How To See Scale Intervals Clearly- Using Only One Finger To Play The Guitar

A decent amount of my teaching time is spent encouraging students to learn to play in positions, but I never overlook the value of sometimes just playing with one finger. The layout of the guitar is such that it can be difficult to visualise melodic and  harmonic intervals solely by playing through scales and modes in one position.

This is where I suggest that working through the confines of a particular limitation can help us to learn a great deal. By using one finger and playing all of the notes in a particular scale up one string makes the intervals between the notes much clearer. On the piano it is very easy to see the tones and semi tones in say a C major scale simply by playing up the scale, but this can only really be acheived on the guitar by going up one string.

         Use 1 Finger to play the Major scale from C to see and note where the semi tones are

Try playing through all of the natural notes form C to the C an octave higher on the guitar and you will see all of the intervals in a natural minor scale. Then try playing all of the naturals again but this time starting on the A and you will have all of the intervals in a Major Scale. This routine can then be applied to any scale or mode, and will give you all of the insight required to see how all of the intervals work together.

For tabs, notation and more detail on all of the above points have a look at the scales on one string exercises at http://www.guitar4free.com/scales/major_scales

By Simon James