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Just brought a book on scales to help me naviagte the neck of the guitar, find notes easier and generally play with more understanding. When I learn a peice of music now it might sound nice, but musically I don't know what the hell is going on!
So the question is which scales do I need? and which ones should I learn first? Im starting with the Minor Pentatonic at the moment. Cheers
Unless you are trying to learn flamenco. In which case you only need compas and a teacher to show you proper techniques for falsetas.
It really depends on what one wants to do with his flamenco skills. I find it very important to know scales as it's very useful in every type of music
This is very very useful to know for every guitarist: The minor/major scale (Aminor and C major here):
If you remember that pattern(Takes maybe 1-4 weeks to remember) you know also how to play modes as they are in the pattern, just the starting point is different, such as phrygian(you start on E), dorian (D), mixolydian (G) etc. Of course the starting notes change depending on your key but the pattern is the same. Alot of music theory can be understood just by knowing what is going on in the pattern above.
In flamenco they use phrygian dominant scale ALOT(altough often used together with "basic" phrygian), which is pretty much the same scale as above(when playing in E) but the note behind the A is half step
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I call that the "Master Modal Pattern" and I've known it since the mid-80s. It's enabled me to play and improvise in many styles/genres, in ALL keys. Obviously, that pattern leaves-out some of the more exotic scales like whole-tone, diminished, etc. And especially the Phrygian#3/Harmonic-minor mode that gives flamenco (and other eastern styles) their flavor. But one must only alter the master pattern slightly to get to that point.
I posted a thread on another guitar-oriented site last year that showed the pattern you pictured and how it can be broken-down and digested for easier learning. Here's a link to that thread for anyone why may be interested and a picture of the graphic I made-up many years ago for my students...
That's nice. I usually use the dorian scale(when playing in minor) as the mid point as a reference. But it's good to learn all the scale/mode patterns but it's quite easy when "the big scale" is in your spine. I could not improvise without knowing the scales.
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