Scale practice is one of the most popular areas of practice that we spend time on as we develop our intermediate and advanced playing skills. This is why it's so important to approach scale practice correctly and develop a series of habits involved with scale practice that will help us gain a very high level of skill...



Proper scale study done through an organized plan of action, will benefit us greatly, so that over time we can start using scales to compose and perform improvised solos.

DAILY DEAL:



In this video I'm going to run through seven things you need to avoid as you spend time developing your scales to higher and higher levels...

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1). NEVER GET DEVOTED TO "NEEDING" SCALES ON PAPER:
The first important point I want to highlight is how vital the total memorization is to your development of scales on the neck (and all of the future skills that will go along with your scale development).

These of course all come together at the point of being able to improvise. If you allow yourself too much time (continuously staring at a scale layout page) on the music stand, you'll start to become reliant on seeing that shape in front of you. So commit the scale pattern to memory as soon as possible.

2). NEVER "JUMP" INTO SCALES - FEEL YOUR WAY IN:
The next important area of scale development is the ability to feel your way into scales rather than just jumping into performing them. Your execution of notes, your accuracy and your sense of recall will all be much higher if you feel your way into a scale prior to performing it.

The easiest way to do this in the early days of practice is to simply count in. Turn on your metronome or drum machine, give yourself a count in to lead you into the scales start, and your overall performance will be much better, than as if you just jumped in without giving yourself any justification toward the feel of time.



3). NEVER PERFORM SCALES AT ONLY ONE RHYTHMIC DURATION:
Another important area of scale development is continuously changing the note duration as you practice. Never perform your scales as only quarter-notes, or eighth-notes, or just as sixteenth-notes. Vary the rhythmic meters, include triplets, and once your scales are well memorized and under good control begin freely using the notes in melodic ways. Be inventive, improvise lines and let the scale flow from your fingertips. This will allow the scale to feel natural.

4). NEVER PLAY AT ONLY ONE TEMPO - SPEED IT UP :
Practice with a metronome is critical to developing speed and accuracy. However, make sure that you push yourself through different tempos. Change the beats per minute, quite often and be sure to push yourself faster, because becoming comfortable at one time frame, and spending too long at that tempo on the metronome will sometimes do more harm than good. I've had far too many students over the years who've complained that they have no speed, yet they've never pushed their skills to play at faster & faster tempos on the metronome.

5). NEVER IGNORE THE SCALE DEGREES (INTERVALS):
Knowing where to put your fingers is one thing, but knowing the scale degrees will allow you to do so much more with the scale. Awareness for the scales' degrees on the fingerboard will help you; identify chord tones, build extensions, understand where notes fall for the creation of different harmonies, and so much more. See, as you play through your scales and you practice the fingerings, say the degrees out loud. Also, spend time drawing degrees on fret-board diagram paper - draw out the scale degrees on the neck so you'll really know them.



6). NEVER PICK /PLUCK THROUGH SCALES IN THE SAME WAY:
Be sure to practice playing through the notes of the scale differently by working with your picking hand using a number of different variations on how the attacks will occur. Try playing without a pick, (finger-plucked style). Try performing the scale with strict alternate picking, try using all down picking and even try playing the scale using successive up-picking.

Also, try picking just one note per string, and using the fretting hand to perform a series of hammer-ons or pull-offs to generate legato technique.

7). NEVER NEGLECT ALTERING THE WAYS YOU STUDY A SCALE:
Never get caught up in habits of performing the scales in the exact same way day in /day out. You've absolutely got to change the way you practice those scales and you'll need to do that as often as possible.

Change keys, change fret-board location, play really low on the neck, play really high. Notice what you need to do differently in order to feel comfortable all over the guitar. Play scales using open strings and combine patterns laterally. This type of work will really bring the scale to a whole new level for you. And, your sense of control over the scale will improve dramatically from this type of practicing.



If you'd like to Find Out What You Should Learn Next on Guitar - take a look at the courses on my website at CreativeGuitarStudio.com. My step-by-step; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced courses will cover what you need to know, along with how to be able to move forward and become the best player that you can be.

I've worked on these courses since 1992 and I feel that all together they're the best guitar program you'll ever find. The courses will help you learn to identify what's required to get you up to the next level of guitar playing, in a very organized way, that makes sense. So, I look forward to helping you further at CreativeGuitarStudio.com ...Until next time - take care and we'll catch up again on the next lesson. Bye for now!