Scales for all Positions
So we've looked at a few different scales in open and 5th position. Now let's put on our big boy shoes and learn how to play in any position.
Contents
PreReqs
Scale Maps
The Major and Natural Minor Scales can easily be reduced to 7 different shapes, that correspond to the player's position on the fretboard. The 7 positions are based on the position of the tonic note.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tonic Notes Major = M Minor = m |
|M|-|-|-|-| |-|-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|-|-| |-|-|M|-|-| |-|-|-|-|m| |M|-|-|-|-| |
|-|M|-|-| |-|-|-|m| |-|-|-|-| |m|-|-|M| |-|-|-|-| |-|M|-|-| |
|m|-|-|M|-| |-|-|-|-|-| |M|-|-|-|-| |-|-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|-|-| |m|-|-|M|-| |
|-|-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|-|-| |-|-|M|-|-| |-|-|-|-|m| |M|-|-|-|-| |-|-|m|-|-| |
|-|-|-|-|m| |M|-|-|-|-| |-|m|-|-|M| |-|-|-|-|-| |-|-|M|-|-| |-|-|-|-|m| |
|-|-|-|-| |-|M|-|-| |-|-|m|-| |-|-|-|-| |m|-|-|M| |-|-|-|-| |
|-|-|-|-|-| |m|-|-|M|-| |-|-|-|-|m| |M|-|-|-|-| |-|-|m|-|-| |-|-|-|-|-| |
| All Notes for Pos. |
|M|-|o|-|o| |o|-|m|-|o| |-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|M|-|o| |o|-|o|-|m| |M|-|o|-|o| |
|o|M|-|o| |-|o|-|m| |o|-|o|o| |m|-|o|M| |o|o|-|o| |o|M|-|o| |
|m|-|o|M|-| |o|o|-|o|-| |M|-|o|-|o| |o|-|m|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |m|-|o|M|-| |
|o|-|m|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |-|o|M|-|o| |o|-|o|-|m| |M|-|o|-|o| |o|-|m|-|o| |
|o|-|o|-|m| |M|-|o|-|o| |-|m|-|o|o| |-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|M|-|o| |o|-|o|-|m| |
|o|o|-|o| |o|M|-|o| |o|-|m|-| |o|-|o|o| |m|-|o|M| |o|o|-|o| |
|o|-|o|o|-| |m|-|o|M|-| |o|-|o|-|m| |M|-|o|-|o| |o|-|m|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |
| Major Tonic |
|x|-|o|-|o| |*|-|o|-|o| |-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|x|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |x|-|o|-|o| |
|o|x|-|o| |-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|o| |o|-|o|x| |o|o|-|o| |o|x|-|o| |
|o|-|o|x|-| |o|o|-|o|-| |x|-|o|-|*| |o|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |o|-|o|x|-| |
|o|-|o|-|o| |*|-|o|o|-| |-|o|x|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |x|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |
|o|-|o|-|o| |x|-|o|-|o| |-|o|-|o|*| |-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|x|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |
|o|o|-|o| |o|x|-|o| |o|-|o|-| |o|-|o|o| |o|-|o|x| |o|o|-|o| |
|o|-|o|o|-| |o|-|o|x|-| |o|-|o|-|*| |x|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |
| Minor Tonic |
|o|-|o|-|o| |*|-|x|-|o| |-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|x| |o|-|o|-|o| |
|o|o|-|o| |-|o|-|x| |o|-|o|o| |x|-|o|o| |o|o|-|o| |o|o|-|o| |
|x|-|o|o|-| |o|o|-|o|-| |o|-|o|-|*| |o|-|x|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |x|-|o|o|-| |
|o|-|x|-|o| |*|-|o|o|-| |-|o|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|x| |o|-|o|-|o| |o|-|x|-|o| |
|o|-|o|-|x| |o|-|o|-|o| |-|x|-|o|*| |-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|x| |
|o|o|-|o| |o|o|-|o| |o|-|x|-| |o|-|o|o| |x|-|o|o| |o|o|-|o| |
|o|-|o|o|-| |x|-|o|o|-| |o|-|o|-|*| |o|-|o|-|o| |o|-|x|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |
| Fingering for Pos. |
|i|-|m|-|p| |*|-|m|-|p| |-|i|m|-|p| |-|i|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |
|i|m|-|p| |-|m|-|p| |i|-|r|p| |i|-|r|p| |i|m|-|p| |i|m|-|p| |
|i|-|r|p|-| |i|m|-|p|-| |i|-|r|-|*| |i|-|r|-|p| |i|-|r|p|-| |i|-|r|p|-| |
|i|-|m|-|p| |*|-|m|r|-| |-|i|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |
|i|-|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |-|i|-|r|*| |-|i|m|-|p| |-|i|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |
|i|m|-|p| |i|m|-|p| |i|-|r|-| |i|-|r|p| |i|-|r|p| |i|m|-|p| |
|i|-|r|p|-| |i|-|r|p|-| |i|-|r|-|*| |i|-|m|-|p| |i|-|m|-|p| |i|-|r|p|-| |
| Whole/Half Patterns |
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- * usually unplayed double notes
In Plain English
So that's a lot of information. Let's break it down. There are 7 notes in the common major/minor scales. Any one of those notes can be the lowest note available for whatever position you are playing in - that gives us 7 different patterns of notes if we restrict ourselves to a 5-fret "box". In any of these 7 patterns, the tonic note will occur in 1 of 7 places:
- 6th string, 1st note
- 6th string, 2nd note
- 6th string, 3rd note
- 5th string, 1st note
- 5th string, 2nd note
- 5th string, 3rd note
- 4th string, 1st note
For the major scale, these correspond to the patterns listed above. For the minor scale, their patterns are identical to their relative major - there are a number of quick ways to determine this, as seen below.
Notice we are basically attempting to use 3 notes per string on each string; however, the M3 tuning between 2nd and 3rd strings complicates that a bit, causing us to experience a doubled note. Thus, the 2nd or 3rd string will only have 2 notes in each pattern. Whether the 2 note string is the 2nd or 3rd string depends on the pattern and preferred fingering of the player. The *'s above are the doubled notes that I prefer to leave out.
So first we look at all the possible positions with the major and minor tonic note locations only. Then we look at all the notes for that position. The next two rows are basically the same thing but with only the major or minor tonics marked, to be more clear. The next row is the fingering to use for the pattern. Finally, we have the whole-half step pattern formed on each string by the notes.
Tonic Note Shapes
| Major | Minor |
|---|---|
|1|-|2|3|-| |5|6|-|7|-| |3|-|4|-|5| |7|-|1|-|2| |4|-|5|6|-| |1|-|2|3|-| |
|3|-|4|-|5| |7|-|1|2|-| |-|5|6|-|7| |2|-|3|-|4| |6|-|7|-|1| |3|-|4|-|5| |
Here are the potential locations of the tonic notes for the major or minor scales, with which pattern to use when the tonic note is located in that placement. Notice for the major tonics, the location of the tonic in terms of the lowest note of the sequence determines which pattern to use. For example, when the lowest note is the tonic note, you use pattern 1. When the lowest-pitched tonic note doesn't occur until the 4th string, you use pattern 7.
For open position C Major, the tonic is located at position 6 in the above pattern. So you'd use pattern 6. For 5th position C Major, the tonic is located at position 3; and we use pattern 3. For G Major, open position is pattern 3 and 5th position is pattern 7.
For minor scales, you can use the same logic, but add 2. So when the lowest note is the tonic note, you use pattern 3 (1 + 2). When the tonic note is the 7th note in the pattern, you use pattern 2 (7 + 2 [-7]).
For A Minor, open position is pattern 6 and 5th position is pattern 3. For E Minor, open position is pattern 3 and 5th position is pattern 7.
You'll notice C Major and A Minor (as well a G Major and E Minor) use the same patterns for the same positions, which only makes sense as they are relative major/minor's and contain the exact same set of notes.
The tonic note patterns above are 2 of the actual scale patterns, but you shouldn't think of them like that. They are simply constructed by mapping all the root notes from the prior pattern. So what if our tonic note occurs in one of the unmarked fret locations above? For example, what if the tonic note was located on 6th string, 4th fret (relative to the shape, not absolute to the fretboard), between the "4" and "5" above? That simply means you are basically in no man's land, between two possible positions that will make sense. If you try to use pattern 5, there are two notes below the tonic, each separated by whole steps. This means the 6th string has a w-w pattern, requiring 5 frets to cover all 3 notes. If you position your tonic as the 4th fret in your pattern box instead of the 5th fret, you cannot reach the note 2 notes below the tonic without shifting position 1 fret. Similarly, if you used pattern 4, you'd notice you can't play the note above the tonic on the 6th string without getting outside the pattern box.
C Major Layout on Fretboard
|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|
|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|
|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|
|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|
|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|
|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|
Fret # 0 3 5 7 9 12 15 17 19 21 24
Scale 6------ 3-------- 7-------- 4-------- 1--------
Map 4-------- 1-------- 5-------- 2------
# 5-------- 2------ 6------ 3--------
The scale map #'s are ordered as the number of notes lower than the root note + 1. Another way to look at it is if you start playing the pattern ascending from the lowest note, how many notes do you play before reaching the tonic. For the key of C Major in open position, there are 5 lower notes, so the pattern is #6.
As you ascend positions, this necessarily moves the tonic note lower by 1 note. This means the patterns actually occur in reverse as you ascend the fretboard, as you can see in the diagram above.
G Major Layout on Fretboard
|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|
|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|
|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|
|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|
|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|
|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|-|o|x|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|
Fret # 0 3 5 7 9 12 15 17 19 21 24
Scale 3-------- 7-------- 4-------- 1-------- 5--------
Map 1-------- 5-------- 2------ 6------
# 2------ 6------ 3-------- 7--------
All we've done is moved the patterns leftward by 5 frets...or raised them by 7 frets. Going from C to G is a P4 downward and P5 upward, which correspond to -5 and +7 frets.
E Minor Layout on Fretboard
|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|
|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|
|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|
|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|
|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|
|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|x|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|o|-|o|-|o|
Fret # 0 3 5 7 9 12 15 17 19 21 24
Scale 3-------- 7-------- 4-------- 1-------- 5--------
Map 1-------- 5-------- 2------ 6------
# 2------ 6------ 3-------- 7--------
The only change here from G Major to E Minor is to reposition the roots. All the notes are the same. Notice with the minor roots, our method of determining which pattern is a bit different. Before we looked at the location of the tonic note in reference to the lowest notes for the position. We can do the same thing here, but we have to add 2 to get the major root. For example, in open position, the low E is the lowest or first note of the pattern. Add 2 to get the 3 pattern, which corresponds to the major root, G, as the 3rd lowest note in the pattern.
Whole-Half Patterns
In the initial table, the last row contained the whole-half patterns for each string for each position. I listed this because there are a few interesting occurrences here that can help us develop some shortcuts to remember the patterns.
If you remember all the way back to the 1st String lesson, there are only 3 possible patterns for any string with 3 notes, given the scale we're playing contains only whole and half steps:
- |o|o|-|o|-| or half-whole or h-w
- |o|-|o|o|-| or whole-half or w-h
- |o|-|o|-|o| or whole-whole or w-w
We also said that each sequence occurs twice in the major and minor scales, and the w-w pattern occurs an additional time (so 3x total). Let's look at a C major scale using 10 strings tuned all to Perfect 4ths:
A---------------------------------------------------------2-3-5-
Fb--------------------------------------------------1-3-5-------
Cb--------------------------------------------1-3-5-------------
Gb--------------------------------------1-3-5-------------------
Db--------------------------------1-3-4-------------------------
Ab--------------------------1-3-4-------------------------------
Eb--------------------1-2-4-------------------------------------
Bb--------------1-2-4-------------------------------------------
F---------0-2-4-------------------------------------------------
C---0-2-4-------------------------------------------------------
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D
You can quickly verify that all the notes are correct by counting the half-steps from the open string note. For example, the 3rd string/3rd fret D can be verified by adding 3 half-steps (or a m3) above the open string Cb (Cb - C - Db - D). So why the hell are we talking about 10 strings alternate tunings? Well let's look at all the adjacent strings; there's really only 7 patterns:
| C, F, Bb | F, Bb, E | Bb, Eb, Ab | Eb, Ab, Db | Ab, Db, Gb | Db, Gb, Cb | Gb, Cb, Fb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|-|o|x|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |x|-|o|-|o| |
|-|o|o|-|o| |-|o|x|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |
|o|-|o|x|-| |o|o|-|o|-| |o|x|-|o|-| |
|o|-|o|o|-| |o|-|o|x|-| |o|o|-|o|-| |
|o|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |o|-|o|x|-| |
|x|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|o|-| |
|o|-|o|-|o| |x|-|o|-|o| |o|-|o|-|o| |
3 Notes Per String
Ultimate Goals
Play each pattern until it becomes like 2nd nature. Remember that the major scale is built off the w-w-h-w-w-w-h pattern, and the natural minor uses the same pattern but with a different starting note (w-h-w-w-h-w-w). As you play each pattern, you'll really start to feel the whole and half steps as well as hear where the tonic note is. You'll be able to tell if you confused something and threw in an extra note, or shifted a note a half-step in either direction. You'll get a feel for the "gravity" of the tonic note.
You'll start to see more and more of the relationships between notes. For instance, the leading tone (7th note) in the major scale does not have a P5 above and P4 below but a tt interval above and below, while every other note does. The 4th note of the scale is the only note that doesn't have a P4 above and P5 below.
It's easy to see whole vs. half steps on the same string. Seeing them between pairs of strings takes a little more getting used to, especially considering the 2nd and 3rd strings' different relative tuning compared to other pairs of strings. Running through these patterns really helps cement that idea in your head, especially if you sing solfege along with your playing. The major scale is Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do (Dough Ray Me Fah So Lah Tea Dough). The Minor Scale is Do Re Ma Fa So Le Ta Do (Dough Ray May Fah So Lay Tah Dough).
So We're Memorizing Shapes?
Yes, but you always have to remember the shapes are a means to an ends. To play actual melodies, we may jump around inside any particular pattern. Also, there is no guarantee a song will stay 100% inside a particular key. It may borrow notes outside the scale, altering how we play in the pattern. I prefer to look of these patterns as a "filter". We are simply blocking out the notes that are "outside" of the major or minor key we're playing in.