Lead guitarists can benefit from the ability to change between the major scales and the blues scale while improvising. The major scale offers sweet, melodic sounds in a song, while the blue scale contrasts this by having a darker sound. This lead guitar lesson shows how to use these scales effectively.

A very useful method of playing a major scale has the following fingering. We will start with an A major scale. The first note, A, will be played with finger 1, the forefinger, on the fifth fret of the first, or lowest, string. We can notate this as 151. The entire scale, then, is: 151-171-191-2101-4121-192-3112-4122. This is not the easiest way to play this scale, but as we will see, it is very flexible.

The next octave up on the A major scale can be continued from the same hand position where the last set of notes finished, as: 193-3113-4123-194-3114-195-2105. One can also reach much of the third octave from this position, as: 4125-196-2106-4126. Getting to the final notes of the third octave requires one more position shift, for playing: 1125-3145-4155-1126-3146-4166-4176.

This fingering allows most of the notes of three octaves of a major scale to be played at a single had position. As it happens, improvising in the Phrygian mode is also easily done at that same hand position.

It is good practice to perfect the playing of the notes up and down this scale through one, then two, and finally three octaves. Always practice at a pace at which you can repeat flawless performance. Only after achieving this should the tempo be increased. When using a flat-pick, alternate picking up and down with each note. Once skilled at this scale, transposing to other keys is simple. To change to G major, play the same fingering beginning on the third fret, or 131. Transposing to E major is a little different becomes some open notes are required. One can pretend to play these notes on the nut to get used to this.

Changing to the blues scale from A major is a matter of getting in position to play in the key of the relative minor, F# minor. Getting to this position quickly is just a matter of moving down the neck to place the fourth finger on the first note of A major, or 451. Now the forefinger is at F#. The blues scale is played: 121-541-122-342-123-343-124-344-125-355-126-356.

Notice that for the blues scale, the third finger is stretched to the fifth fret on the fifth and sixth strings. This is because the third finger has more power than the fourth finger for bending strings for blues phrases. Thus, the blues scale is played mostly with only two fingers. This is where we get the term two-finger blues.

Learning these scales adds to your repertoire for improvisation. Learning to play lead parts for just about any song is just a matter of finding where your first note is. Either the major or blues scale pattern will work for most songs, and lots of songs sound great with both. The contrasting moods from these scales allows the lead guitarist to change the mood of a song without changing the key being played by the other musicians.

Matthew Pearce invites you to begin your journey to guitar playing success. Within our Learning A Guitar community you can discover the best methods existing for beginners and advanced guitarists. Various methods teach bad habits however we have combatted this, take a look at our list of the best Guitar Courses Online and start playing today!