Keep us posted on how you get on dude. As you can tell a lot of us care about each others progress and problems and that helps us in our journey too.
Take care Bro
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Hi Dave,
Knowing myself a little bit, a stop in learning extra things and make time in practicing the things I have learned so far. I think it could be a good idea to practice this first pattern by just improvise a bit on some backtracks, by finding some G major backtracks and then try it in another major key. Meanwhile I found the U2 song ‘one’ that I would like to learn. It suprised me that the whole song is build on a -dear I say it- rather easy chord progress, and would like to be able to play it in a way it touches me. So, a pause in new chords, but try to use what i have seen so far in a way it gets comfortable, maybe look for a few more songs…
Thx for your interest.
But I wonder, Justin is for learning, you guys seems to know a lot already, I guess not every one is a moderator. So, how comes you ppl are on this community, is it advanced learning or mainly interest?
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JustinGuitar isn’t just for Beginners. He has loads of advanced lesson and lesson on Technique
and Theory
Learning Guitar is a life long quest. I’ve been playing for over 45 years and have learnt a lot
from Justin. Mostly theory and fixed bad habits that I picked up along my journey.
It’s also nice to pass on knowledge and help others to learn.
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For many of us we started with Justin as beginners or some more like begin againers. Starting at the bottom and working our way up. Getting to or passing intermediate level and still finding Justin has more advanced techniques in his teaching locker, more lessons covering a whole range of genres.
When I first started with a handful of chords and suitcase of bad habits, people like Stitch helped me out and got me on track, supported and nurtured me by making sure I perhaps did not make the same mistakes and filed the gaps in my knowledge and technique.
I have tried to do that for for folks who have stepped on the road behind me, so I can show them where the potholes are that I fell down. Justin calls it paying it forward.
So we are not only still learning, lets face it you never stop, even the folks we look up to as icons but we are helping the next generation of guitarists and that generation could be anyone from 16 to 76.
That is what the Community is about, learning and support regardless of level. Contribution, support and friendship. Not doing it in an elitist condescending way like so many other guitar forums.
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I think you are spot on. Playing scales up and down is good for building technique, but that is pointless if you can’t make music from it. Imrovising is not only fun, it improves your musical ear and also embeds the scale shape into your memory.
I am what you would call a begain againer as Toby put it. I realised my knowledge outweighed my actual skills after years of not playing. After hearing Justin give lessons on the radio in the UK I was so impressed by his teaching style I decided to pick it up again. I have gone and still go through the same struggles everyone does, so I do what I can to help fellow students.
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Also @Luc67 I notice this thread is in the Music Theory section. Assumption is the mother of all **** ups, so just asking if you are following along with this part of the course.Major Scale Pattern 1, Major Scale Maestro 1
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Well, i did stumble on it at the theory course that I am following. I have not seen it yet in the other lessons, i guess that will be a bit further in the course.
For now i am happy following practical lessons via Justin in the evening, did subscribe to the tabs to follow some songs. But a lot of times i wake up rather early, unable to sleep anymore, then I like to follow the theory course. Far better than reading all the terrible news. For some reason i get a 404 if i use the link you put in the message. I will try it when i am at the pc instead of this smartphone.
Grtz, Luc
Edit: corrected some autotext my phone generates…
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Thanks for clarifying, and does explain a lot. The Major Scale Maestro actually begins in grade 4 which is Intermediate level. So you could ask yourself are you ready for that yet? I’m not saying you’re not, only you have the answer to that as you are in control of your learning destiny.
Some people follow the courses in order, some people cherry pick bits throughout the course depending on what they’d like to learn. If you are set on looking at the Major Scale, then the modules in Grade 4 will make things so clear you will wonder what all the fuss was about 
Good luck, Dave
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When playing scales, do I need to be concerned about my fingers slightly touching the other strings or is it ok since I am not strumming those strings anyway?
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When practicing scales I go for “perfect” technique. Tips of fingers close to the fret, minimal movement, clean notes, and paying close attention to picking - either all down strokes or alternating picking.
When playing I forget about it all.
That said, I would try to not mute the other strings. There will be times when you have to pick a note and let it ring out while picking another note on another string. If your fingers can’t stay out of each other’s way it becomes a problem.
But if you’re playing along the low e string and your palm slightly touches the high e, I don’t think it’s the end of the world.
It’s great that you’re aware of what you’re doing.
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Hello @cgrundt welcome to the Community.
It doesn’t matter if other strings are being touched if they are not being played. In fact, if amplified and loud, you will likely want to mute them so they don’t ring out in and add unwanted noise.
Hope that helps.
Cheers 
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide
Why did he add the top note out of nowhere? I thought we should end our scale on the root note?
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I would disagree here but maybe that’s me coming from a mainly electric angle. Without muting you can end up with all kinds of unpleasant noise. Justin mentions learning to mute a number of times in his course.
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Simply because the A note is available within that scale shape. Likewise the F# on the bottom string.
You could learn just root to root but you then deny yourself the other available notes which then holds you back learning the scale all over the neck because you put emphasis on boxes instead of the whole thing.
We are taught to always start and end on the root note but include everything either side to give a whole picture whilst always being aware of the key centre.
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@popaqy
The idea behind always starting your ‘practice’ of the scale on the root note is solid. It will train your ear to hear what the root note is, where the scale is grounded. What home sounds like. In a similar way, finishing a scale practice on the root note embeds this ear training.
The size of the patterns - in terms of the number of notes they contain, is not bounded by the root notes however. If they were they would all be reduced in range to just 15 notes.
Example: G Major Scale from root to root two octaves higher
What is so bad about that? A fair question.
The rationale is this … Each pattern of the major scale (using the CAGED system here) spans a certain number of frets. To exclude notes that sit on frets within that span, simply because they are beyond a root note, is to create a false limit at either the higher or upper end. Those notes are part of the scale and part of the pattern.
Another practical reason is for practice and is also linked to alternate picking. Beginning a practice cycle with a down pick on the lowest root note, in a pattern of exactly seventeen notes (all five CAGED patterns have seventeen notes in Justin’s lessons) allows for a full ascent, descent then return to the lowest root note landing on a down pick.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide
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@Richard_close2u kinda what I just said but as usual you put it so much better than I ever could 
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Actually played a few scales and I mute at times even when I’m trying not to.
I guess I’d have to see how the scales are being played. I envisioned fingerprints pressing down the strings and fingers almost parallel to fretboard.
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Really grateful for the time you spend to answer my questions!
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I was struggling to remember the Major Scale (Too many beers in my youth) - What I found helpful was I set a pic of it as the Wallpaper on my laptop - So everytime I booted up (Or went to the desktop) it was staring me in the face! I found it very helpful!
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Being a beginner, my biggest problem here is that I can’t spread my fingers enough for the lower frets. So I need to shift my hand left and right all the time. I have done finger streching exercises, but no result so far. Guess I’ll have to leave this for a later time in my journey.
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