Having played on and off (ten years off at one point) for the best part of thirty years I was recently struck by the realisation that I probably haven't improved by any significant degree since my mid twenties. As a result I had my first guitar lesson a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed it and since then I have been practising every day or at least as often as work, wife, children etc will allow. I've been given 4 scales to learn and whilst I can play them all, up and down and in time (using a metronome when the kids aren't in bed) I can't yet seem to get them to stick in my head or hands when I don't have the diagrams sitting in front of me. Does anyone have any tips or trick for memorizing scales or is it just a case of repetition? I should also mention that this is my first visit to the Theory section in two years on the forum!
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Fundamentally it is just practice. One step the does help though is rather than solely practicing scales, practice just the intervals in the scales. For example work up and down Root-5th-Root-5th... and R-3rd-5th working up to the arpeggios that under pin each scale. It starts to become far easier to visualise anchor points (so to speak) rather than trying to picture whole shapes. The varying anchor shapes are used for many scales also so you'll be building a strong foundation.
Not only will this increase your understanding of note relations and scale structure but the greatest element at having these anchor shapes nailed is they will increase your confidence to take on scales as even improvising live, if you hit the wrong note you have a point of reference to return to both mentally and physically... And no-one in the audience will ever know.
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Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
I may be way off, since im not a theory guy...but it makes sense to me...
Play very slowly and play each note twice as you ascend/descend
then three times and then four times
Sing the scale as you play it (slowly)
Don't spend more than 5 minutes at a time playing them. You'll just switch off, mentally.
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Taking the scale notes (I'll use C major) and numbering them, so
C=1
D=2
E=3
F=4
G=5
A=6
B=7
To stack thirds it 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 etc, so every 3rd note.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)