Positional Major Scales and the Fretboard

How positions work

When fingers 1 through 4 occupy the first four frets of the guitar, we call this first position.

When you move fingers 1 through 4 up one fret, you are now in second position: your pointer finger covers frets one and two, and fingers 2, 3 and 4 occupy frets 3, 4 and 5. The fourth finger may also be used on the 6th fret.

In simple terms, the pointer and the pinky can cover one fret outside the four-fret position. This process repeats as you ascend positions on the neck of the guitar.

Positional major scale patterns

The scale root is marked for each of the six positional major scale patterns on the next page. These scales can be played in all positions on the guitar neck. The root note locations on the 5th and 6th strings determine the key that each pattern is in.

Chaining the patterns together

The six positional major scale patterns can be chained together by playing a common scale root between the patterns.

If you play patterns 1, 2 and 3 with a common root of A on the 6th string, 5th fret, you will see how these scales chain together to ascend three positions in the key of A.

You can also do this on the 5th string, 12th fret A with patterns 4, 5 and 6.

By spanning all six patterns you will have ascended the entire neck of the guitar in the key of A.

The method

In this book you will learn to read 12 etudes in the 12 common key signatures used in music. These 12 etudes are written to be rhythmically challenging. You will play each etude in several positions.

This method will teach you how the guitar fretboard is organized positionally, and how to make decisions that will make reading on the guitar manageable. Play all etudes with the backing tracks on each etude page.

Reading with scales

The positional scale patterns in this book are used to find all the notes within a designated position. To find all the notes within a position, start from the root note of the scale and ascend in alphabetical order while saying each note to yourself.

Reading on the guitar should always be accomplished with a scale pattern in mind.