Position

Position is a relatively simple concept - it refers the fret number that your index finger will naturally fret. For example, in figure 1 below, your index finger would play the 2nd fret. This is 2nd position. So there are as many positions on a guitar as there are frets + open position which is covered below.

fig. 1
--2--3--4--5--

Open Position

The easiest position for us to start in is open position. This is a bit different from all other positions because here our index finger is actually positioned to fret the first fret. However, because we are using open strings, it is called open position. The C major scale uses all the open strings and never requires playing any 4th fret notes, which means we don't need our pinky to do any work yet, which is good because it is naturally the weakest.

Figure 2 illustrates a full C major scale in open position. Each position contains a little more than 2 octaves of scale notes; however, depending on the position and scale, only one of those scales may have continuous notes from the root note to its octave. Figure 3 contains all the possible C major notes in open position.

fig. 2   
e-------------------------
b--------------------0--1-
g--------------0--2-------
d-----0--2--3-------------
a--3----------------------
e-------------------------
   c  d  e  f  g  a  b  c
  
fig. 3   
e-------------------------------------------0--1--3--
b----------------------------------0--1--3-----------
g----------------------------0--2--------------------
d-------------------0--2--3--------------------------
a----------0--2--3-----------------------------------
e-0--1--3--------------------------------------------
  e  f  g  a  b  c  d  e  f  g  a  b  c  d  e  f  g
 

Figures 4 and 5 below represent the same notes as Figures 2 and 3 above; however, they use a scale map instead of tab. Notice how the scale map uses the horizontal axis for fret numbers while tab uses it to represent time.

fig. 4
|-|-|-|-|-|    
|x|R|-|-|-|    
|x|-|x|-|-|    
|x|-|x|x|-|    
|-|-|-|R|-|    
|-|-|-|-|-|    
 0 1 2 3 4  

fig. 5
|x|x|-|x|-|    
|x|R|-|x|-|    
|x|-|x|-|-|    
|x|-|x|x|-|    
|x|-|x|R|-|    
|x|x|-|x|-|    
 0 1 2 3 4   

Knowing all the notes in the C major scale in open position isn't necessarily going to happen in a single lesson, and you shouldn't dwell on this information trying to take it all in yet. The focus here should be on visualizing the scale and playing it using the references above.

Homework: Play the C scale in open position ascending (fig. 2) and descending (I leave it to you to figure it out). Go slowly. You are going to make mistakes - that's ok. It will be difficult to pick the correct strings. Try playing all 6 strings (fig. 3). Familiarize yourself with reading tab and scale maps.