We often think of scales as practice devices. The stereotypical image of the beginning piano student is that of the little boy or girl sitting captive and forlorn at the piano bench-plinking away at their scales as their joyful friends play outside in the background. And, in fact scales truly are practice devices-very useful and effective practice devices. But scales are more-much more than just practice tools as we shall see in this article. Please read along as we explore two key applications for scales in our daily guitar practice.

Scales are the fundamental building blocks of music. We all know this-although, the more educated musician recognizes this fact at a much deeper level than the beginning student. Scales are also the fundamental building blocks of a good practice regimen for (at least) two reasons.

• Playing scales is a great way to develop physical technique. By controlling speed, picking patterns, and other factors; the guitarist can make scale practice as demanding as they wish. For the beginning student, simply “getting through” a particular scale with no dead or buzzing tones may be a paramount challenge. Whereas, playing a particular scale may be easy at 100 BPM (beats per minute) for the accomplished musician, it may become a challenging task for that same guitarist at 220 BPM. Or a scale played “at speed” with the root note on the lowest F may be require much greater effort and hand-stretching than the very same scale played in the ninth fret where the frets are closer together.
• Scales are also used musically to aid improvisation and composition. As we said earlier, scales are the fundamental building blocks of music. What we really meant was that they are the fundamental building blocks of all music theory. And the major scale is the most fundamental building block of them all. All other scales, all intervals, all chords, all phrases and melodies can be tied back to the major scale. This is not an especially profound statement. In fact it is essentially analogous to saying that all books, magazine articles-in fact-all written material originates from the 26 letters which form our Roman alphabet. So, on the surface, neither statement seems that profound; they both seem rather obvious. However, if we take the time to contemplate either statement for a moment, only then do we begin to realize the amazing potential which is bound up in that seemingly innocuous collection of 26 symbols or that compact musical package called the major scale.

The seemingly-simple scale is, on the surface, merely a collection of notes arranged in a specific order with a defining intervallic pattern. Not only does the “lowly” scale form the foundation for all music and musical knowledge, it also should form the foundation for your practice and study strategy.  It may be used to improve your physical technique. And it should also be used as a major tool in advancing your musical education.

Robert M. Matthews (better known as Bob Matthews) is currently retired after more than 30 years of engineering and management experience.

As an avid guitar player for more than 35 years, Bob has created a website specifically for guitar players and future guitar players. The site is packed with a wealth of information and articles on guitars, music theory, guitar tips and lessons, as well as many entertaining and instructional videos.

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