As a lead guitarist you’re expected to know many guitar scales and their patterns in various keys all over the fretboard. The best way to really get guitar scales under your fingers is to practice them broken into various intervals and steps. Practicing scales this way will help you learn the fretboard patterns and fingerings for them. It also helps to train your ears to hear the note intervals in a scale too. Plus these exercises can also be used to form part of your improvised solos.

The first examples use the G major scale in 1 static position. Watch the fingering following the principle of 1 finger per fret to ensure that they are played effectively. Practice them slowly at first then increase in tempo with a metronome or drum machine. A beginning tempo of 80bpm is recommended.

The bonus of learning the pattern for the major scales is that they also cover the 7 modes of the major scale.

In the next lesson we will use the same guitar scales exercises but with a 3 octave pattern moving across the fretboard in various positions.