How many Scales do YOU know?

FruitarGeek · 2011-09-23T12:45:11+00:00

Be honest, most of us have not even heard of the scales about to be mentioned. Also if you only know 1 or 2 modes of scale, that doesnt [i]really[/i] count....

How many Scales do YOU know?

Jacques_nasi

I think I know a blues scale.. :-[

FruitarGeek

Warren wrote: 7, although some of the groupings are debatable. Like I would probably differentiate the natural minor scale from the major scale, likewise the major and minor pentatonic scales.

I don't use dimished and augmented scales, although I know how to build them. Just doesn't fit the music I play I guess.

Ya I agree with you, from a theoretical point of view you are 100% correct, but from practising, and playing/fingering positions, the natural minor and majors are the same.

Seventhson

Pentatonics (5 modes) thats all I know ☹

ryanguit

7/8 depending if halves count. i only use 3 modes of the minor harmonic pattern... so i "know them but don't play the other 4 modes. while we are on this topic... what are the 7 names of the modes of the harm minor scale?

DaFiz

None. Been strumming for years and have a repertoire of songs that I strum, and even though I can pull off something that represents a scale,
I don't actually "know" it well enough to spell it out right up the fretboard.
Just keep on rocking. 8)

Warren

Seventhson wrote: Pentatonics (5 modes) thats all I know ☹

Well, that's pretty much all Stevie Ray, BB King, Eric Clapton etc. know. ?

Of course, I realise those guys aren't your heroes, but they're an indication that it's not the size of your vocabulary that counts, but how you use it.

Seventhson

Warren wrote:
Seventhson wrote: Pentatonics (5 modes) thats all I know ☹
Well, that's pretty much all Stevie Ray, BB King, Eric Clapton etc. know. ?

Of course, I realise those guys aren't your heroes, but they're an indication that it's not the size of your vocabulary that counts, but how you use it.

Thats true. Those guys are great guitarists.

FruitarGeek

Seventhson wrote: Pentatonics (5 modes) thats all I know ☹

Seventhson. I can say with most certainty that you know the Chromatic Scale. You probably just didnt know it was called that. So thats 2 awesome scales you know. You can go a long and far way with the pentatonics. Just because many of us KNOW many scales it does not mean we know how to use them!

Seventhson

FruitarGeek wrote:
Seventhson wrote: Pentatonics (5 modes) thats all I know ☹
Seventhson. I can say with most certainty that you know the Chromatic Scale. You probably just didnt know it was called that. So thats 2 awesome scales you know. You can go a long and far way with the pentatonics. Just because many of us KNOW many scales it does not mean we know how to use them!

Lol that is true. I prob know few scales that I don't know what they are called ?

McDangerous

Only know the Minor Pentatonic and the Major scale, that's it. I'd really like to learn a couple more to expand the sounds I have available to me, but I find that creating cool little licks within the scale and knowing when and where to use them already gives you a lot of expression and creative possibilities.

Also, I hate "practicing" guitar. I just play. I hear a song I like that I want to play, tab it out by listening usually (or getting it off Ultimate Guitar, which sometimes is ridiculously inaccurate) and learn that way. That's probably why I'm not as good as I should be after playing for the amount of time I have. :-[

ActionArnie

I just try to play the notes that fit in the song ... no idea what scales they are

G-Man

I think I know about 3 or 4, but maybe more and I have no idea ?

Major scale

Pentatonic

Blues

Chromatic

Profit?

mtmattan

I know 4 well (Major, minor, blues pent, pent) - covers most modern songs.

The only time my playing seems to progress is when I spend time at least 30% of my time on theory and analyzing what I play.

I don't understand people who spend 95% of their time focusing on technical skills but cannot play in a given key, improvise or even add a lick or two to a song.

The other thing that really aided was learning the CAGED system ie learning the different forms of all scales and how they connect along the whole fretboard.

Keira-WitherKay

just when you spent the last 20 years learning all the scales and modes............ it's a TREND in jazz circles to NOT play using scales and modes but rather address each chord in the piece as a separate entity and play accordingly using appropriate chord tones and harmony notes to the chord tones .so each chord gets treated individually and not lumped together in little groups with similar tonalities.........

and BTW i've been using this technique and loving it ........ it helps define a piece especially for solo guitarists ..which allows me to solo unaccompanied and still hear each change in what i'm doing even tho i'm playing far beyond just the chord tones or appegio's .... and this method does not only apply to guitar since jazz pianists who also play solo have adopted this method too .... but i guess if you playing in a band with backing you can just use the scales/modes very effectively as this alternative approach seems more intended for solo instrumental artists

Warren

Keira WitherKay wrote: just when you spent the last 20 years learning all the scales and modes............ it's a TREND in jazz circles to NOT play using scales and modes but rather address each chord in the piece as a separate entity and play accordingly using appropriate chord tones and harmony notes to the chord tones .so each chord gets treated individually and not lumped together in little groups with similar tonalities.........

and BTW i've been using this technique and loving it ........ it helps define a piece especially for solo guitarists ..which allows me to solo unaccompanied and still hear each change in what i'm doing even tho i'm playing far beyond just the chord tones or appegio's .... and this method does not only apply to guitar since jazz pianists who also play solo have adopted this method too .... but i guess if you playing in a band with backing you can just use the scales/modes very effectively as this alternative approach seems more intended for solo instrumental artists

Jazz (and Country) musicians have been fitting their solo notes over chord tones for a long, long time. Nothing really new there.

DonovanB

Squonk wrote: 1 Blues Pentatonic

Carlos? is that you? ?

stu

Guitar, only one.
Piano, lots.
Drums, ....

Wizard

Who voted for the non-western scale?
And wants to teach us about it?

Malkav

Wizard wrote: Who voted for the non-western scale?
And wants to teach us about it?

I did, in many ways it's more beneficial if you check out the kinds of music they're used in to get where the tonalities come from, in some cases playing a non-western scale can work over a western chord progression but often you need to know the country of origins tonalities in order to help make the connection that it is still somehow consonant ? You're mind and ears in many cases will not agree with you, and that isn't to say that I get to or would use them much at all, it can just be interesting to play a chord and hear how a hungarian minor scale sounds over it etc, more as a way to get fresh ideas ?

Here are a whole ton of different exotic scales, these are really just the notes in question for the scale, you'd need to find and figure out which chords they do/don't work over and if you'd like the scale in more positions you'd have to map it out I guess as most of these are 1 octave, but it can be worth it and it can be fun ?

http://www.freakguitar.com/scales.html

chrisbark

I hate to be a pedant but AFAIK the augmented scale is the same thing as the whole tone scale ...