Learning Guitar Scales

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Songwriting is the last step that you want to do in your music journey after learning guitar scales and chord construction, writing your own songs requires music theory understanding as well as experience, wither you want to write a rock song or a thrash metal song. Music theory will save you a lot time in your playing and songwriting, it will get you straight to the point where you'll be able to assemble notes and chords to build a harmonized piece of music.

Songwriting is a 2 part process:

1- Writing the lyrics of the song: (if it's not an instrumental song). Most musicians like to write song lyrics first in order to write the proper music that's compatible with the song lyrics theme.
2- Writing the music: That depends on the song theme itself, wither it's a sentimental song or a rage expressing song.

Because this blog is about music and guitar theory, i'm not going to enter to the details of lyrics writing, but i can assure you that a good lyrics ideas come from reading (books, article, listening to inspirational songs...etc), that's if you want your song to have a message in it.

If you want to write music, make sure you follow these 6 easy tips for songwriting:

1- The first thing that you have to do is to know what type of music you like or you want to write: (blues, rock, metal, jazz), i'm sure you're a fan of a specific type of music.

2- In general you can apply scales and chord progression principals in all genres of music, but there are some specific scales used in some specific types of music, like the usage of blues guitar scales and pentatonic guitar scales in blues and metal music...etc.

3- Any song have many parts in it, the most basic ones are (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Outro), you can add other parts like (Pre-chorus, bridge, Pre-verse) if you want your song to be more complex and complete.

4- Identify what key your song should be in, you can use one key in the entire song, or sometimes switch to other keys (but be careful!).

5- All great songs have what we call "The Hook", it is the part of the song that when you hear it, it sticks into your head and give you a good feeling of the song.

6- The last thing is to find other artists that play other instruments to help you play a complete song (with drums, bass...etc).

These are easy tips for songwriting, make sure to follow them and also that you're always learning and applying what you've learned, learning guitar scales will help you a lot in your playing and composing, so learn more scales and chords in order to write a rich songs.

Any questions, comment.

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blues guitar scales are just minor pentatonic scales plus one note which is: flat 5th, this note is called the "blue note". This scales as it name refers is used in "blues music" extensively but you can find it in heavy metal music as well as country music.

To understand and play the blues guitar scales easily, you have to take a look at pentatonic guitar scales, especially the minor pentatonic guitar scale.



While the minor pentatonic scale is built with these intervals: Root - b3 - 4 - 5 - b7 (it doesn't have the 2nd and the 6th intervals), the blues scale is built with these intervals: Root - b3 - 4 - b5 - 5 - b7 , When you play the minor pentatonic scale in the key of C you will have: C - Eb - F - G - Bb. and it looks like this on the fretboard:

E------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------3---5---------------------------
D-----------------3---5------------------------------------
A--------3---6---------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------

When adding the flatted 5th note to the minor pentatonic scale, we will get the blues scale which have these notes in the key of C: C - Eb - F - F# - G - Bb, and it looks like this on the fretboard:

E------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------
G-------------------------------3---5----------------------
D-----------------3---4---5-------------------------------
A--------3---6---------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------

Note: the formula of whole and half steps used in the "blues guitar scales" is: (whole and half step, whole, half, half, whole and half step, whole).

The blues guitar scales are great scales because they add colour to your music, make sure you add them to your arsenal when 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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The other thing that we've to learn after learning guitar scales and chord construction is "strumming", it a very important part of guitar learning process. Most beginner guitarists worry about learning guitar scales and theory in general and forget to learn strumming.

The action of strumming is to strike the strings up or down, so when you play a chord for example, you follow what's called "a strumming pattern or rhythm". strumming can be done with a pick or with fingers, so let's have an easy example of basic strumming:

Note:
1- Strumming down: means striking the strings down from the 1st thickest string to the last (6th) thinnest string.
2- Strumming up: means striking the strings up from the last (6th) thinnest string to the first thickest string.

A very useful method that can help you in your strumming is counting, you say this "one and two and three and four" and when you mention the number make a down stroke, the word "and" is the space between 2 down strokes.

The previous example is a very basic guitar strumming for beginners, you can choose whatever pattern of rhythm you want to play, just make sure the sound is pleasing to ears.

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Song writing is probably the last thing a musician would have to know, so a lot of you are asking know "can i write songs after learning some guitar scales and some chords?, is song writing easy like it seems?", well i have to tell you, you don't have to be a rocket scientist or have a black belt in song writing, all you have to do is assembling some chords in a specific key and play some scales that relates these specific chord.

The most essential thing in song writing is to try giving your song the best look it could have, that means that you apply the theory and try to improvise yourself to write a unique song that attracts peoples ears.

Today we are going to write an easy song to play on guitar with some of the knowledge we've learned previously in "The major scale", "Guitar chord construction", "Build other shapes of chords", "building minor chords" and "song writing".

The goal of understanding the theory is to save a lot of time and effort and frustration, so instead of trying to know what chords would sound good together and what doesn't, the theory will get you straight to the point where you can find and play chords that sound together in a matter of minutes.

So are you ready to move from the consumer case to the producer one, make sure you follow the "Easy song to play on guitar" lesson.

Any question, you're welcome.

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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.

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The concept of chords is a very powerful concept in western music, it gives songs a full sound. Chords are used in parallel with soloing in most songs. They have different shapes on the fretboard: we can play them in open position, as bar chords or sometimes power chords in rock or metal songs.

Building chords is an easy process to learn, all you have to do is follow the formula of this chord and apply it. Minor chords in contrast of major chords have a b3 instead of the 3rd of major chords, this b3 gives minor chords a very minor sound (sad and dark). Let's say that we want to play a C minor chord:

C - D - E - F - G - A - B
1    +   3    +   5
C   +   Eb  +   G

E-------8(C)---------------------------------------------------
B-------8(G)---------------------------------------------------
G-------8(Eb)-------------------------------------------------
D------10(C)--------------------------------------------------
A------10(G)--------------------------------------------------
E--------8(C)--------------------------------------------------

Learning different chords after learning guitar scales, gives you a lot of choices of how your music will look like, i advice you to learn as much as chords you can to make your song full and pleasing to ears.

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So far in the lesson "Guitar Chord Construction (major chords)", we've learned how to construct any major chord from the major scale and also how to follow effective steps to learn and play them as quickly and accurately as possible. So make sure you understand these well after learning guitar scales.

While major chords are not the only chords used in music, there many other chords and everyone of them sounds and plays differently. Other shapes of major chords are major seventh (major 7th) chords and the only difference between these and major chords is as the name refers, the 7th note. If we play the major scale in the key of A (A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G#), while the major chord will be the combination of the 1st (root), the 3rd and the 5th notes, the major 7th chord will be the combination of these notes, the 1st (root), the 3rd, the 5th and the 7th.

A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G#
1 -  2 -  3  - 4  - 5 -  6  -  7
A         C#          E                     (Major chord)
A         C#          E            G#    (Major 7th chord)

It looks like this on the fretboard:

E-------5(A)---------------------------------------------------
B-------5(E)---------------------------------------------------
G-------6(C#)--------------------------------------------------
D-------6(G#)--------------------------------------------------
A-------7(E)--------------------------------------------------
E-------5(A)--------------------------------------------------

A lot of people think that the major 7th chord is the same as the 7th chord, well there is a tiny difference between them and it affects the sound hugely. The only difference is the the major 7th chord is built with the 7th note, while the 7th chord is build with the b7 note.

So an A 7th chord will have these notes (A + C# + E + G), we flattened the 7th note from G# to G. Now let's see how it looks on guitar's fretboard:


E-------5(A)---------------------------------------------------
B-------5(E)---------------------------------------------------
G-------6(C#)--------------------------------------------------
D-------5(G)--------------------------------------------------
A-------7(E)--------------------------------------------------
E-------5(A)--------------------------------------------------

That's it, who says learning guitar scales or music theory in general are hard to learn.

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In the previous lesson we've talked about "Guitar Chord Construction (major chords)", and we've learned the formula of constructing or building major chords from the major scale, in this lesson we will discover the 3 easy steps to build any major chord in any given note.

The 2 things used in all music are chords and scales, that what music is: playing chords or sometimes their arpeggios, and soloing using scales as well as arpeggios. Some people think that scales and chords are 2 different things, well i will give you this simple definition "chords are only some notes of scales", the only difference is when we play chords we play all the notes in the same time and we play specific notes according to the chord we want to play.

Let's have a look at the 3 easy steps to build any major chord:

1- In you want to play, let's say the A major chord, you have to play first the A major scale which have these notes (A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G#), on the fretboard it looks like this:

E------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------4---6---7------------------
A-----------------4---5---7--------------------------------
E--------5---7----------------------------------------------

2- You have to give each note of this scale it's number and take only the 1st(root), the 3rd and the 5th notes of that scale:

A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G#
1 -  2 -  3  - 4  - 5 -  6  -  7
A        C#        E

3- Take these notes and play them on a bar chord (easier then the open chord) so every note on the chord will be an A, C# or E.

E-------5(A)---------------------------------------------------
B-------5(E)---------------------------------------------------
G-------6(C#)--------------------------------------------------
D-------7(A)--------------------------------------------------
A-------7(E)--------------------------------------------------
E-------5(A)--------------------------------------------------

How easy is that!, with these easy 3 steps you can play any major chord. Make sure to apply this formula of building major chords after learning guitar scales to have a better and clearer picture.

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Music theory is very important to every musician, when you understand it you'll be able to write your own music as well as understanding others music. So far we've said that all music theory is compared with the major scale, because the major scale is the standard of all music theory, when you understand it well you will compare everything you will find (scales, chords, intervals...etc) to it.

In this lesson we are going to learn how to build chords from scales and what's the formula for building them, so let's have a look at the major scale in the key of C: (C - D - E - F - G - A - B - and C).

E---------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------2---4---5-------------
D-----------------------2---3---5----------------------------
A-------------3---5-------------------------------------------
E--------------------------------------------------------------

Let's name every note on the scale with a number that represents their position:

C - D - E - F - G - A - B - and C
1 -  2 -  3 - 4 - 5 -  6 - 7 - and 8

Note: the 8th note or C is the same as the root note so let's not mention it and stick only with 7 notes.

In this lesson we will build major chords from the major scale. The formula to building a major chord is: taking the 1st(root), the 3rd and the 5th note of the major scale.

C - D - E - F - G - A - B
1    +   3    +   5
C   +   E   +   G

The formula of any major chord is (the root, the 3rd and the 5th), is this case in the key of c we got: C - E - G. Let's have a look at the C major scale:

E-------0(E)---------------------------------------------------
B-------1(C)---------------------------------------------------
G-------0(G)--------------------------------------------------
D-------2(E)--------------------------------------------------
A-------3(C)--------------------------------------------------
E-------0(E)--------------------------------------------------

Note: all the notes on our chord are even C, E, or G, the cool thing about the guitar that the notes do repeat on the fretboard and that gives cleaner and stronger sound.

Let's try to play the C major chord as a bar chord :

E-------8(C)---------------------------------------------------
B-------8(G)---------------------------------------------------
G-------9(E)--------------------------------------------------
D------10(C)--------------------------------------------------
A------10(G)--------------------------------------------------
E--------8(C)--------------------------------------------------

All the notes on our chord are C, E and G.

Learning guitar scales especially the major scale will make playing and understanding music a piece of cake, so to play any major chord, the only thing to do is to take the root, the 3rd and the 5th note of its scale and play them on the fretboard (how simple is that!).

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Pentatonic guitar scales are easy to learn, but they seem a little confusing when you try to learn them in any position on the fretboard, So i will give you some advices that will help you learn them when learning guitar scales easily.

1- Try to apply them in every key on the fretboard (both major and minor pentatonic guitar scales), doing that will let you memorize better the shape of the scales so you can play them starting from their root note.

2- The second thing to do is to memorize the intervals used in each one of them, so you can play and understand them well, you'll also be able to differentiate between them (major and minor sounds) and that will help you a lot when you try to play them on any given chord progression.

3- Try to apply these scales on every position on the scale, let's say starting from the second note or the third one...etc, this will make you able to play the pentatonic guitar scales in every note on the fretboard in a specific key.

4- The last thing to do is to try to improvise, just play these scales with songs you like to help you get used to them.

If you follow these easy steps of learning pentatonic guitar scales when learning guitar scales, you'll be able to play these scales easily and you'll impress your self and your friends if you like.

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One of the most used scales in music are pentatonic guitar scales, you probably will face them in almost every song you'll come across, they are widely used by musicians of most types of music: blues, jazz, country and even rock and metal.

Pentatonic guitar scales are scales that have 5 notes instead of the usual 7 notes per scale (major and minor scale), and that's where the name came from (Penta = Five and Tonic = Notes), that means 5 notes. These scales have 2 types: the Major Pentatonic and the Minor Pentatonic.

First let's have a look at the major pentatonic scale:

The major pentatonic scale is built with these intervals: Root - 2nd - 3rd - 5th - 6th, so it doesn't have the 4th and the 7th intervals. When you play it in the key of C for example you will get: C - D - E - G - A. and it looks like this on the fretboard:

E------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------2---5---------------------------
D-----------------2---5------------------------------------
A--------3---5---------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------

The minor pentatonic scale is built with these intervals: Root - b3 - 4 - 5 - b7, so this scale doesn't have the 2nd and the 6th intervals, When you play it in the key of C you will have: C - Eb - F - G - Bb. and it looks like this on the fretboard:

E------------------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------------------
G--------------------------3---5---------------------------
D-----------------3---5------------------------------------
A--------3---6---------------------------------------------
E-----------------------------------------------------------

Note: The intervals that i mentioned are compared to the major scale.

Learning pentatonic guitar scales are so important when learning guitar scales, i almost can't think of a song that doesn't use them, the fun part is that they are easy to learn.

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So far we've learned about the major scale and its modes, and as there are major scales, there are also minor scale. The major scale sounds bright and happy, while the minor scale sounds sad, that's why you have to make sure of what subject is your song about, a happy thing or a sad one, to choose correctly what type of scales you should use.

Note: We can call some modes minor if they have minor intervals.

The minor scale have 3 types:

1- The natural minor scale: In the lesson of "Modes of the major scale", we've said that the aeolian mode (the sixth mode) is the same as the natural minor scale. In terms of intervals, the natural minor scale or some times called (The relative minor) has a flatted third (3b) and 6b and 7b comparing to major scale. So the structure of the whole and half steps will be like this (wh-h-wh-wh-h-wh-wh) and it will be like this on the fretboard in the key of G (G - A - A# - C - D - D# - F - G):


E---------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------3---5---------------------
A----------------------3---5---6------------------------------
E--------3---5---6--------------------------------------------


2- The harmonic minor scale: Is the same as the natural minor scale (3b and 6b) but without the flatted seventh (7b) comparing to major scale. So the structure of the whole and half steps will be like this (wh-h-wh-wh-h-wh and a half step(3 frets)-h) and It looks like this on the fretboard in the key of G (G - A - A# - C - D - D# - F# - G):

E---------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------4---5---------------------
A----------------------3---5---6------------------------------
E--------3---5---6--------------------------------------------

Note: you can see that in this scale we've used another concept which represents 3 frets on the fretboard (whole and a half step).

3- The melodic minor scale: The melodic minor scale have 2 forms (ASCENDING and DESCENDING). ASCENDING melodic minor scale is just like the major scale but with a flatted third (3b), when we play it DESCENDING it looks like the natural minor scale. It looks like this on the fretboard in the key of G:

The ASCENDING form (wh-h-wh-wh-wh-wh-h):

E---------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------
D-------------------------------2---4---5---------------------
A----------------------3---5----------------------------------
E--------3---5---6--------------------------------------------

The DESCENDING form: exactly like the natural minor scale (wh-h-wh-wh-h-wh-wh).

E---------------------------------------------------------------
B---------------------------------------------------------------
G---------------------------------------------------------------
D------------------------------------3---5---------------------
A----------------------3---5---6------------------------------
E--------3---5---6--------------------------------------------

Sure you're thinking why the hell this scale have two forms, well the melodic minor scale have a very strange property which isn't found in any other scale. So you should ask the composers that made it, they say it looks better!!!.

Minor scales are easy to understand when learning guitar scales, and they are very powerful and used by most guitarists (sure there is a lot of sad songs around). So make sure to learn and practice them when learning guitar scales.