Beginner Guitar Scales Made Simple With YouTube

 This is the fifth in a series of articles which aims to discuss the exceptional beginner guitar lessons videos which can be found on YouTube. The lesson we are going to look at here is aimed at any new guitar player wishing to learn beginner guitar scales. The video is produced by the popular beefcakejcc YouTube channel and is a great example of the fantastic beginner guitar tuition available for free on the internet today. The video uses a few scale diagrams during the lesson, and these have been reproduced at the end of this article for your further study.

Anybody wishing to learn how to play guitar scales would do well to watch this video; it is a straightforward introduction to guitar scales for beginners. The first of the simple guitar scales that is introduced is the E minor pentatonic scale. This is a very common scales used in rock and blues quite extensively. As a pentatonic scale it only has five notes, making it one of the most easy to learn.

The musician is shown the finger pattern for an open version of the scale at the bottom of the fret board. The tutor plays the scale up and down, showing quite clearly how beginners can finger this simple scale effectively. The concept of alternate picking is introduced, this describes the process of picking each note in the scale with an alternating up stroke and down stroke, this is an important concept for beginner guitar players to assimilate and it is fundamental in developing a fast technique. Often alternate picking is left out of beginner tutorials, and it is refreshing to see it discussed in this tutorial.

The next scale introduced in this excellent guitar scales lesson is the E blues scale, which is almost identical to the E minor scale, but it adds in an extra note, a flattened 5th. The scale fingering is demonstrated, with the excellent addition of the tutor calling out the intervals which make up the scale, a very good way to teach guitar scales. Again, the student is encouraged to practice the scale forwards and backwards, using an alternate picking technique. This part of the video really brings home the importance of practice when it comes to beginner guitar scales. The tutor tells the student to play the scale backwards and forward non-stop whilst alternate picking. This is the fundamental technique used to build up speed and accuracy when playing chords.

The third beginner scale that is introduced is the A minor scale, a full 8 note scale played in the open position once again. The tutor carries on with the theme of serious practice with strict alternate picking. This is a slightly trickier scale as the player needs to stretch their left hand to make the scale fingerings, and is a very good scale for building left hand technique and finger strength. The tutor makes a good job of explaining the best way to finger the scale pattern with the least effort for the left hand.

This is a very well thought out and executed video teaching beginner guitar scales. Any player looking to start learning how to play scales and eventually get in to playing lead guitar would benefit from watching this excellent lesson from beefcakejcc. There have been some superb teaching videos produced by this YouTube channel, although this one stands out as being one of the best so far, of great value to those wishing to learn guitar scales. Definitely worth watching, even if you are an experience player who is a little further down the road.

The first scale we will learn is the Em pentatonic scale. It's a five note scale that's widely used and not too difficult.

Now let’s learn the E blues scale. The E blues scale is a 6 note scale very similar to the Em pentatonic scale. We simply add one note, the flat 5.

Here is the G Major Scale. It is a 7 note scale.

The A minor scale is next. It is also a 7 note scale.

The is the last one and it is a 12 note scale. Chromatic means moving by half step or 1 fret at a time.

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