The easiest major scale pattern ever

I was checking out an instructional DVD from Paul Gilbert and in it he shows this great way of playing the minor blues scale which is a pentatonic minor with the flat 5 added to get 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, 7. Here's a picture of the pattern over one octave on two strings:



You can see that this contains some stretches, but I like the way it's easily repeated over groups of 2 strings:



So we have one 6 note pattern which is identical on pairs of strings 6-5, 4-3, and 2-1. It's so easy to remember, and the concept can be applied to other scales too such as the major scale:



Here's the entire pattern covering 3 octaves:



Also note how this pattern has a bonus characteristic that all notes on the same string are a tone apart. The semitone intervals occur where the pattern goes to the next adjacent string. This makes it super easy to remember.

More on the tritone

So, following on from the last post, if you string together the tritone across the fretboard you get the following pattern:



And the other cool thing is that it occurs twice in any given 12 fret span:



You may also note that this contains the octave patterns that I posted on previously. But the absolute best thing about this pattern is that it directly relates to a number of chords and modes:

• the major third and flattened seventh tones in a Dominant 7 chord, which also directly relates to the Mixolydian mode (the chord is built from the root of the mode and is unique to the mode)
• the root and sharpened fourth tones in a Major (#11) chord and any related chord variations—directly relates to the Lydian mode (chord is built from the root of the mode and is unique to the mode)
• the root and flattened fifth tones in a Diminished chord where the related mode is Locrian (same same)

There are other relationships, as this pattern must occur in all modes, although some of the related chords are quite dissonant or uncommon. Still, I'll map these out in a future posting once I get my head around this.

The other, other magic note

Some readers may have realised that the symmetry associated with the D note* must have a counterpart. That note is G# or Ab, which is the place where the musical alphabet wraps around. It has a special relationship to D which is a flat 5 (or sharp 4), which places it exactly half way between an octave span from one D to another. Here's an image of the piano keyboard showing the symmetry around G#/Ab:


* see the original 'magic note' post

Here are a couple of images showing the physical relationship between D and G#/Ab on the fretboard (note that the nut and 1st fret are not shown):





That relationship should make it easier to learn where all the G#/Ab notes are in relationship to D as it is almost always either 1 string and fret higher or 1 string and fret lower. The only catch is when going between strings 2 and 3 (the G and B strings) where the guitar tuning makes the span 2 frets rather than one:

The easiest octave pattern ever

When learning where each instance of a note, such as D, is on the fretboard its handy to know the relationship of that note on any string to the all the other occurrences of the note, either the same note or the note in other octaves.

There's an easy to remember pattern that covers the same note over two octaves. The same pattern can be used to cover strings 5-3-1 (A-G-high E) as a group and 6, 4 and 2 as the second group (low E-D-B). Here it is with its lowest note (A#) on the A string:



And here it is with its lowest note (A#) on the low E string:



You can see that the notes (and your fingers) maintain the same relationship in each pattern so it's easy to remember. I list the 5-3-1 version first because the note on the 1st string will set you up for the 6-4-2 version which starts on the same fret. Here's the whole pattern with the notes on strings 1 and 6 highlighted:



Next, to get between the notes on strings 2 and 5 (the B and A strings), the note on the 5th string is two frets higher. Here's the pattern (using F this time) with that relationship highlighted:



Best of all this covers every string and every instance of the note within a 12 fret span. The only catch is where the nut lies in relationship to the notes you're looking at, so you need to be familiar with using this pattern from any note within it.