Shapes of the Major Scale

One of the best things about the guitar is the ability to move shapes (barre chords, power chords, scales) around the neck with ease. What do I mean by movable shapes? For guitar scales, movable scale patterns can enable you to play in any key by applying the same finger pattern. However, one mistake that many players make is that they tend to rely solely on shapes and not playing what they hear or feel. Nonetheless, it is important to know the basic scale shapes on the guitar.

First, let’s take a look at the C major scale across the entire fretboard. The root notes are denoted by red circles.

Intimidated by the massive diagram? Don’t worry as we are going to simplify this diagram into smaller patterns to help you out.

Basically, the major scales on the fretboard can be divided into 5 patterns. The reasons for dividing them into 5 patterns are to acheive efficient fingerings as well as to learn stuff in small chunks.

To recap, in the key of C major:

I have also included the scale degrees in the 5 patterns as it is important to know which note in the scale you are playing!

Major Scale Pattern 1

Major Scale Pattern 2

Major Scale Pattern 3

Major Scale Pattern 4

Major Scale Pattern 5

Memorize all these scale patterns. These patterns are useful tools for guitarists to improvise or play solos. For a start, you should start with Pattern 1, Pattern 4 and Pattern 5. As soon as you learn these fingerings, you can also improvise over the fretboard in any key.

How to Transpose Scale Patterns to other keys

Always use the root note as a guide to transposing these patterns.

Let’s use Pattern 1 as an example. Imagine we want to play in the key of G major. The 1st note in the G major scale starts at a G note. Using the root note (red circle) as a guide, locate the G note along the 5th string and shift the whole pattern along the fretboard such that the root note starts at G note That’s all to it for transposing to different keys. Simple? The scale patterns remain the same except the pattern is located at a different fret.

Transposing to G Major key

Below is another example of transposing Pattern 4 to F major. The point to bring across here is that you can move the pattern up or down the fret board as long as the root note (red circle) starts on a F note.

 Transposing to F Major key

Once you are properly “equipped” with the correct tools, you should try to apply these shapes into your playing. Otherwise, knowledge gained without being applied is basically useless info. Here’s a simple chord progression in C major to let you experiment with your newly gained knowledge.

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Stay tuned for more guitar lessons!