According to the English dictionary (http://www.dictionary.com) a guitar scale (or any music scale for that matter) is ‘a succession of tones ascending or descending according to fixed intervals, esp. such a series beginning on a particular note.’ Understanding and playing a guitar scale involves knowing some of the basic things about guitar playing. You have to know the different parts of the guitar, the numbers of the strings and also the way fingers are numbered, because learning guitar means developing a correct technique from the very first lessons. The reason you need this information is because some of the more advanced guitar scales are quite difficult to play if you don’t follow the indication, e.g. which note is played on which string using which finger. You can find a lot of useful information about these basic things on the Internet.

The first guitar scale you will ever learn, whether you are learning guitar with a teacher or from a book, is the so-called Chromatic guitar scale. The scale starts with the E string open, then you play the E string on the first fret, then the second fret, then third and fourth, and then you continue on the A string, first fret, second, third, fourth, and so on until you play all the notes on the e string. The only exception is that you do not play the G string on the fourth fret, after the third fret on the G string you continue directly to playing the open B string.

And there you go you have just learnt to play your first guitar scale. This might be a little disappointing, but fear not, there are a lot of much more complicated guitar scales out there and you will be challenged when trying to play them. This first guitar scale, however, the easiest of them all, has its point. It builds the muscles on your left hand and helps you learn how to stretch your fingers. In time, you will come across much more complicated and advanced exercises, but this first on is very useful also. And if we haven’t managed to convince you of its usefulness, you should know that such artists like Joe Satriani or Dave Murray of Iron Maiden still play this particular guitar scale before a gig.

The most important thing to do when playing the chromatic guitar scale is using your fingers correctly. The notes on the first frets on each string are played using the first finger, the notes on the second frets with the second finger, and so on. This is very important so be very careful about this aspect.

There are, of course, a lot of other guitar scales you can play. You should, however, take them progressively, don’t jump to the hardest even if you can play it. Every guitar scale has its purpose, it teaches something new, and it improves your technique. Take the E phrygian scale, for example. It teaches you how to coordinate your fingers, how to move your fingers to gain speed. Other guitar scales you should look at (and you will find plenty of info, pictures and movies on the Internet) are the A Blues scale, the pattern for the major guitar scale, which is a moveable pattern, the Harmonic, the Pentatonic, and the Diminished scales. A good place to start is http://www.all-guitar-chords.com. They have an extensive database of scales and chords. Search the guitar scales mentioned above, which are all beginner scales meant to improve the playing technique. However, you can also find more complicated guitar scales.