Beginner Guitar Scales Made Easy

All About Scales

If you’re completely new to playing guitar, then the first thing you should do is read our complete beginner’s guide to learning guitar.

You’ll learn all the basics there. In addition to that, if you’re not familiar with what scales are, how they’re formed and what they do you need to brush up on basic music theory.

But since you’re here, a scale is a series of notes that sound like they all go together when played in a particular order. Songs are written with a specific scale (or “key”) in mind.

They are the basic building blocks to chords and songs.

How to Read the Diagrams

The guitar scale diagrams below show you the basic pattern each scale uses.

The red dots are the ROOT notes (1st note/tone) of each scale. The black dots are the rest of the notes within the scale.

Read the diagrams left to right, starting at the left-most RED DOT on the bottom line, moving upwards to the last red dot. The bottom line is the 6th string (thickest) and the top line is the 1st string (thinnest).

There are no note letters on any diagram. That means you can use that same pattern to play that scale in any key. For example, the C major scale uses the same pattern as the D# Major scale, it just starts in a different spot on the fret board.

The diagrams do not have any finger numbers on the dots, because depending on where you start on the fret board, different fingers may be easier to use than others. Play around until you find something you’re comfortable with.

Knowing Which Scale You’re Playing

So how do you know which scale you’re on? You know your guitar strings right? The 6th string is the low E if you play it open (no fret). Every fret up the fret board raises that E note up a half step.

If you’re using the scale patterns below starting on the first fret you’re playing the F scale, because the F note is a half step above E. If you start on the second fret instead, you’re starting on F#/Gb, since that’s a half step above F.

The same goes for all the other strings.

Each scale below spans 2 octaves and starts/ends on the root note of the scale you’re playing.

Want even more scales to practice? Check out these guitar lessons that have some extremely comprehensive scale libraries.

How to Practice the Guitar Scales Below

It’s always a good idea to start slowly and make sure you’re hitting each note in the scale cleanly. Then start speeding up while keeping good form and sound.

Make sure you’re playing the skill up (ascending) and down (descending) each time.

Start with one type of scale, and try to play it on each of the 12 notes available to you.

Practice for 15-30 minutes every day. For more details, check out our guitar practice guide.

The Scales all Beginners NEED to Know

OK, now that that’s out of the way, here are 5 guitar scales for beginners you need to know.

Memorize these scale patterns, and you’ll be able to play the scale in any key on the guitar.

The Major Scale

The major scale in music is extremely popular and widely used. It, along with the minor scale, is something you’ll come across when playing music over and over again.

Beyond this, if you know the major scale, you’re half way to unlocking a number of other more advanced scales (more precisely, modes).

The Natural Minor Scale

This is another very popular music scale, and is used a lot in hip-hop and rock. It’s got a very melancholy, sad vibe to it.

But it doesn’t have to be a “sad” song. It can work great in a lot of different contexts.

Major Pentatonic Scale

The major pentatonic guitar scale may not be as popular as the major and minor scales, but it’s just as important to learn – especially for beginners.

It’s called pentatonic because it only contains 5 notes, but it’s known as the “grand master” of all scales.

Learn both this and the minor pentatonic below and you’ll be well on your way to being a great soloist.

Minor Pentatonic Scale

This is the minor version of the above scale we mentioned. Another essential one you should memorize the pattern of.

It’s a great scale for soloing and songwriting.

The Blues Scale

Finally, to round out our list of absolute “must-know” scales on the guitar in the infamous blues scale.

If you don’t know how to play blues, do you really know how to play guitar?

So many great songs were written using a blues scale, and when you learn it you’ll be channeling some of the greatest guitarists to ever do it.

Frequently Asked Questions