The Seven Positions of a Major Scale – First Position – Lesson 52
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such a useful tool. since lockdown ive taken more time to actually learn major scales and this concept is so simple. I find that major scales sound more melodic then pent scales. can't wait to learn more!
I agree to an extent. More notes in a scale means more possible changes to your melody. Resulting in more melody then penatonic scales where it's more basic. But sometimes more basic is also melodic. I find you can go back in forth. The more complex you wanna sound.. switch to the full scale and shred. Slow it back down and start back on pentatonics. Then to really add melody switch to straight arpeggios. So many options.
Basically, the pentatonic scales comes from the major scales(it's the same notes minus the second and sixth). The really cool thing happens if you know the notes in the major scale well and can add them to the pentatonic scale every once in a while(wait until you get to the modes that makes it even cooler).
The cool part about the seven positions is that they are fairly linked to the modes and the even cooler part is that each position allows you to come up with different melodies easily. That last point counts for every scale you'll learn, different positions but the same key results in different licks and melodies, it's really nice
So the CAGED system is one way of finding arpeggios on the fretboard, extending these arpeggios to build up the five "pentatonic boxes" and finally extending these boxes to include the full major scale, right?
The five pentatonic boxes, as we learn them in the CAGED lessons, can be thought of as a "2 notes per string" method to build up the pentatonic scale, and we get five boxes because there are five notes in the scale. Now for any scale there are many different ways to play it on the guitar, you can for example choose to play it on one string only, or on two strings, etc... These boxes are just meant to be a starting point to find all the notes of a scale, the end goal is to not really think about them anymore. With that in mind, expanding the pentatonic boxes to cover the full major scale (its just two notes more per octave) is one possible way to play the major scale, one of the downsides of that being that we no longer have a fixed number of notes per string.
In these lessons here, we instead go over the "three notes per string" method of playing the major scale. Here we disregard the notion of "boxes" and instead focus on playing the major scale with a fixed number (3) of notes per string, with 7 starting positions, since there are 7 notes in the major scale.
To summarize, the CAGED boxes and the "3 notes per string" method are just different ways of finding the same major scale on the fretboard, there are many more possibilites. I hope this made some sense.
Hopping back to this thread I think more people will see it here:
One thing that i've found useful is trying to figure out what the next 3NPS pattern is by ear before watching the next position, it helps me memorise it quicker personally, heading into position five now and I'm grasping them all quite quickly using this
Also the backing tracks are very helpful to give it context and help you identify the chord tones/ root notes in each position.
One thing that i've found useful is trying to figure out what the next 3NPS pattern is by ear before watching the next position, it helps me memorise it quicker personally, heading into position five now and I'm grasping them all quite quickly using this
Also the backing tracks are very helpful to give it context and help you identify the chord tones/ root notes in each position.
Great advice. It also applies to soloing. Hear it before you play it!Hopping back to this thread I think more people will see it here:
One thing that i've found useful is trying to figure out what the next 3NPS pattern is by ear before watching the next position, it helps me memorise it quicker personally, heading into position five now and I'm grasping them all quite quickly using this
Not sure what 3nps pattern means but the core thing to understand about scales and pattern is that it's essentially just finger movements that can be applied anywhere on the fretboard. What's mainly going to change is the key which is dependent on the root note.
So for example, if you wanna do a C Major scale or an A Major scale both starting from the same string, the finger pattern will be the same, what will differ will be where you start.
So for example, if you wanna do a C Major scale or an A Major scale both starting from the same string, the finger pattern will be the same, what will differ will be where you start.
Thanks for responding! 3 nps was short for three notes per string (a concept also taught by Papa Gates in the lessons). I understand the concept of scales and patterns. My question I guess is more of getting advice from more experienced players whether I really should focus on learning the major scale pattern (i.e. using metronome speeding it up, getting the pattern to merge in my muscle memory, a lot of practice hours needed for that) using the CAGED patterns, or if maybe I should focus on learning the CAGED patterns mainly for arpeggios and when it comes to the full major scale patterns instead invest most time getting fluent on the three notes per string patterns.
Honestly, it's kinda up to you. Both definitely play a role and are definitely useful on their own terms. It's not really which one is more important because it's going to depend on the context which is your goal and what you're trying to achieve. Do what you think will be best for you and then you can always revisit the lesson later on to consolidate your knowledge. I find that looking at those lessons with a more experienced view gives a new perspective!
Thanks for the insight. Guess I will have to be happy with whatever scales and pattern I manage to learn and utilize.
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