Learning Guitar Scales

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A lot of guitarists like to write their own songs, but they don't know where to start, they think it's so hard to write your own songs, but with some dedication, practice and my tips for songwriting you'll be able to write amazing songs everyday!!!

In this lesson we're going to learn writing our own songs in a major key, and as i told you everything in music theory goes back to the major scale. When you learn to write a song in a specific key, the same rules apply to other keys, so make sure to follow carefully my tips for songwriting.

The major scale have 7 notes, each note of these have it's specific chord wither it's major, minor or diminished...etc. In the key of C we get these chords (C major - D minor - E minor - F major - G major - A minor - B diminished). The reason why those chords sound good together is very logical: because those chords are just combination of the same notes of the scale.

The major scale isn't the only scale that we can harmonize, we can harmonize (build chords) any scale starting with natural minor scale, melodic minor scale, harmonic minor scale...etc and every scale looks different, so you have to choose a compatible scale and key with the theme of your song.

Note: in this tips for songwriting lesson we're not going to use the diminished chord, because it's uncommon in rock and blues music, it looks dissonant with other chords, but some musicians use it, so it's up to you wither you want to use it or NOT.

Let's use a very basic strumming "guitar strumming for beginners" which is "Down - Down - Up - Up - Down - up", and play it 2 times per chord. The chords that we're going to use in this song are (The 1st "root", the 6th, 3rd and the 5th) in the major key chords, i picked them randomly so you can choose whatever you want to play.

Note: D refers to Down stroke, and U refers to up stroke.

           C chord                                                                  A minor chord
E------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0---
B------1--1----1--1----1--1-----1--1----1--1----1--1-------1--1----1--1----1--1----1--1----1--1----1--1---
G------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2---
D------2--2----2--2----2--2-----2--2----2--2----2--2-------2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2---
A------3--3----3--3----3--3-----3--3----3--3----3--3-------0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0---
E------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0----0--0---
           D D      U U      D U       D D     U U      D U         D D      U U      D U      D D     U U     D U

        E minor chord                     G chord
E------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------1--1----1--1----1--1-----1--1----1--1----1--1---
B------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0---
G------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0---
D------2--2----2--2----2--2-----2--2----2--2----2--2-------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0---
A------2--2----2--2----2--2-----2--2----2--2----2--2-------2--2----2--2----2--2-----2--2----2--2----2--2---
E------0--0----0--0----0--0-----0--0----0--0----0--0-------3--3----3--3----3--3-----3--3----3--3----3--3---
           D D     U U      D U       D D      U U      D U         D D      U U     D U       D D      U U      D U


And here is your first song, this wasn't so hard at all, this is your first chord sequence, you can choose whatever chord you want to play, but make sure that it sounds good to you. So after learning guitar scales and chords, we've written an easy song to play on guitar, just make sure you practice and practice until you master it.

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In the previous lesson "Song writing" we've seen how to to harmonize or extract chords in a given key from the major scale. This lesson is about identifying and naming our chords in order to be able to play them.

You can check "Intervals", "Modes of the major scale" and "Pentatonic guitar scales", to have a better understanding of the music theory.

Let's take a look at the previous chart (the key of C):

C - D - E - F - G - A -B - C - D - E - F - G - A -B
C   -     E   -     G                     (C major)
      D    -    F    -    A                  (D minor)
            E   -     G   -    B                (E minor)   
                  F    -    A   -    C             (F major)
                        G    -   B   -     D          (G major)
                              A   -    C    -    E       (A minor)
                                   B    -    D     -   F    (B diminished)

Note: The fun part in all this is that this formula applies in all major keys (major - minor - minor - major - major - minor - diminished)!

I'm sure that now you're asking yourself: how the hell i know which chord is major and which chord is minor, here is the answer:

Let's follow these 3 easy steps:

1- In the first case, we take the notes succession of the first chord C - E - G.
2- We play the C major scale.
3- We see what these 3 notes represent to the major scale, if it's (Root, 3rd and 5th) it's a major chord, if it's (Root, b3 and 5th) it's a minor chord and if it's (Root, b3 and b5) it's a diminished chord

To make sure you understand this well let's have a look at the second chord: (D - F - A), we play the D major scale and obviously we can see that the note F represents a b3 to our major scale because the D major scale have (D - E - F# - G - A - B - C# - D), and that's why it is a minor chord.

To practice this and memorize it, make sure to apply these 3 easy steps to all the chords in our C major key.

If you have any question, put it in comment.

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After learning guitar scales and learning guitar chords, now it's time to make use of them in song writing. Just make sure that you've well learned scales and chords to make song writing very easy.

Song writing is what every musician should know if he (she) wants to be a professional musician, that's why we've learned all this theory (which was simple and easy), to write our own songs and play them.

Songs are written in a specific key or sometimes keys, that's why their chords sound really good together. We can't play chords just like that and say that we wrote a song, we have to follow the theory. Let me ask you a question: In a given key, what chords would sound good together? sure the chords that have the same notes as their scale. The concept of extracting chords of scales is called harmonization, so for example we harmonize the major scale to obtain chords that we can play with it.

Before we learn how to write a song make sure that you've read "The major scale", "Chord construction" lessons to be able to follow me. Let's take the example of C major scale (C - D - E - F - G - A -B - and C again).

To harmonize this scale (extract chords from it), we take the formula of : 1st (root), 3rd and 5th and apply it to every note on the scale, and this will look like this in 2 octaves:

C - D - E - F - G - A -B - C - D - E - F - G - A -B
C   -     E   -     G
      D    -    F    -    A
            E   -     G   -    B
                  F    -    A   -    C
                        G    -   B   -     D
                              A   -    C    -    E
                                   B    -    D     -   F

These are the 7 chords that we can use in the key of C with the C major scale. We take a note and skip the other and so on. Make sure you understand this well before moving to naming and playing these chords.

When learning theory make sure you move in this order: learning guitar scales, building chords and after that write your own songs or find an easy song to play on guitar.

Continue to read the part 2 of song writing "the 3 easy steps to naming any chord in a given key".


Any question, you're welcome.