DIATONIC WARM-UP

The warm up mapped out below is my attempt to get the work-out you get from the classic chromatic finger drills into a diatonic setting.

As I ranted before, there are a lot of chromatic finger workouts around, and to be fair they are probably a bit more intense than this, but I've never really been a fan of chromatic exercises.

Not because I don't think they work though.

If you have 6 hours a day to practice then it makes perfect sense to spend an hour or so on "finger press-ups."

But I, like most people, certainly anyone with a job, don't have 6 hours a day to practice. Whenever I have wanted to focus building finger strength or independence between fingers, I have always tried to do it with an exercise that was also a lick I might actually use in a solo or at least in a diatonic setting.

I have tabbed it out moving up and down the E and B strings, so if you follow the tab, you are giving your whole left hand a work out and practising moving a lick up the neck while staying in one key.

It also help you play around with three note per string patterns using only two notes per string at a time.

It's tabbed in D Minor for no other reason than it's quite easy to move it a full octave on most guitars.

I'd say pick it at first, then progress to using legato.

Enjoy!

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A WORKOUT FOR YOU LITTLE FINGER

The TAB below shows you a very simply  lick that incorporate a little trill using your little finger, or "pinky."

There are a lot of chromatic finger workouts around, and to be fair they are probably a bit more intense than this, but I've never really been a fan of chromatic exercises.

Not because I don't think they work though.

If you have 6 hours a day to practice then it makes perfect sense to spend an hour or so on "finger press-ups."

But I, like most people, certainly anyone with a job, don't have 6 hours a day to practice. Whenever I have wanted to focus on something like a weak pinky, I have always tried to do it with an exercise that was also a lick I might actually use in a solo.

I have tabbed it out moving up and down the E and B strings, so if you follow the tab, you are giving your weakest finger a work out and practising moving a lick up the neck while staying in one key.

It's tabbed in G Minor for no other reason than it's quite easy to move it a full octave on most guitars.

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THE DORIAN PENTATONIC SCALE

THE DORIAN PENTATONIC SCALE.*

*OK, I always give a scale a quick google before I pop it up here and it seems that the term "Dorian Pentatonic" is not really etched in stone. There are a few pentatonic variations that are quite reasonably referred to as "Dorian Pentatonic" since they have been adjusted to include a 6.

The version I am publishing here is a five note scale that contains the intervals: 1,b3,4,5,6.

I understand this is the version  used by players lie BB King and Robben Ford.

It is the 4th mode of The  Dominant Pentatonic Scale, or you can make it by lowering the b7 in The Minor Pentatonic Scale to a 6.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out THE DORIAN PENTATONIC SCALE for you all over the neck and as the five interlocking positions that link together to let you play the scale any where on the neck in any key.

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THE DOMINANT PENTATONIC SCALE

THE DOMINANT PENTATONIC SCALE.

It is a five note or "Pentatonic Scale" that contains the intervals: 1,2,3,5,b7.

So the same notes as a Dom9 chord, so the scale can be thought of as a Dom9 arpeggio, because... it is one.

It does lay on the fretboard in a way that make quite nice "scale boxes" as you will see below.

The 4th mode of the scale is quite interesting as well, it gives the intervals: 1,b3,4,5,6, so is a sort of Dorian themed pentatonic. I understand a lot of blues guys make this scale by flattening the b7 to a 6 in normal Minor Pentatonic. I think I first heard of this scale was in a Robben Ford video years ago, but however you create it, the notes are the same.

I'll probably do some diagrams for this Dorian Pentatonic soon.

I DID ALREADY CLICK HERE FOR THE DORIAN PENTATONIC SCALE!!!

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out THE DOMINANT PENTATONIC SCALE for you all over the neck and as the five interlocking positions that link together to let you play the scale any where on the neck in any key.

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THE IN-SEN SCALE

Yet another Japanese Pentatonic scale...

THE IN-SEN SCALE, or INSEN SCALE or IN SEN SCALE depending on where you click out there on yonder internet is a five note Japanese scale that contains the following intervals: 1,b2,4,5,b7.

So essentially The Phrygian Mode without a 3rd or 6th.

THE IN-SEN SCALE is very similar to The Iwato scale, the only difference being THE IN-SEN SCALE has a perfect rather than diminished 5th.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out THE IN-SEN SCALE for you all over the neck and as the five interlocking positions that link together to let you play the scale any where on the neck in any key.

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THE IWATO SCALE

Another Japanese scale to continue the theme...

THE IWATO SCALE is a 5 note/tone scale and contains the intevals: 1,b2,4,b5,b7.

Essentially The Locrian Mode with no 3rd or 6th.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out THE IWATO SCALE for you all over the neck and as the five interlocking positions that link together to let you play the scale any where on the neck in any key.

It also has 4 other modes that I will consider later.

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THE HIROJOSHI SCALE

THE HIROJOSHI SCALE is a five note/tone scale of Japanese origin.

It contains the intervals:1,2,b3,5,b6.

The same as the Aeolian Mode but without a 4th or a 7th.

As with The Kumoi Scale I found it amazing that taking two notes out of a Greek mode can give such a strong Japanese flavour to a scale

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE KUMOI SCALE

THE KUMOI SCALE is a scale of Japanese origin.

It is a five note/tone scale and contains the intervals: 1,2,b3,5,6.

Just noodle up and down it a few times and the Japanese sound will be apparent.
I though it seems really odd that if you take the 4th and the 7th out of The Dorian mode it suddenly sounds really Japanese!

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out KUMOI SCALE for you all over the neck and as the five interlocking positions that link together to let you play the scale any where on the neck in any key.

It also has 4 other modes that I will consider later.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE PELOG SCALE

THE PELOG SCALE.

One of the main scales in Balinese music.

Online, sources seem to vary as to how many notes are in it. Wikipedia seems convinced there are seven notes (with only 5 being used at one time or something) and a few guitar sites show it as a five note scale, but I'm going to go with the version I originally learned when I was a kid, and to be fair, forgot about, having barely used it.

It all came flooding back though when I started publishing all this stuff. I learned it as a six note scale from an excellent book called THE GUITAR GRIMOIRE. I'm not sure if it's still in print, but if it is, GET ONE! (My copy says 2nd Printing 1992)

So here goes the six note PELOG SCALE containing the intervals: 1,b2,b3,b4,5,b6

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE DOMINANT SUS SCALE

THE DOMINANT SUS SCALE is a six note/tone scale.

It contains the intervals 1,2,4,5,6,b7.

So Mixolydian or Dorian without a third.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE TWO SEMITONE TRITONE SCALE

THE TWO SEMITONE TRITONE SCALE is a 6 note/tone scale made by moving a a three note fragment by a tritone.

It contains the intervals: 1,b2,bb3,#4,5,b6.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE TRITONE SCALE.

THE TRITONE SCALE is made by taking the notes from 2 major chords with roots a tritone apart.

It contains the intervals: 1,b2,3,#4,5,b7 or if you prefer: 1,b2,3,b5,5,b7.

It's notated below with a #4

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE PROMETHEUS SCALE

This is not one I had ever heard of until recently.

I was looking for the new Alien film trailer and this also popped up because of my historical scale searches I guess.

According to Wikipedia,

The Prometheus scale is so called because of its prominent use in Alexander Scriabin's symphonic poem Prometheus: The Poem of Fire.

So now you know :-)

THE PROMETHEUS SCALE is a six note/tone scale and contains the intervals: 1,2,3,#4,6,b7.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE AUGMENTED SCALE

THE AUGMENTED SCALE contains the following intervals: 1,#2,3,5,b6,7.

Like the Diminished Scale THE AUGMENTED SCALE only has 2 modes.

If you look at the diagrams below, you will see that all the positions are just repeats of the same two shapes.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a three octave scale and as the various three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF ALL THE FREE GUITAR RESOURCES ON MY BLOG!

THE WHOLE TONE SCALE

THE WHOLE TONE SCALE, is a scale composed entire of note 2 frets or a "whole tone" apart.

It is contains the following intervals: 1,2,3,#4,#5,#6.

Because all the gaps between the notes in it are the same it doesn't have any modes in the same way other scales do. What ever note of the scale you start on, you get the same series of intervals.

This also means that all the "boxes" for the various positions are the same as well.

I have mapped them al out just to illustrate this.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a  three octave scale and as the three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key, although such notions don't hugely apply to the WHOLE TONE SCALE.

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THE DIMINISHED SCALE (HALF/WHOLE)

THE DIMINISHED SCALE (Half/Whole) is the only mode of the DIMINISHED SCALE.

It contains the intervals 1,b2,b3,3,#4,5,6,b7.

If you visualize it running up a single string you can see that it is made of alternating 1 and 2 fret gaps. Where as DIMINISHED (whole/half) start with a whole step gap, this variation obviously start with a half step gap.

One of the interesting results of this is that if you look at the diagrams below you will see that while it does have eight positions as would any eight note scale, you will see that it is just the same two shapes repeated over and over again.

Despite have eight notes in it THE DIMINISHED SCALE (Also Known as the Octatonic Scale)  only has 2 modes.This is the  HALF/WHOLE DIMINISHED version.

The "Standard" Whole/Half version can be found HERE.

The free guitar scale diagrams below lay out the scale for you all over the neck, as a four note per string three octave scale and as the eight three note per string patterns that will link together to let you play it all over the fretboard in any key.


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