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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I can’t give you the official answer Josh, but I move my hand to allow my pinky to rest up against the fret. You gotta do what you gotta do.
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Josh, for those thicker strings, you don’t need or want to arch your fingers up and over and press with tips. It is normal to leave them flexed and stretched out much flatter then if you were playing chords and use a bit more of the tip where it merges to the pad.
Starting position 2nd finger on root, 4th finger on its fret.
Arriving at the note one fret below the root on the 6th string.
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Appreciate the response Richard! Thank you for the insight!
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Thanks for the reply! Appreciate it.
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Thank you Richard for the reply. So I had my thumb kind of at kind of 30° just behind at the first dot in the middle of the third fret. And would move it towards the head like you advised against. I found moving the thumb just behind the third fret bar and parallel to the fret, made quite a difference. So basically, I’m in the middle of the scale. Thank you.
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So down about my scales and learning in general 
for some reason my fingers are so clumsy despite finger stretches and finger gyms and chromatic exercises almost every day. Still having trouble getting my fingers to spread out onto each fret. Especially middle finger and ring finger want to be together and I get so frustrated I use my right hand to try to pry them apart! 
I guess I do get better but so slowly I don’t notice it from one day to the next. It also doesn’t help that I don’t fully understand the use of the scale patterns or how they relate to the caged system and ultimately what use it all is. I did the whole beginners course but I don’t think there was a lesson on CAGED unless I missed it? I feel like I’m missing something that should be obvious. That on top of the not being able to make my fingers go where I want them, I wonder if I’ll be stuck on grade 4 forever…it’s been a couple months now and I really want to move on but also I want to do things properly and not skip anything important. Rant over 
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From memory, Justin uses the G major scale in his major scale intro lesson? I don’t know why he chose that, because it’s a big stretch for a beginner. Try moving the scale two frets up to the A major scale. It requires much less of a stretch. Or the C major scale which requires almost no stretch at all. When you’ve got the scale pattern internalised you can work your way back down to the G major scale for a bit of finger torture.
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Thanks jacksprat! It’s definitely easier to do the scale further up the neck but even the C major scale isn’t completely comfortable for me. I guess I just need more practice.
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Hi
I’m having a bit of trouble understanding the part about when “descending the scale you go as low as you can.” I’m not sure what as low as you can go means.
And, when ascending the G Major scale, doesn’t the scale end on the A note (5th string, high E string)?
I’ve done my major scale chart, and some other practical music theory. I understand that the major scale is 7 notes plus the octave (do re mi fa so la di do) and Justin mentions in the video that major scales are 16 notes.
And, I’ve counted out the 16 notes and they add up correctly haha.
Why am I not getting why the “A” while ascending and the “F#m” while descending are there?
Thanks
Andrew
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Hey Andrew.
Justins instructions/ teaching here is essentially a choice made by Justin in how to initially practice the scale.
It simply makes it 16 notes up, and 16 notes down, then you go up 1 to the root and start again. Gets a rhythm going, and gets you used to hearing it all revolve that root note.
It also assists when starting to alternate pick the scale sequence. It will keep the ‘ups and downs’ in the same places on repeating iterations.
Cheers, Shane
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Low as you can go means all the notes that are in the scale that you can reach from that position. So, that would include the F# (string 6, fret 2). Same with the high A note at the top of the pattern (string 1, fret 5).
As for the why, they are included in the pattern because they are notes in the scale. There’s no rule that says the highest and lowest notes in a pattern must be root notes.
Also, as Shane mentioned above, there is a good reason for having an even number of notes in the pattern, regarding repeating the same picking pattern each time through the pattern.
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I don’t understand why this is called E shape if we do the pattern in the key of G or A .
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Hey Dave,
Its called the E shape because the E shape chord ( not actually an E major chord), sits right inside the pattern; in fact it defines the pattern.
Cheers, Shane
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This may help you visualise why it is called the E shape. The diagram shows the E shaped Major scale in Key of G . If you imagine the 3rd fret to be the nut, the notes shown in blue and the root notes, it would be the same shape as the open E chord.
Each scale pattern in the CAGED system is based on the open chord shapes.
In this case we have another G Major scale but based on the C shape (Pattern 3)
Again the blue notes and the root notes correspond to the shape of the open C chord, where this time the 7th fret would be the nut and G and e are played as open strings and the thick E string not played.
Seeing the Open chords with each scale shape should help you to understand the naming convention.
Hope that helps
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Hi group. I am still confused as to when I would play the major scales……I have leaned all three along with x2 minor pent scales, but for backing tracks for blues I always go to the minor pent scales……
Would I use these major scales for normal songs? Do you do riffs on these scales?
Any help appreciated
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Blues is indeed a different story, but in theory the major scale is a perfect fit for many genres in Western music.
The natural major scale is a good starting point for any song that’s in a major key. Take any song in G major and play a little melody / riff using the G major scale. You should be fine.
However, often you’ll see other scales being used that are derived from the major scale. Think of them as major scales with a certain flavor.
Country music uses the major pentatonic scale a lot.
For rock music, the mixolydian scale (the major scale with a flattened 7th degree) is a popular choice because it has ‘attitude’. Some subgenres turn to the lydian scale (the major scale with a raised 4th degree). Et cetera.
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I tend to think of scales as a palette of notes, rather than a fixed entity that is utilised in one type of music or another.
Major scales as a framework, can fit very well over major chords progressions, but elements of them can be used anywhere.
Major pentatonic is great in the Blues over Dom7 chords. That 2nd and 6th from the major scale can sound great over a Blues progression.
Lots of flavours, as Jeff said.
Cheers, Shane
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That’s amazingly profound to me.
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Sorry folks.
I’m wearing my pedantic hat in writing this.
There are 17 notes in the major scale patterns Justin teaches.
The reasoning is simple.
Each pattern spans a certain number of frets. Included in each pattern are each and every note that the scale contains that can be found on those frets - inclusive of notes that are higher than the highest root note and lower than the lowest root note.
There is an advantage to having an odd number of notes - when you start the pattern with a down pick on the lowest root note and cycle all the way up and down and around it, you will end / begin the next cycle with a down pick also.
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