Partial G Major Scale

The Building Blocks of Melody

Now that we've gotten comfortable with striking individual strings, we'll begin to incorporate some fretted notes. It won't be long until you are playing your first song! Learning just a few notes of the G major scale will open the door to being able to play a lot of melodies. Pay close attention to the fingerings in the tab and in the video. Fingerings are the suggested finger numbers to use for a particular fret. Make sure the free edge of your fingernails on your fretting hand are cut very short - almost non-existent. You need them this short so you can play right on your fingertips. Make sure to prepare your fret hand fingers just as you have been with your striking hand/finger. Finger preparation is so important. It will help you play more consistently, and is key to increasing speed and smoothness. It's all about economy of motion.

The of this exercise is an ascending partial scale. That means the notes go from a lower pitch to a higher pitch. The is a descending partial scale. This means the notes go from a higher pitch to a lower pitch. Use the focus feature to loop an individual measure or link multiple measures to loop and practice an entire section at a time.

In the next lesson, we'll add the bum-ditty to the scale.