In this lesson we're going to look at a fun way of applying guitar scales. ... single
string guitar licks that you already can play, you'll be forced to use the scale in a.
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Improve Your Guitar Scales Ability With Single String Soloing In my opinion, one of biggest mistakes you can make in learning scales is to delay using them in a musical context. I feel that it is critical to apply the scales you are learning immediately— even if you don't feel like you're ready to do it. Doing this will help you learn the scale faster, and also help you learn how to use the scale to make music much faster. And that's what scales are for...making music! In this lesson we're going to look at a fun way of applying guitar scales. It involves improvising using a guitar scale you're learning, making sure that you stick to one string only. This is a great thing to do for a few reasons... •
It helps you to develop your creativity. Unless you have a huge vocabulary of single string guitar licks that you already can play, you'll be forced to use the scale in a creative way. This means that to keep your improvisation interesting, you'll need to think of new ideas and try them. This can only help your improvisational skills.
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It helps you to expand your fretboard knowledge. Many guitarists only learn scale fingerings that move across all six strings. This often makes it hard for them to move around the fretboard fluently when they're soloing. By soloing on a single string you'll be forced to learn the scale in a linear way. This can only help your fretboard knowledge.
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It helps you to develop your ability to play melodically. Because most guitar licks use more than one string, you can't rely on using many of the licks that you already know. This is great because you'll focus more on trying to create melodies rather than relying on licks that you can already play. And the more you practice trying to play melodically, the better you'll get at it!
Single String Soloing Exercise OK. Now it's time for you to give single string soloing a go. For this lesson I'd like for you to focus on the E Natural Minor scale...
1
2
b3
4
5
b6
b7
1
E
F#
G
A
B
C
D
E
Here are the steps that I'd like for you to take now...
Step 1: Practice The Scale Take some time now to memorize the notes of the E Natural Minor scale on the B-string, if you don't know them already.
Effective Training For Rock Guitarists www.RockGuitarTraining.com.au
enough for this exercise. [Side Note: Recording yourself is an incredibly important part of becoming a good guitarist. So please don't be lazy and skip this step].
E‹
A‹
B‹
D
& ???? ???? ???? ???? Step 3: Improvise This is where the fun starts. For this step you'll improvise over the progression that you recorded for the previous step. There are only two rules you need to follow... 1. Only use notes from the E Natural Minor scale. 2. Only use notes on the B-string.
Demonstration Video I thought it would be helpful to include a video with me improvising over the chord progression from Step 2. This video is part of my Natural Minor Mastery 1 product. I hope the improvisation on it gives you some ideas of what you might do when you're doing your own improvisation. Here's the link to where you can watch the video on my website: Single String Soloing
A Few Last Words I hope you have fun with the single string soloing. I recommend trying it with other scales that you know. It's a great way to get out of your comfort zone, learn your scales better, and also improve your soloing. Have fun!
