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Original message:128 days 21 hours 43 minutes ago

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Member: Shawn Olsen

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Why learn Scales. I would just like to get some insight from a few difrent points of view

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Reply:128 days 21 hours 38 minutes ago
Member: JTC

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821
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Scales are the building blocks for riff's & solo's.

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Reply:128 days 21 hours 8 minutes ago
Member: Hippieway

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Some day you are going to want to do more than play C-D-G in the open position and when that happens you will be starring scales right in the face.

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Reply:128 days 19 hours 18 minutes ago
Member: shanejohnson2002

+ 3

1767
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A scale is really nothing more than a way to organize pitches into neat little patterns within our head. But they are *very* useful for understanding the how's and why's of music. Why is a major chord happy and resolute sounding? Why is a minor chord sad? Why does a diminished or augmented chord not seem to go anywhere? Why does a dominant 7th chord seem to pull to a major chord?

All of these answers can be found by studying just one scale: the major. The other cool part is, by learning your major scale, you have also learned 7 other scales and just don't know it yet. One of those scales happens to be the natural minor scale. If you take the natural minor scale and tweak some notes around a bit, you'll end up with two more minor scales, the melodic and the harmonic. If you take the harmonic minor scale and study it, you will have also learned 7 more scales.....

you can see the pattern here. It's pretty intense once you understand the concepts behind the major scale. And that's not even touching on how to get chords based on those scales. The possibilities are endless.

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Reply:128 days 18 hours 45 minutes ago
Member: sallan

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551
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Music is comprised of Harmony, melody and Rhythm. Scales are a part of two thirds of that equasion...

Harmony:

Stack a scale in thirds and you have chords

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

CEG=Cmaj
DFA=Dmi
EGB=Emi
FAC=Fmaj
GBD=Gmaj
ACE=Ami
BDF=Bdim
CEG=Cmaj

Melodies are made with scales, so learning scales will also help you play melodies!

There are all kinds of reason to learn scales...but I don't think anyone out there initially really likes to practice them. The reason is they cant connect the scale with the music...a good teacher will help you make this connection quickly. I remember learning to play trombone, the teacher would always get pissed I wasn't practicing my scales. Since there was no improvisation (didn't even know what it was at the time) scales were just work for works sake, I could not see how they related to the music on the page, or why it was important to practice them. That was a failure on the teachers part IMO. (Damn you Ms. Reckmyer!!!)

Really if you want to solo and get away from simple strumming as Hippie notes, you should learn your scales, but know why your are learning them, and how you can apply them as a part of the process so that you can have fun with them.

-sallan

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I hate your music and/or band

Reply:127 days 20 hours 5 minutes ago
Member: Gavalin

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8
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Scales are used in composing and everything music. They allow you to improvise and understand your fretboard better. Scales are also used to practice arpeggios and speed and technical stuff.

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Reply:127 days 10 hours 15 minutes ago
Member: Cabsy

+ 2

58
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Scales link everything together... you can see how chords and notes work with each other, you can see how each key shares the same formulae and you can break down the seemingly vast sea of notes the guitar offers into a more bite-sized toolbox of usable things...

I remember as a kid thinking that the guitar was this huge mass of notes, but slowly developed an understanding of how everything is inter-related and it made the whole thing much less daunting!

shane was right about the major scale being the centre of it all... if you start there, then you already know 7 modes... you just don't realise it... you already know all your minor scales - you just don't realise it... you already know your arpeggios... they're in there too... and everything else is a little tweak up or down a semitone... so it's like your core

great to see you're interested in getting deeper into it dude

Listen to the Daily Melodies: http://dailymelodies.com

Reply:127 days 9 hours 50 minutes ago
Member: dcunning30

+ 2

2231
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Scales helps you pick up chicks!

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Reply:127 days 7 hours 43 minutes ago
Member: Fred Kraus

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2977
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Happens every time!

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"The cruelest lies are often told in silence" -Robert Lewis Stevenson

Reply:127 days 7 hours 37 minutes ago
Member: The Rocker

+ 1

525
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One of the first things I read about learning to play guitar was, learn scales until you become interested in them.

and its true, for me anyway. one thing I will say though is learn the ones that relate to the style your interested in, Ive found that knowing every scale is not necessarily important. because whats the point of playing stuff you will never use.
what I did while learning was to find out what scales my favorite players use and learn those. However the most important scale is the major scale every other scale is built from it. most people start with the C major scale as it does not contain any sharps or flats and is easy to remember, there are other important reasons for this aswell.

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Does Humour Belong in Music.

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