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Practicing Major Scales

By: Frank Macri

Posted in: Jazz Guitar Lessons

So you’ve learned the major scales by running up and down each position to develop your technique but what can you do to help your improvisational skills? Music doesn’t always begin on the root of each chord, so a better method of practicing the major scale positions is by going up one mode and down the other.

The first figure is position one of the G major scale and starts by going up the Ionian mode, down the Dorian, up the Phrygian, down Lydian, up Mixolydian, then down Aeolian, up Locrian and finally back down Ionian.

The next figure reverses everything.

Practicing this way balances the importance of each note in a scale. Now when taking a solo, your ear can choose what note to play instead of your fingers gravitating straight to the root because of their memory always starting and ending there.