Putting it all together & the C major scale

Hello students! So now that we know some notes on all six strings, let's try putting them all together. Try the following exercise. It's not too difficult. From the lowest note we know up to the highest & back down again. These are referred to as the natural notes of the 1st position. And that's what we've been learning for the last 5 lessons. Natural notes are those without any sharps or flats - we'll get into sharps & flats a little later on. And the 1st position is a spot on the guitar where your fingers are lined up with the first 4 frets. So your 1st finger plays on the 1st fret, your second finger on the 2nd fret, and so on. That's called 1st position. Similarly, all the chords we've learned so far are 1st position chords. Makes sense huh? Anyway, here's the exercise:

When we play these 17 notes, what we're actually playing are the notes of the C major scale. The C major scale is the only scale with all natural notes - no sharps & no flats. That's probably why it's the first one most guitarists learn. What's a scale you may ask? A scale is just a series of notes. And there are lots of them! Each note basically has its own scale. That's where chords come from. So when someone tries to corner you with "Which came first? The scale or the chord?", you can say with confidence that scales came first.

Why is that? Well, the first musical instruments that could play any kind of tone were flute-like things carved from rock or bone. They could only play a few notes & probably just one at a time. So it seems pretty likely that scales came before chords. And chords are made up of notes from their respective scales anyway (which is why it is so important that we learn scales). So scales almost certainly had to have come first.

Now for the C major scale. As we learned in the last lesson, one octave of the C major scale is buried within the 17 notes we have become familiar with. Going from C at the 3rd fret of the 5th string up to C at the 1st fret of the 2nd string is one octave. Here's the notation again. This is what a scale looks like on the staff. Play through it again, paying particular attention to the notes on the staff as they rise & fall.

Notice that C is located one line below the staff & again on the 3rd space of the staff. That's because C occurs twice in the scale pattern. You start on C & end up on C again. Makes sense, doesn't it? We're playing a C and then reaching a second C at the top or bottom of the scale, depending on which way you're going. The notes in the first part of the exercise are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, B, A, G, F, E, D & C and in the second part it's the same pattern, just backwards. Here's a neck diagram that shows where the notes we're playing occur on the guitar:

What we're actually looking at here is all 17 of the notes we've learned so far. I've colored C red in this diagram, so you can understand specifically where these notes are. All you're playing in the exercise above is from one red C to the next & back again. As you might have noticed, the C major scale is surrounded by other notes not included in the exercise. Practice playing this diagram using one finger per fret, so that your 1st finger is always on the 1st fret, your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret, etc. We don't use our pinky finger at all in this pattern.

Start with the lowest note, the open 6th string, which is at the bottom of the diagram. Then play all the notes, one at a time all the way through the 1st string & back again. It's the same as the first exercise in this lesson, isn't it? So this is yet another way of indicating musical notes on a guitar, besides the treble clef staff & tablature notation. I hope it helps you to understand what we've learned so far.

Instead of chord practice this time, let's learn a song using the C scale. Now that we know all the notes, we can start playing melodies. It's just that simple! So have a go at my arrangement of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Take it slow & build your speed up as you practice.

It should sound just like you remember it, as you play through it. If it doesn't, then you're playing something wrong. Look carefully at the notation & don't be afraid to sing or hum along as you play. In no time at all, you will play it fluidly & then you can amaze your friends with "Hey I learned a song!". And that is why we're all here to begin with! Right? And until next time, keep on rocking...