Learning to play music is mastering a language, if you don’t understand the fundamentals it is very difficult to speak fluently. Before you can string a sentence together you must first learn about nouns, verbs and adjectives and how they relate to each other. Learning scales on guitar is similar, scales are the fundamental ingredients needed for your overall playing ability.

Have you ever wondered how great guitarists almost effortlessly play at the speed of lightening up and down their fret board? It seems almost impossible to figure out how a player knows where their fingers need to be. It all comes down to knowing your instrument and building speed and accuracy through scales.

There are many benefits to incorporating scale exercises into your practise regime including:

• Improving dexterity in your fingers
• Continued learning of note placement and chord progression
• Improving solo and improvisation techniques
• Improving speed and accuracy in your overall playing
• Builds your ear

Scale exercises open the door for continued learning and improvement regardless of your playing level or genre of choice. As in life the more knowledge you gain the more you can contribute and make accurate decisions. It is important not to limit yourself to less technical pieces of music because you lack the foundation to have the speed and accuracy to play them. Learning to play scales is the most basic form for ‘getting to know your instrument’; the better you are at them the better a player you will be.

As a beginner, scale exercises teach you where notes are located on the fret board, what notes are in each key and how to associate these notes with chords. When you understand a scale you will then be able to understand how they combine together. If you picture a guitar neck as a map, scales are the directions that will allow you to navigate your way around. When you know your scales, your fingers learn where they need to be for each chord and key.

As an advanced player, scale exercises will help you improve your technical playing. Essentially it is like a workout for your fingers to improve speed and accuracy as well as continued learning of where notes are on the guitar. When you know your notes and how they relate to each other in all areas of the neck, there is less effort and thought involved when playing. The more you practice scales, the more you master your skills which will allow you to solo and improvise properly.

Is it really necessary? Well the answer to this question after reading all the benefits, is up to you. What kind of player do you want to be? Do you understand all of the different fingering patterns on your guitar neck? Sometimes you need to read the instructions in order to put things together properly. Scale exercises are the instructions for constructing and maintaining your musical abilities.

Each of these products provide excellent instruction on how to improve your skills and confidence through learning scales. Three courses have been selected for you to consider, so that you can choose based upon your preferred method of learning.

Craig Bassett presents a well organized and effective system to internalize guitar scales. His approach exercises the ears, eyes, fingers and intellect in combination. This all encompassing method build your confidence through improved technique, speed and improvisational skills. The course material is made available through a membership site.

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Another excellent Craig Bassett course! This course is an eleven step system to improve your guitar playing through visualization and exercises designed to build your knowledge of the fretboard.

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This course is contained in an e-book with a comprehensive lesson plan each day for 150 days. Each lesson is laid out in complete detail. Pentatonic Power includes 273 examples in tab and notation, example licks, pointers on technique and an in depth look at each fingering of the pentatonic scale.

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Guitar Scales Method is downloadable multimedia software. It teaches you, plays with you, trains and drills you with accelerated learning techniques, and takes you step by step from your current level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) all the way to total mastery of scales, modes, and improvisation. It is an excellent tool to help you to develop speed and precision, play scales and modes with effective fingering, and develop a rich collection of scale patterns.

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