way on the neck, and repeated as well.  Next take your notes C E G and put them on the guitar in an easy to use way, the most popular is this one:

When I teach I ask my students how many notes they are playing, most count their fingers and say three and in this case they are right.  Notice that all six strings can be played because in this form CEG low E and high E are played open, along with G. 

For me I found that not having the knowledge of how this chord exists was clouding my ability to see that this chord can be played anywhere on the neck where the notes are found.  I first noticed this phenomenon when I was playing a song with my Grandpa.  When he played C, he pressed the Low E on the 3rd fret and made it G, turning the C chord into a four-fingered chord; needless to say, I was confused.  This happened many years ago, before I knew of the formula, so I wondered who was playing it right. I ran through many ideas and landed on a generational gap theory: older guitar players played C like Grandpa, and the young played like me, until one day I say another guy who played a C in a way I did not know.  Later I asked him what the chord was and he said that it was C2.  Then I had it figured out, or at least I thought I did.  Grandpa's way was C1, this guy's was C2 and mine was C3.  Not!  Later I noticed my way was used more often, so naturally I changed the order to mine being number one and Grandpa's being number three.

Here are the other two forms:

Who was right?  Everyone, but my theory of 1,2,3 was way off and the guy who classified his chord as a C2 was wrong in his classification of his form of C and this is why. 

The 135 formula helps us build chords is in the same octave. On any scale the notes 1-7 are in the same octave and the 8th is the end of the scale, but the start of the next scale in the octave above. Making the formula for his C2 written 135+9, that is all 8 notes of the scale plus 1 in the next octave, equaling 9. A true C2 would omit the E on the D string and play D open making a formula 1235.  As you can see there would have been no way for me to make sense of the C situation without the help of chord building, because I didn't have the formula to reclassify the guy's C2 as C+9.

Grandpa played the notes GCEGCE, mine was ECEGCE, and the other guy's was ECEGDE.  Notice that Grandpa's way has a more even spread then mine; 2G's, 2C's, 2E's.  Mine 3E's, 2C's, 1G. What might be a good and long debate over coffee sometime is answering which form is the best way of playing C.  I will tell you what I think, though I never play it in this way.  I choose the four fingered C as the best way.  Like I said before it gives a very even spread of the notes, but for all intents and purposes, my three-fingered C style is effective.  In the end, it may just be up to personal preference.  

So what came first the Scale or the Chord? After you build your first major chord using the 135 formula you will have your answer, and go on and add a 2 or a 9 if you want to.  

Playing With Major Scales

Since no one usually asks us to recite the C scale, let me show you how it is typically played; though for the record, I think it best if we try and recite it more often. 

 Before you play it, try and count the steps.  This gets a little tricky when we travel across three strings.  As I showed in the last lesson, if the scale is played on one string the pattern 2+1, 3+1 is easily recognized but not in this form.  That is why you have to memorize the notes in the scale and their steps.

If someone is playing in the key of C, this is the scale to use to kick out a lead riff.  Now, I admit that it won't make you sound like a master of licks, but let's face it you are building up to that level.  (A helpful hint is that you do not have to play this scale in order, you just have to make sure your notes are being complemented by the chords played by your accompaniment).  For some of us, our fingers and minds have already learned this C scale as a pattern and can travel through it very quickly, but try and slow down and let your mind take control of your playing again. 

To make it easy, find C with your index finger then move to D with your ring finger, then play E with your index finger and STOP! 

Think to yourself, the scale is C D E F G A B C then add the steps 2+1, 3+1.  Calculating that you have already played the whole steps in the first part of the scale, that leaves you with only one choice; playing the fret next to the E--no guessing involved!

Now let me show you the G scale in the same position.  Let me call this G scale, C position.

Like I said before, you do not have to play the scale in order for it to be a G Scale, you just need to pick up the sharp in the scale you intend on playing, in this case the F#.

Just in case there are any skeptics out there, the G scale played in the form above picks up the F# on the D string, just like I do by altering the steps in the C scale position.  In other words, this G Scale is typically played because it keeps the steps 2+1, 3+1; but mine is 3+1, 2+1.


Now here are the rest of the scales in the C position. Though I am grown now, I feel like at any moment my mom is going to walk in, place her hands on her hips, and ask disgustedly, "young man, are you altering scales again?"  Maybe I shouldn't be, but it is so . . . much . . . fun! 

*Here is a playing tip: do not get bogged down with your finger position, or start to memorize the finger placement, instead focus on counting the steps. *


Now let us take our new found knowledge out for a walk.  Here is the C crossing four strings. Notice that the A and D string notes are played on the same frets, and that those frets match up with the frets having inlays on your guitar.  Someone once told me that those dots, squares, skulls, or whatever is inlayed on the neck of a guitar were not useful; well, what do they know!

Here is the G scale, remember just pick up the F# in the C scale.

If you want to you can do this to the rest of the scales. I have found these two work out best, but the D and F scales are also noteworthy of doing this too.

3D Scale

If you think about the scales as a Rubix Cube, but instead of a cube you would have an octagon giving a side for all of the eight notes on the major scales to lay on, then you would have what I call the 3D Octagonal Scale.

Each octagon is movable, meaning each rotates freely from the other. Here you can see them all lined up, you would only need to count the steps to see which notes were sharped or flatted in each scale, but for now let us focus on the C scale.  If you were able to buy this at the store you would probably get it all lined up like this, but if you have kids, and I do, they would be able to muddle up the order for you very quickly.  I say hand it to them and let them change the order.

Here is what happens.  The notes stay the same but the order gets changed. The picture on the left is the C scale in order, and the one on the right is the C scale mixed up.  Learn the scales in order, but take that 3D Octagonal Scale and give each section a good spin and create many different ways to traverse the notes.


Their is no Guitar Idol show out there yet, that I know of, but if there was I can guess what the judges would say to someone who learned the scales and continued playing them in the same order, "It just sounded scalely."  That is something we should all strive to overcome. We do not want to ascend and descend, then ascend only to descend the scale again. (Now on a playing note, don't refuse all of the order, because EFG, BCD, and ABC just sound good as quick transitions to your root note).

Major Scales and Steps

Most people, when hearing the word scales, get a little sleepy eyed.  I understand the feeling; for a long time, I thought them boring as well, but now I find them important to my playing.

When you think about scales, you probably worry where your fingers will go on each string.  Maybe you have played a few, maybe not, but playing them is only a piece of a large puzzle.  

Whether you know it or not, scales form the base of all we do in music. They help us determine Keys, Patterns, Chords, and so much more.  This lesson on scales is not done on the guitar first, it is more of a brain strain, but like I said before, mind over guitar is the way to success. 

Let us start with the C major Scale.  If you know it already then great, if not here it is:

                         C    D    E    F    G   A   B   C

                         1     2     3    4    5    6    7    8

At some point you will want to memorize it forward and backward.  This should be easy if you know the alphabet, and I bet you do!  Next we need to add how many steps are between each note/letter.

Steps are counted by adding the amount of frets traveled to reach the next note.  Each fret is a 1/2 step, so two frets, naturally equal 1 whole step.   Let's look at the C major scale on the B string so we can see the steps easier. 

Here are the answers:  C and D are two frets apart so we count the distance as 1 whole step. The same goes for D and E, but from E to F there is only one fret so they are a 1/2 step apart.  Now for the rest:  Whole step (F to G), Whole Step (G to A), Whole step (A to B), Half step (B to C).  Do not at this point grab your guitar and see how it sounds because that does not matter, instead focus only on the steps.  (On a side note, if you are still itching to play it, when playing leads, we do not use the base scale forms--they are the system to create the lead patterns that take riffs and licks into the useful dimension.  But learning the patterns before the scales creates holes in our learning and makes us keep asking, Where do my fingers go?)


*For me I split the scale at the F, making it 2 whole steps, 1 half step - 3 whole steps, 1 half step, but while playing I think of it as 2+1, 3+1.*


Now we need to build our note vocabulary.  Let me refer back to the C major scale; C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C.  As we saw earlier with steps, there are many frets that would not get played, rather just skipped over.  From C to D is 1 whole step (2 frets), but what is the note 1 fret away from C (1/2 step).  This note is called a Sharp and would be notated as C#.


Sharps are the notes found when moving up the scale half a step (for us guitarists that means up1 fret) , but  what happens if we sharp C#? It simply turns into D.  I think of this in terms of measurements:  1/8 inch is equal to 2/16 and 2/8 is equal to a 1/4, both 2/16 and 2/8 would be correct mathematically, but not properly used.  The same goes here, C# sharped is never said, but it is mathematically correct.


Flats are the notes found when moved down the scale half a step, so D moved down 1 fret is D flat, notated like this Db. The tricky part is that Db is the same as C#, and is used both ways.  Here is a chart to help you visualize it.  Notice that F and C do not have flats, and B and E do not have sharps. 

Your goal in this lesson is to fill in the chart below by remembering the steps between each note on the C scale.  The other major scales use the same pattern: 2 whole 1 half, 3 whole 1 half.  Look at the note line above and follow the steps in this E major scale as an example; E F# G# A B C# D# E.   First use the line, but try to fill the chart in later by memory.  And, by the way, on the chart the scales line up vertical and across--that is how you will know you did it right.

Here are the answers:

C   D   E    F    G   A  B    C

D   E    F#  G   A   B  C#  D

E   F#  G#  A   B   C# D#  E

F   G    A   Bb  C   D   E    F

G   A    B   C   D    E   F#  G

A   B    C#  D   E   F# G# A

B   C#  D#  E   F# G# A# B

C   D    E    F    G   A   B   C





PS.  Congratulations, you just learned the major scales.

Mind Over Guitar . . .

One of the greatest things about the guitar is that, if you put in the time, you can play the guitar, and play it well, without ever knowing that scales exist.  A minimal amount of knowledge of music, as it pertains to this instrument, allows you to mimic songs, riffs, and licks you like through memorization.  A good memory will build a wide repertoire of chords and songs, and, with a little experimentation thrown into the mix, you find yourself inventing "new" ways of playing the songs you have memorized.  You may or may not be able to dazzle an audience, but you will be able to answer "yes" to the question: Do you play?

I know this type of playing all too well, and through the years, I have learned that you get out of  the guitar what you put in, and I'm not just talking about those long lost picks that magically reappear out of the sound hole.  The time spent memorizing chords is time well spent, but the time experimenting without scales is unfortunately, more often than not, a waste. Experimentation is not something to completely frown upon, it is the creative genius, but without guidance along the neck it is like finding try to find a needle in a haystack.

This unfortunately is how I started to learn to use the notes along the neck.  I would start by placing a finger here, then another there and just one more finger for good measure, cross my toes and strum.  If it sounded good, I memorized the position, if it did not, I chucked it and tried to reconfigure my fingers to find that lucky spot. Though this is not the way I would wish anyone to learn, it was not all bad.  In a way, it gave me my style of playing, but learning by trial and error was a completely ineffective way to decode the neck, and, to say the least, it was time consuming. 

Looking back it was the thrill of the hunt that kept me experimenting, but with just a little knowledge of scales, I would have been able to progress faster and become a more guided player.  I wrote many songs by trial and error so all is not lost in this way of learning, but with the added knowledge of scales and chord building, I have grown more confident in my playing. 

 

Scales allow us to systematically experiment successfully with our guitars, and instead of reinventing the wheel, we can dig into the steps already built in to music that allow us to have playability.  What the audience doesn't see while we are playing keeps them guessing and asking, "How do they do that?"  This happens I believe because playing is made up of about 40% of what is seen and 60% of what I call "smoke and mirrors."   Mind over guitar is the way to success!