Why You Should Learn Guitar Scales Not Just Chords

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This is a great article for anyone interested in how to make a cigar box guitar. I have found that many new cigar box guitar enthusiast love to make cigar box guitars but have minimal playing skills.


Guitar scales are something that you need to work on especially if you are currently stuck. Find out why you should learn these and some other basic exercises.


Most of the time beginner guitar players start off with learning their chords so songs can be played. After awhile, many find themselves stuck and not sure what guitar techniques to move on to. The best thing to do as a beginner if you are stuck is to learn guitar scales. These will keep you busy and give you something to work on when you are not sure where to go next.

There are two reasons that learning scales is good for the beginner guitar player. First, practicing scales is a good workout for your right and left hand techniques. Second, scales are the starting point of learning music theory which when understood will help you play significantly better. ** You will find this pays big dividends when you want to show off your hand built cigar box guitar.

Start off with the major and minor scales. Memorize these and learn how to play them on the guitar. Note these scale pattern continually go all the way up and down the fret board. Start with just octaves worth at once but you can do as much of the scale as you wish.

Find these scales by searching the internet for them. It is best to find the patterns that are already on the guitar so that you can see how these would be played on your instrument.

What are some guitar scale exercises for beginners?

Practice your alternate picking technique where you alternate picking up and down on each string as you play the scale. ** You will find if you couple these techniques early on when you are first learning to make a cigar box guitar you will be glad you did in the long run.

Try finger style techniques and do the same process.

Get a drum machine or something that can keep a beat like a metronome and practice at a set pace. Increase the speed as you get better at the scale.

Play the scale but skip every other note. This will challenge your mind quite a bit more than your fingers.
Move on to new scales like the blues scale, pentatonic scale, and any other scale you come across. Above all enjoy the process of how to make a cigar box guitar!