Back to the Basics
The video below talks about the importance of mastering the basics.
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There are a few books where I give you ideas on how you can approach mastering something as simple as a C Major Scale. For example:
Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One looks at:
- Learning the names of all the pitches found on the guitar.
- Connecting the notes found on a music staff to their location on the fretboard.
- Knowing where the notes are on the guitar by feel, not by sight.
- Learning scales without relying on patterns.
Essential Scales book looks at different Modal Sequences that you can use to learn scales using different patterns.
New York Guitar Method Volume One Ensemble Book looks at etudes that you can play that just use specific scales so you can hear some different applications of scales.
For the advanced guitarist The Chopbuster series of downloadable exercises look at other ways to combine the notes of a scale to create interesting patterns.
For the more advanced guitaristNew York Guitar Method Volume Two looks at ways you can add passing diatonic and chromatic notes into scales to create a new sound.
The Jam Tracks Volumes are also excellent tools to help you to creativity find new paths through material that you are learning.
These are just a few examples of how you can take a scale past just playing it up and down your instrument and begin to create new ideas with material that you are learning.
But probably the most important thing you can do to get more mileage out of anything you are learning is to add in articulation. By this I mean sliding up or down into a note, bending into a note, adding vibrato. This takes a simple note or phrase and makes it sound like music. You can find more information on this in my 30 Practice Tips and for guitarists the New York Guitar Method Volume One spends an enormous amount of time showing you how you can add these ideas to scales.