Scales to Scale Patterns



How do you turn scales into scale patterns on the guitar fret board?

Firstly, what is the difference between a scale and a scale pattern? Well, a scale is a theoretical musical construct and a scale pattern is a practical means of performing that scale on a guitar fret board.

Let’s look at an example:

Fig 1a. G Major Scale – 1 octave ascending.

G A B C D E F# G

Fig 1b. One example of a G Major scale pattern:

E--------------------------
B--------------------------
G-----------------------0--
D--------------0--2--4-----
A-----0--2--3--------------
E--3-----------------------

   G  A  B  C  D  E  F# G

Fig 1c. Another example of a G Major scale pattern:

E--------------------------
B--------------------------
G--------------------------
D-----------------2--4--5--
A--------2--3--5-----------
E--3--5--------------------

   G  A  B  C  D  E  F# G

OK, that’s interesting, but how do I get from fig 1a to fig 1b or 1c?

OK, first of all we need to understand the relationship between the frets and the strings of the guitar and the notes in the scale.
In music theory differences in pitch are measured in ‘tones’. For example in Fig 1a the difference between the low G and the A is one tone. Similarly the difference between A and B is one tone. However the difference between B and C is half of one tone, or a semi-tone. The reason for this is due to the fact that early keyboard instruments did not have black notes in between the white notes. For this lesson it’s not really important to understand this in detail, but it is important to learn the intervals between the different notes. The following illustrates the pitch differences between the letter notes in tones (1 = tone, ˝ = semi-tone):

Fig 2.

A – 1 - B – ˝ - C – 1 - D  – 1 - E  – ˝ - F  –1 - G  – 1 – A

On a guitar if you move your finger from one fret to the next fret up or down (or from an open string to the first fret or visa versa) you are changing pitch by one semi-tone. So that means 1 fret = ˝ a tone or one semi-tone.

So if you are playing an A note and you want to find the B note (which we now know is one tone higher) you simply move 2 frets up). If you are playing an E note and you want to find the F note you move up 1 fret since F is a semi-tone higher than E (see Fig 2).

Next we need to work out how to find a note on the fret board. We should all know the names of notes each string is tuned to by now. Starting from the lowest pitch string (and the one closest to your face) the strings on a standard tuned guitar are tuned E, A, D, G, B, E.

Let’s say we want to find a C note. We can use the B string and play on the first fret. We know now that playing the first fret will increase the pitch of the B note by one semi-tone. This happens to be the same as the pitch difference between B and C as illustrated by Fig 2.

We could also find a C by starting on the A string. If we played at the second fret we would be playing a tone higher than A which is B. If we then played up another fret or a semi-tone higher we would be at C.

Here are the two notes just described:

Fig 3.

E--------
B--1-----
G--------
D--------
A-----3--
E--------

These two C notes happen to be in different octaves but they are both C notes.

Now with this information we can work out what note every fret on the guitar is:

Fig 4a – All the frets (using sharps)

E-||-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|
B-||-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|
G-||-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|
D-||-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|
A-||-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|
E-||-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|-D#|-E-|-F-|-F#|-G-|-G#|-A-|-A#|-B-|-C-|-C#|-D-|

0            3       5       7       9           12          15      17      19      21

Fig 4b – All the frets (using flats)

E-||-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|
B-||-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|
G-||-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|
D-||-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|
A-||-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|
E-||-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|-Eb|-E-|-F-|-Gb|-G-|-Ab|-A-|-Bb|-B-|-C-|-Db|-D-|

0            3       5       7       9           12          15      17      19      21

Lastly we need to understand what the pitch difference between each string on the guitar is. Basically each pair or adjacent strings are 2 ˝ tones apart, except for the G and B strings which are 2 tones apart.

This means that playing five frets up on the same string and playing the same fret on the next string below results in the same note.

Fig 5a.     Fig 5b.

E--------   E--------
B--------   B--------
G--------   G--------
D--------   D--------
A--------   A-----5--
E--5--10-   E--5-----

This also means that playing 3 frets up is the same as playing one string down a 2 frets back.

Fig 5c.     Fig 5d.

E--------   E--------
B--------   B--------
G--------   G--------
D--------   D--------
A--------   A-----3--
E--5--8--   E--5-----

Now lets try and put all these pieces together and create a scale pattern note by note.

We are going to make a D Major scale pattern:

Step one: what are the notes in D Major? D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

Step two: where on the fret board is a D? There is an open D string so we’ll start with that.

Step 3: start working up the sequence of notes and writing down the frets they occur on. Here’s what it looks like step by step:

Fig 6a. – First note D – open string.

E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------
D--0---------------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6b. - E

E is one tone up so we simply count up two frets (two semi-tones) and play the E note on the same string at the second fret.

E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------
D--0--2------------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6c. – F#

We know that F is one semi-tone up from E so therefore F# is two semi-tones up.

E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------
D--0--2--4---------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6d. – G

G is two semi-tones up from F so it must be one semi-tone up from F#. We count up one more fret to find F#.

E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G------------------------------------------------
D--0--2--4--5------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6e. – A

Now we could simply keep counting up the D string to find the A note at the seventh fret, but its starting to get a little awkward playing all the notes on one string and we’re running out of fingers on our left hand (right hand for left handed guitarists). But, we know that moving down a string is the same as moving up 5 frets. So we can therefore say that the 7th fret on the D string is the same as the 2nd fret on the G string.

E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G--------------2---------------------------------
D--0--2--4--5------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6f. – B

Two more semi-tones up

E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G--------------2--4------------------------------
D--0--2--4--5------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6g. – C#

Two more semi-tones up again.


E------------------------------------------------
B------------------------------------------------
G--------------2--4--6---------------------------
D--0--2--4--5------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

Fig 6h. – D

Now for the final interval C# to D we move up one more fret, but as with Fid 6e. its more comfortable to move down another string. This time because we’re moving between the G and B strings there’s only a 4 fret difference (remember it’s only 2 tones between the G and B strings). Therefore playing the 3rd fret of the B string is the same as playing the 7th fret of the G.

E------------------------------------------------
B-----------------------3------------------------
G--------------2--4--6---------------------------
D--0--2--4--5------------------------------------
A------------------------------------------------
E------------------------------------------------

This completes our scale pattern. 1 Octave ascending in D Major.

Finally let’s look at some other possible scale patterns for D Major. These are all obtainable using the same methodology and all contain exactly the same notes:

Fig 7a.

E--------------------------
B--------------------------
G--------------------6--7--
D-----------5--7--9--------
A--5--7--9-----------------
E--------------------------

Fig 7b.

E--------------------------
B--------------------------
G-----------------4--6--7--
D--------4--5--7-----------
A--5--7--------------------
E--------------------------

Fig 7c.

E-----------------------------
B-----------------------------
G-----------------------------
D--------------------11-12-14-
A-----------10-12-14----------
E--10-12-14-------------------

Fig 7d.

E-------------------------
B-------------------------
G-----------------------7-
D--------------7--9--11---
A-----7--9--10------------
E--10---------------------