The Scales you need to know:

Do you really need to know your scales? Well, yes! There are certainly players that have the mentality that “learning”, or “lessons” will inhibit their originality. There are quite a few other arguments as well, such as:

I want my originality to not be governed by music theory
It takes too long to learn boring patterns
They are not relevant to what I like
I don’t know how to implement them
I only learn the licks and like and that’s good enough for me
When I try to learn new scales, I don’t know how to make them a part of my vocabulary
I don’t hear these ideas in any of the music I like to listen to

Scales are the alphabet of music. You need to know all the letters to properly communicate an idea. There are many, many scales to learn and memorize, and thanks to Classical and Jazz Pedagogy, nearly all of the most useful ones are laid out in a pretty standard, easy to understand way. Here is a short list of the most important, followed by the less important.

Most Important:

Major (Ionian)
Minor (Aeolian)
Dorian
Pentatonic Major
Pentatonic Minor
Mixolydian
Melodic Minor
Phrygian Dominant
Harmonic Minor
Lydian
Lydian Dominant
Diminished (octatonic)
Altered Scale
Locrian #2
Harmonic Major
Whole Tone
Phrygian
Locrian
Pelog
Hirojoshi

There are many, many more scales. To my experience performing, teaching, and composing, this is the order in which they are the most useful. These should be learned in every key, and used in context of REAL music, not just scale exercises. I’ll write more about each in upcoming articles.

This is a lifetime of practice and implementation here. The good news is that a great teacher has a system to help you learn this information in the most useful way possible.

For more information, consider booking an assessment lesson with us!
https://www.delcoguitaracademy.com/lesson-plans/