Kristofer Dahl31st March 2008Just excellent Nick - very well focused with clear illustration all over the lesson! This should be an excellent starting point for people wanting to learn more about playing over chord changes - thanks!
Fran31st March 2008Really good, well explained and detailed.
Great one Nick!
The Uncreator31st March 2008Very helpful lesson, like Fran said, well explained!
purple hayes31st March 2008Is it just the lighting or are some of the frets on your guitar not straight?
Cool lesson, too!
Danilo Capezzuto31st March 2008Truly smart and useful lesson Nick, compliments!
Iluha31st March 2008Another incredibly usefull lesson Nick, thank you!
Pink7031st March 2008Bookmarked for sure! Thanks Nick.
Andrew Cockburn31st March 2008Great workout Nick:)
Looks like you have one of those tricky well tempered fretboards?
Marcus Siepen31st March 2008Killer lesson Nick
DeepRoots31st March 2008This is a great great lesson nick- the kind of lesson i really enjoy learning and practising. Well explained and an essential topic (epecially the direction i wanted to be going in)- thanks a bunch
Tuubsu31st March 2008nice lesson for scales indeed!
at lights end31st March 2008great! will be learning this
Gabriel Leopardi31st March 2008Excelent lesson Nick! Very well explained.
Dejan Farkas31st March 2008Nice lesson, good work there
Robwylde31st March 2008This hit's the spot. Exactly what I needed. Please keep them comin!! Bookmarked!!!
Pitch_Black31st March 2008Very cool lesson! I like the name of the lesson too:)
Carlos Carrillo31st March 2008very creative lesson Nick!!!!!!!!
nice job
Hauke_Z31st March 2008Absolutely Great!
Bogdan Radovic31st March 2008Excellent lesson Nick!
mattacuk31st March 2008This is just what I need Nick! thanks so much
Muris Varajic31st March 2008Awesome job on this lesson Nick,explained well!!
Jerry Arcidiacono31st March 2008Excellent!
Nick32531st March 2008awsome
Nick Kellie31st March 2008thanks guys I'm glad this is of help for you - this is how I have practiced and learned my scales for some time and I believe it really gets you to know the scales on a deeper less superficial level.
Greetings for Poland! (Krakow)
Nick- Nick Kellie31st March 2008
with regards to the first 2 frets being bent... Its a system called fretwave. In order for every note to be really in tune on the guitar, every fret would need to be positioned slightly differently, but the worst offending frets are 1st fret G string and 2nd fret B string.. so to compensate for their sharpness the fret is knocked back to make it more in tune. Works great and doesnt affect the playability and means that all the open chords are in tune.. no compromise. So now E chord and C chord are in tune at the same time.
There is a swedish company now making necks called true temperament necks which have every fret corrected on every string! Looks like the guitar has been melted in a serious accident but sounds incredibly in tune! - you pay for it though, one of their necks costs a small fortune!
nick 
James N31st March 2008In regards to the fret wave, if you bent a note wouldn't the guitar change in tune because now to the string is located at a different part of the fret?
Aside from that, great lesson.- Nick Kellie31st March 2008
no james - you are banding the note from that fret so it means the notes sharpened from the position of that fret. It perfectly in tune and no harder to play than any normal fret.
thanks!
nick 
BIGD231st March 2008Good lord Nick.........you run the scales like I do except I am only a one year beginner...but I do keep wearing out frets on cheap guitars (latest Ibanez RG2EX1)
Best stress relief...get those fingers moving..
Thanks for the lesson......BD
Hisham Al-Sanea31st March 2008wonderfull lesson . nice work Nick
Juan M. Valero31st March 2008Oh, my God !! hehehe, there are lot of things that I explain in the lesson that I'm uploading now
I hope you explain it better than I XD
great work !!
Trond Vold31st March 2008Excellent
Your explanations are great and easy to understand
Ivan Milenkovic31st March 2008Excellent lesson, very useful, nice reading as well!
- Juan M. Valero31st March 2008
I cannot stop praticing this lesson, you add a great point of view in this one and you reminds me the exercices that I did when I studied jazz lot of years ago
Nemanja Filipovic1st April 2008great lesson Nick...
Joe Kataldo1st April 2008Absolutely Great Stuff and explanation
- misterj1st April 2008
great lesson! just what i needed!
ItsMe1st April 2008nice
steve251st April 2008I don't get it :/
- Nick Kellie1st April 2008
Hi steve what exactly is it you don't understand ? maybe I can help you out.
nick 
Pablo Vazquez1st April 2008Very nice lesson, Nick!!
shideru_guitar1st April 2008what does the e shape and the g shape mean on the diagrams?
that is where i am confused at.
and also is there a reason why u do the shapes at the beginning a bit different to the tab? the chord i mean, not the scales.
thanks
sid- Nick Kellie2nd April 2008
Hi there, The G shape is like an open G chord but moved up the neck with a barre - so where we re-position it to determines the key. The note closest to us on the 6th string is the root.
The parts at the beginning of the piece were just improvised around the chord shapes - in the tab I just wrote each scales related chord shapes so its a little clearer to visualize.
hope that helps,
nick - Nick Kellie2nd April 2008
To understand the E shape and G shape terminology you need to first know all your open chord shapes as these are just barred versions of those shapes (without the open strings)... you should also know a bit about the CAGED system. I believe andrew has an article about this on his Theory Board.
all the best,
Nick 
eddiecat2nd April 2008This is a Wonderful lesson, Nick.
One of those I just love to study!
Are you planning on doing the same kind of lesson
for the other modes as well?
Cheers, Eddie- steve252nd April 2008
Nick, i just don't understand what's being said half the time as i know next to no theory any recommended lessons to help understand this?
- Nick Kellie2nd April 2008
no problem steve - I can relate to what you are saying... I would say its better to start learning the basics of the CAGED system before you jump to this lesson - I will say that this is essential for the understanding of this lesson. I can recommend you check out Andrews theory board for his tutorials on the CAGED system. Once that has clicked Im sure that this lesson will make a lot more sense then.
all the best,
nick
Eddie - thats the plan yes! I personally learned all the modes of harmonic minor, melodic minor, major and diminished in this fashion and plan to do dorian next.. I won't do them all at one, I will probably do alternate lessons of this. - Nick Kellie2nd April 2008
Brother Woodrow2nd April 2008Fine opportunity to learn the major scale. Great lesson!
- RouteOne23rd June 2008
Please! Please! Please!
Yes, and so on!
Why not for this time a real close view to all the theoretical aspects of this one lesson! Some masterclass, what ever! Relate it generaly and in slices to CAGED, Scales and so on. You got the knowledge and the men (any instructoress once, please again?). Enough of clapping hands between guitar heroes and coolness. Just jealous but consider it. Once!?
Sincerely. - RouteOne23rd June 2008
Like a safari, you see, with Andrew Cockburn screaming behind the curtains "And here Mr. Kelly is demonstrating exactly what you can read on post 35th September 2003… Got it! Let's move on!"
Encore, sinceely. - Nick Kellie23rd June 2008
hmmm what are you talking about ?
- RouteOne26th June 2008
Hmm… I'll work on it and then I'll ask you again.
Thanks. - Nick Kellie30th June 2008
OK
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Modes Of The Major...
major scale, modes, left and right hand alternating, dexterity, fretboard knowledgeby Bogdan Radovic - Difficulty2
- Difficulty4
- Difficulty7
Hybrid Picking and...
tapping, legato, hammer on, pull off, pentatonic, ionian, major scaleby Fayeed Tan - Difficulty3
The Killers Style
The Killers, Post Punk, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Major scale, Ionian, Pop Rock, by Gabriel Leopardi - Difficulty3
Mastering Diatonic...
diatonc, pattern, scale, practice, major, modes, AP, alternate picking, 3 nps, 3 note per string, patternby Ivan Milenkovic - Difficulty3
- Difficulty5
- Lesson
- My notes
- Statistics
Welcome to the first in a series of lessons designed to help you internalize scales, be able to change key and know them over your entire fretboard inside and out!
It is no good just learning a scale in one position and not understanding how it relates to chords or how to play it anywhere else on the neck. Any scale you know should cover the entire fretboard. However, it isn't practical to learn a scale over the entire fretboard and it can be extremely daunting - so we break down scales into 5 learnable chunks AKA scale positions.
The most important thing you need to take from this lesson is where the root note is situated within each scale position and where the related chord shape is situated.... The common mis-conception with scales and modes is that a position IS a mode - this is not true at all! Positions are a group of notes, the way you play them and the chord you play them over is what makes it into a mode... any scale or mode covers the entire fretboard - period.
So you can see I have clearly laid out the 5 scale shapes I use in this exercise.. and notice that I change key 5 times, but my hand doesn't leave frets 3-5 fret region! This is power! it helps keep more continuity during improvisation and really shows you that you dont have to just learn one position and keep moving it along the fretboard....
This video we focus on playing the scales in fret region 3-5, video 2 is fret region 5-7, video 3 is region 7-9, video 4 region 9-12 and video 5 region 12-15...
Each exercise in each video follows the same order - Chords, Scales ascending and descending, then up one scale down the next, then down one scale up the next.
Visualization is key so really spend a lot of time memorizing the scale shapes.
Here is the process I take when learning scale and chord shapes:
1) Without your guitar, visualize the chord and scale shapes until you are entirely familiar with them mentally.
2) Once you are confident you know the shapes, only then play them on your guitar. Practice changing between chords to a metronome and play the scales to a strict count.
Good luck!
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