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SCALE EXERCISES BY KEYExercises will be presented
in this section for all 12 keys. Exercises described in previous sections will
be repeated here, in an attempt to provide a complete reference section for each
key. Keys are presented roughly in order of ease with which they can be played,
which is as follows: G, D, C, A, F, Bb, Eb, E, B, F#, Ab, Db. This section will present
two types of exercises: Open/Melodic and 2 Octave/2 Octave Melodic. Each
exercise has a “name” which contains all the information needed to define
the notes in the exercise and the order they are played.
OPEN/MELODIC EXERCISES Open exercises are
constructed so that all notes are consecutive and played within the first four
frets. These exercises consist of 25 notes, which are 3 complete measures,
ending on the down beat of the fourth. Thus, the timing feels “resolved”.
There will be many cases where variations to an exercise can be made by changing
the span (highest and lowest notes) within the position, but maintaining the
same number of notes. The following naming convention is use to define open
exercises:
Scale-type Key (Span) - from Start
Direction
Scale-type
“Open” or “Melodic”.
Key
Key of the exercise.
Span
Range of notes in the exercise (lowest,
highest).
Start
First note of the exercise, string\fret
.
Direction
Initial direction on the scale, “upward” or “downward”. The following is an example
of the name of an Open exercise:
Open C (5, 3) - from 2\1 downward This is an Open scale in the
key of C which begins on the second string, first fret, goes down the scale to
the 5th on the bottom string, reverses direction an goes up to the 3rd
on the top string, reverses again and returns to the original note. The
following notes are visited:
C B
A G F
E D
C B
A G A
B C
D E F
G A
B C D
E
D C
1 7
6 5 4
3 2
1 7
6 5 6
7 1
2 3 4
5 6
7 1 2
3
2 1 Melodic variations are
provided for each Open exercise, where it is feasible. In these, the same exact
set of notes is played, but melodic moves are substituted for open position
moves wherever possible. The melodic variation of the above exercise is named as
follows.
Melodic C (5, 3) - from 3\5 downward
2 OCTAVE/2 OCTAVE MELODIC
EXERCISES These exercises consist of
29 notes, which are 3 complete measures, ending on the third beat of the fourth
measure. The naming convention for 2 Octave exercises is as follows:
Scale-type Key - from Start Direction
Scale-type
“2 Octave” or “2 Octave Melodic”.
Key
Key of the exercise.
Start
First note of the exercise, string\fret.
Direction
Optional Initial direction on the scale, “upward” or “downward”. The highest and lowest notes
of a 2 Octave exercise are always the root, so there is no need to specify a
span. There are three roots in a 2 Octave exercise. If the starting note is the
lowest or highest root, the starting direction is implicit, and need not be
specified. The following are the names of all the possible variations of 2
Octave exercises in the key of C:
2 Octave C - from 5\1
2 Octave C - from 1\10
2 Octave C - from 2\1 upward
2 Octave C - from 2\1 downward
At
the beginning of the subsection for each key, the notes included in the scale
are identified. This is followed by three fret board diagrams: The
first fret board diagram identifies all the locations on the neck for each note
of the scale, by letter name. The primary notes of the scale (root, 3rd,
and 5th ) are in bold. The
second fret board diagram identifies all the locations on the neck for each note
of the scale, by scale degree. Most of the notes are in grey, but some are in
bold black. The notes in bold represent the “path” of 2 octave scale
exercises. The
third fret board diagram presents a series of fret board sections for the open,
I, IV, and V positions. Notes that are preferred for open and closed exercises
are in bold, and notes that can provide alternative access are in grey. The
position diagrams are intended to illustrate the “shape” of the note pattern
for each position. The shape of the pattern for the open
position varies by key. The shape of the pattern for each closed position is the
same for all keys. On
the open position diagrams, the notes in bold represent the “path” of open
position scale exercises. By comparing the second diagram with the pertinent positional diagrams, one can visualize the strategy for shifting position during two octave scale exercises. One can also use these diagrams to develop alternative shift strategies.
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