Everything derives from and references back to the major scale.
Concentrate on the major scale pattern 1 and avoid the endless rabbit holes as @stitch suggests.
Pattern 1.
Learn it in your fingers and ears.
Use it to make music.
That can take you weeks and months.
Don’t go anywhere near other patterns or scales yet.
Massive lightbulb moment. Just realised how the major scale pattern and the worksheet we had to do tie in to each other along with the pattern of tones and semitones. 
Mind blown. I knew doing the theory would have its benefits
Just a personal view on what might help with teaching, that’s been touched on above.
We’ve come to this lesson from learning t-t-s-t-t-t-s and now we have an apparently random allocation of notes across the fretboard to make a major scale. I think it would help some people just to draw attention to the fact that this pattern 1 is conforming to the major scale template. Doesn’t have to be overdone.
I also have a great printout from another lesson that shows the root on the sixth string and the relative position of the degrees on the same and adjacent string.
Just relating these to each other in this lesson would help to pull it all together and give some context and reasoning. In his introduction to the theory lessons Justin talks about how it all fits together, and this is an opportunity to show that.
Thanks for your input and observations.
Does this graphic from my post #60 above help?
That information could also be given on a set of neck diagrams, one using the scale pattern and one using a linear, single string pattern.
But, using of these two diagrams proves problematic , the first in that it is not a scale pattern and the second in trying to show the tone / semitone jump when moving to an adjacent string.
There are some concepts that can’t be meshed together in a visual format so easily.
For anyone who made it 77 replies into a thread on major scales…thinking about the scale degrees will also be helpful in your guitar future. Knowing where the 4th, 5th, flat 7th etc will be something you will need to know. In keeping with the examples with a G root on the 6th string, here’s that same major scale pattern with the scale degrees labeled:
If you start to build some familiarity with this the concepts like a 7th chord (which is how a flat 7th is referred to - it’s just a chord with a note a whole tone lower than the root), or playing a flat 5 (a note one semi tone below the 5) will make more sense. There’s a ton of ways scale degrees are useful for finding your way around the fretboard.
(Edited to correct my mis-use of the terms “intervals” and scale degrees - thank you Richard!)
Thanks for sharing a useful diagram @jsgreen …
There’s just one subtle yet important detail that needs amending. The numbers shown are scale degrees, not intervals.
Cheers 
| Richard | JustinGuitar Approved Teacher, Official Guide & Moderator
Yes, you are right - thanks for pointing that out, I’ve edited to make my post more accurate.
I am totally lost at this lesson. Everything was good up to this point. Followed along with the videos well, can do the Note Circle from memory, have filled in the Major Scale Worksheet several times… but when I got to this lesson it’s like I’ve fallen off a cliff.
Here’s where I’m confused (I think). What is the relationship between the notes on the Major Scale Worksheet and Pattern 1 of the Major Scale? I’ve tried several times to make sense of it and I just don’t see it. Thanks.
I’m assuming you are able to fill in the worksheet correctly using the formula for the major scale - TTSTTTS
For the key of G major, we have the notes G A B C D E F#
We could play all these notes on the same string. On the 6th string we would play the G on the 3rd fret, follow the T/S formula and end back on G at the 15th fret.
3 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 10 - 12 - 14 - 15
G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G
We can now lay out those same notes across all the strings. This allows us to play a scale in a certain area of the neck.
For pattern 1 of G major, this area is from fret 2 to 5.
The first eight notes of the pattern are the same ones as the ones we played on one string. But the pattern continues by repeating the notes in a higher octave.
So by playing the scale in a pattern, rather than on the same string, you can easily span two octaves and play legato/faster.
Other patterns exist in different areas. Every pattern has its own character and benefits / disadvantages. This has to do with the way the chord tones fall under the fingers.
Hi to all the theory learners,
I started my guitar journey 1 year ago and realized that some theory will help me improve my playing. There are chord shapes, minor pentatonic patterns, major and minor scales patterns etc. Most can be found on Justin´s amazing webpage. What would be very helpful for me is something like a big cheat sheet that I can put next to my guitar, helping me to remember a certain pattern without having to look it up on the webpage (usually not knowing where to start).
I found a good ressource here (Reddit - Dive into anything) but some of the patterns differ from Justins. Wouldnt a cheat sheet be a great addition to Justin`s Tools?
All the best,
Nik
Justin’s goal is to teach you how to play guitar. Learning scale patterns is part of the learning process. Cheat sheets are a crutch and don’t help in the learning process.
You should be learning and using these pattern one at a time.
Hey Nik,
I understand what you’re saying, but in the long run, learning the intervals on the fretboard will give you far greater knowledge, understanding and practical application. Make the intervals your goal, rather than the patterns. In this way, you become your own teacher, and the learning starts to compound pretty quickly.
The scale patterns, chord shapes etc are just a reflection of these intervals at work.
Absolutely nothing wrong with having some diagrams here and there, especially in the initial stages; but I’d be using them as a temporary measure for confirmation purposes of your own construction.
Cheers, Shane
This is a small cheat sheet I printed off and placed on a music stand. It’s from JG’s website, but I added some coloured boxes to emphasise how the patterns overlap and to show the relevant CAGED chord within the pattern. Note, the numbers on the top patterns are finger numbers and those on the bottom pattern are the interval numbers. [ mod correction - scale degree numbers, not interval numbers - see a similar misunderstanding addressed here
So why do we go to strings 3,2,1? strings 6,5,4 give you the do, re mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. isn’t that the end? why are we continuing on the other strings.
Within any given fret span (say frets 2-5 for the G major sale pattern 1 E-shape) there sit more than one octave span of the G major scale itself.
Including the lowest available sale note of F# (fret 2 of the 6th string) to the highest available note of A (fret 5 of the 1st string) the scale spans:
F#, G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G, A
17 scale tones in total.
All CAGED scale pattern shapes have 17 scale tones.
The scale patterns blend and merge together giving across the entire guitar fretboard a huge scale span of notes.
Why limit the options when there’s so many notes from low to high?
I have no idea honestly. just trying to get a handle on the bare basics. justin starts the lesson by stating the major scale is do re mi fa so la ti do, but then continues on past the “do” for many more notes (that dont sound anything like do re mi). my first rodeo with theory past grade 1 and 2.
Okay, your confusion is understandable.
Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do is one octave starting and ending on the same note with an octave between them.
That last Do can represent the end of one iteration and the start of a new iteration in a continuous chain or loop.
Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do
Do can represent the end and start of ocatve cycles of the major scale endlessly for many repeats.
… Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do …
@LesPaulMoreRay think of a piano. The white note span 6 octives but only contain 7 notes. The 6 strings of the guitar used in the scale pattern is 2 of those octives plus a few extra note to complete the pattern.
Thanks you Richard for posting this. It is a very clear chart and the colours help a lot.
Looking at major scale pattern 1. if you did not have the red on circle 2, how would you know that was the root note, and not the one in the circle 1.
