Major Scale Pattern 1, Major Scale Maestro 1

Intermediate Grade 4 Major Scale Maestro 1
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Let's explore Pattern 1 of the Major Scale and start jamming with it!


View the full lesson at Major Scale Pattern 1, Major Scale Maestro 1 | JustinGuitar

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In practicing Major Scale Pattern 1, my ‘mistakes’ almost come with my right hand missing a string or hitting the wrong string especially with alternate picking. (I have the pattern well memorized). Any suggestion or lesson I might look at to help with the right hand in general.

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Hi @Sadler and welcome to the community.
If your fretting hand fingers know what to do and where to go then a simple approach here is to employ your eyes and look carefully at your picking hand. Plus, as in so many things, do it very slow so that you can do it correctly. Learn and practice it correctly and you will continue to be able to do it correctly. Practice makes permanent so practice perfectly.
Cheers :blush:
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide & Moderator

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What Richard says is probably the only way to do this. You need to teach your picking hand which new strings start with a downstoke and which ones you have to lift over in order to start with an upstroke. The only way is to start slowly and build it up over time.

Did you have the same problem in Module 10 when we were taught to play the C Major scale in the open position? I know I did. Slowing it down and repetition got me through it.

Alternate Picking C Major

Without wanting to overcomplicate matters I did see a video of a teacher advising his student to dismiss what his fretting hand is telling his left hand to do and mute the strings whilst picking through a pattern thus isolating the picking hand. That to me seemed over the top but it is harder than you think lol.

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I have this exact problem! So you’re not alone with this.

Also trying to improvise to Justin’s jamtrack in G is seeming to be quite overwhelming.

It’s not easy to see that I’m gonna get any decent riffs out of scale improvisations any time soon. If ever, to be honest :see_no_evil:

But I guess there’s not much more to do than trying and trying and hope some day something is going to click, and it starts to sound like music.

Riku

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I don’t wanna learn those stupid scales :crying_cat_face:

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Hi @Riku
Check this out for inspiration. Guitar Challenge (Improv) - Acoustic Pop in G Major (Justin Sandercoe backing track)

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Thanks for the link Richard!

I’m sure that’s going to be helpful for me.

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Hi, I’ve been practicing scale 1 for about a month now and made my way from 70 to 90 bpm, but have been stuck there since. Is it better for me to keep just practicing that same pattern over and over until I can get to something like 120 bpm with to hits per beat? Or is it ok to move on at my current or slightly higher speed and start with the re-active listening exercise and/or pattern 2? Thanks!

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Hi Martin,

Do you mean pattern 1 of the major / minor pentatonic? Before tackling any other patterns, I’d suggest you start the re-active listening and improvise over backing tracks. After all, in that setting phrasing gets more important and you won’t play the whole scale up and down but use smaller fragments or repeat certain notes, so the tempo could be less of an issue. Of course, you can keep on perfecting the pattern and working on increasing the tempo, but I’d consider that more of a “technical” exercise.

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Agree with @Jozsef here. Nail that Pattern 1 of the Major scale in every way possible. It will assist you enormously when moving to other patterns/positions, and to other scales.

After all, the other 4 patterns are just the same notes/intervals in a different part of the fretboard.

Playing over backing tracks is a great exercise.

Other great exercises include;

playing the pattern 3-in-line, 4-in-a-line
reversing back and forth within the pattern
playing it in 3rds, and 5ths,
play it using one finger.

This will help really ingrain the sounds, the notes/intervals, and how they function together.

Cheers,
Shane

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Thanks Shane, Jozsef,

this is helpful! So just to double check: you’re saying getting fast (e.g. 120 bpm two hits per beat) is not as important, but rather being able to make music with it? I can still work on getting faster on the scale as a technical exercise in my practice routine.

And sry yes I meant major scale pattern one, as taught in the first lesson of this module.

Thanks again !
Martin

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Hey Martin,

120bpm 2 hits a click in 4/4 timing (ie. 8th notes) is a good speed to aim for from where you’re at currently. That may take a little while though. Be kind to yourself though. It’ll come with practice. You may find in a while you can go much quicker than that. Accuracy is the key though. And making music with it is the reason. You’ve probably heard Justin say this quite a bit.

Those other exercises are going to really help ingrain the scale, and make it more musical. Justin has some great lessons on these on the website.
Playing with backing tracks is great cos youre making music straight away. It’ll be cumbersome and slow to start with, as it is for everybody, but the more you do it, the more you’ll develop.
Checkout those lessons when they come in the course. If you follow Justins method and timing of lessons, it’ll hold you in good stead.

All the best,

Cheers,
Shane

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Difficulty navigating the new grading structure - grades 3, 4, 5

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Hey folks, I’ve got a question regarding the alternate picking. Justin recommends to always alternate between up and down picks. I noticed that I tend to be more effective when using two down picks in a row, if I move up a string(For example A to D String). It’s the same for me when going down(higher) the strings, I use more up picks. Hope you’re with me, up and down confused me quite a bit :smiley:

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You teaching yourself a bad habit that will be very hard to break.
Try saying Down Up Down Up out loud when practicing.
Do it slow with no mistake and in a few days it will become natural. Justin teaches everything for a reason that may not be clear to you right now but when you are further down the road you won’t be struggling to break a bad habit you picked up.

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I find doing this scale repetitively (~10time) my hand on the pinky and ring finger when hitting the low E and A strings notes hurts/feels a pinch a long the metacarpal,(area on hand below the finger on the side of palm before wrist.). As any such pinch can’t be good looking to elminate it. my thumb for the scale is normally behind the 1st and 2nd finger on back side of neck on upper portion (towards playesr face about E string) . if I reorient my thumb lower about D string and splayed out towards the head/tuners (beyond 1st finger) then the metacarpal seems to slide outwards (away from the player on bottom of neck) and the pinch feeling goes away. Is this normal /common to have to adjust thumb through the scale? or perhaps I am just stubby and inflexible :slight_smile: .Thanks all!

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What a great lesson along with the backing track as well. :smiley:

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@SgtAuto You don’t want pain so something needs to change. I would suggest 10 or more repetitions is too many. Three without error is a good platform. Once done, the scale is there to make music with, not to run up and down. And mostly, that will focus on the D, G, B and E strings. If you have moved your thumb to a slightly more horizontal angle along the neck rather than perpendicular to it and parallel to the frets then I would advise against that. Have you tried adjusting your posture, seating, guitar-neck angle etc?

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I am learning this scale on an acoustic guitar and I have smaller hands. I am finding it’s hard to keep my hand still and stretch my fingers over 4 frets. If I do this, my pinky is basically on it’s side and not playing with the tip of my finger. Should I move my hands slightly if needed in order to play the string on the tip of my finger or is it better try and hold it’s position and play with the side of my finger? This issue is mostly prevalent on the thicker 2 strings. This was easier with the C major scale in open position as it was only three frets. 4 is a beast though especially on the thicker frets. Hope this makes sense. Appreciate any tips or insight! Thanks!

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