How do you create melodies?

To get you up and running as fast as possible you should consider this very simple concept as you are “noodling” your scales with the jam tracks. The concept is called “Question and Answer”. Take a quick look at this video clip and see how Bob Deeks, our resident guitar guru builds a basic phrase and then brings it back down.

While you are watching this video, you may as well also download the free guitar tabliture for it so you can practise a simple guitar scale solo with the music and visual references right in front of you. You don't need to buy the map or the jam tracks for this. Its totally free and just gives you a real life example to help you on your way to learning guitar scales.

OK, let's carry on with this "Question and Answer" theme. Heightening the tension is really like asking a question. Taking the melody back down to the root note of the scale "resolves" this tension and is like answering the question. Starting to understand? Don't worry you will...

By asking a question you create musical tension. You leave the listener wanting more as if you have not finished something. Then you finish it by answering the question. Or in technical terms, you resolve the melody back to the root note.

Let’s discuss this a bit deeper…

Remember that the red notes on the Map indicate the octave points. These are the first notes in the scale. The blue notes mark the fifth note of the scale. The fifth note in the scale dominant and is famous for being used as a turn around point in songs. So is the seventh note but for now let’s just focus on the blue notes on the map to get you started.

So as a jam track is playing and the song is still in the first you might try starting with your first note as a red note and noodling around it - even while the song switches to the next chord.

Then as the song moves to the turn around chord – and you will hear this as the song builds in tension - try sliding up from where ever you are to a blue note (5th). This will heighten the intensity of the melody you are playing and set you up for a nice "resolve" back to the a red note or the octave when the chord changes back to root chord.

Just try this.

It is quite a revelation when you actually feel and hear the tension you can create just by playing only a few notes together but by ending it on a blue note. There is something about the fifth degree of the scale that leaves you wanting more.

And of course, as the great guitar player you are destined to become you lead your listeners back to home by answering the question – when you feel it is appropriate to do so by resolving back to the red octave note.

This is very simple and only the beginning of learning to play and improvise melody lines. It is really just scratching the surface but is a good starting point. So remember to try the question and answer technique as you get started using the Map and jam tracks.

Playing notes in one pattern box?

Next step would be to pick any pattern box and play the notes within it working your way from the low string to the high (thin) string.

At first this will sound rather robotic as you literally play one note at a time starting from the first note you choose all the way down to the last dotted note in the particular pattern.

That’s ok.

Just do it a few times to get familiar with the pattern. This will get you familiar with the notes that are at the high end and the low end of the scale pattern. It’s an up and down motion to begin with but you can break free of that in a moment.

Take a quick look at this video clip to see how a guitar player works a single pattern for a few bars and gets the most out of it before sliding up to the next area of the fretboard to build or soften the melody.

And while you are watching this video, take a second to download the free guitar tabilture for the solo itself. You can practise this simple solo on your own time. You don't have to buy the guitar map or backing tracks. Its totally free and just a good way to learn a simple scale pattern to give you a feel for the world of guitar improvisation. Have fun!

In time you will find, if you haven’t noticed already that there is a distinct advantage to learning the note positions in the higher end of each scale patterns. In other words, learning the notes on the highest four strings and then simply sliding up and down the neck to the next adjacent pattern box rather than attempting to much finger gymnastics by going back down to the low E string every time.

Guitarists are notorious for finding economy of finger movement. You should as well.

As you play in this one box. Try starting from one red dot to the next. This is the entire scale.

Just get a feel for where it is and how it sounds and you will start to get an idea of the relationship of one octave point to the next.

Playing notes along a single string?

The first step is to just play sequential notes of one string starting at the nut or open string and going all the way up the 12th fret and back again.

Once you are comfortable doing that, try skipping a note or just going back and forth between two or three notes. This warms your fingers up and gets you familiar with the whole step half step patterns in the scales.

You could even do this simple exercise while one of the jam tracks is playing and you will immediately get a feel for how the notes fit into the key of the song.

Once you have developed a little finger dexterity, you can start to play any note combination that comes into your mind by simply playing notes identified on the map along any string, or within a specific pattern box. Take a quick look at this video clip to see what I mean.

This example should give you a good idea of how easy it is, at whatever your level, to start experimenting with notes and use the backing tracks to inspire melodies in your head. By seeing the note positions and patterns its a heck of a lot easy to really memorize guitar scales.

And while you are at it, download the free guitar tabliture for this guitar solo. It will help you learn to play this simple scale pattern and give you a feel for how much fun it is too learn scales and begin to improvise. Have fun!

How should I practice with the Map and tracks?

This is the most important question people ask.

Sometines a picture is worth a thousand words. So before we get going, why don't you take a quick look at this video clip of how to use the map and backing guitar tracks to help you practise guitar scales in a musical context.

There is a tendency to think that playing guitar scales and learning to improvise means you have to rigidly follow the chord changes and progressions of a song so that for example, if the song switches to the C chord you must time that change with a C note and when the song resolves back to the root chord such as G you must also play a G note.

Well, that might work but playing music is so much more fluid than that. You have in your hands a road map that just has to be followed any way to feel sounds right depending on the feeling in the jam track you are playing.

So play a jam track first by itself. Listen as to how you might add a melody line over top of it. Just hum it in your head at first. Then pick a note.

Hold the note for as long as you would like. Then try moving to the next nearby note. Then go back to the first note. Now try three notes in a row.

But do this while listening to the music and trying to create whatever melodic feel is possible with just those 2 or 3 notes that you are working on.

If you are feeling confident, slide up or down until you find the next note you are hearing in your head to carry your melody. Then try playing another note – any note to grow and develop the melody.

At first you will only be playing notes that are right beside each other because you still don’t know the sound of the individual notes nor do you have the physical dexterity to move quickly to another non-adjacent note.

This is very simple but the first phase of learning scales.

Don’t worry! Just keep playing notes while the jam track is playing.

You are guaranteed to eventually drift off into a melody line – albeit very simple at first but you are doing it! Remember the point of learning guitar scales is not so you become good at playing scales but so that you know the scales and notes in order to play melodies that have feeling and emotion!

We are just trying to develop you tool box of guitar skills.

How do I remove any reside if there is any?

Just take a soft cloth and dab it lightly with your $2 bottle of guitar cleaner and give it a light wipe. You should wipe your fretboard at least once every couple of months regardless because the oils on your fingers are transferred to the fretboard.

If you hold your guitar under a light you will see the oils near the frets. The most opportune time to clean your guitar is between string changes when the fretboard is fully accessible.

Guitar cleaners are good because they also recondition the wood by adding back the original oils in the wood.

What is my first step to using the map and tracks?

Your first step is to remove the map from the backing paper. Start at one corner and slowly pull the map away from the backing paper.


As you pull the map away, ensure that you leave behind the cut outs for the frets...





Then line up the map with the corresponding frets of the guitar and the fret openings on the map. Slip one corner of the map under the strings at about a 45 degree angle until the corner of it passes under the last string.

Then slowly pull it in line (parallel) with the neck of the guitar, line the openings with the frets. Align the edges of the guitar neck with the side lines of the pattern boxes on the map and set it into place over the frets.

The next step is to set the map and secure it in place which is explained in the next pages...

How should I store my map if I remove it?

The Maps have some memory to them. So you should store them on the original backing material and keep them flat so they will be ready to use again. For convenience you will probably want to keep the map on your guitar for a while or atleast as long as your foresee yourself working on practising scales.

Simply try to line up the map with the original openings and lay it back in place.







Flatten it down as in this photograph. It will probably want to spring up a bit but just hold it in place as best you can.








Place the map and the backer into a folder, your music lyrics or study book or any other book.







Now put it away for the next time you want to work on scales again. The adhesive is a very light tack, just like a post it note and is designed to be re-usable so by carefully storing it like this you will be able to use it over and over. You don't need a lot of tack from the map for it to hold itself securely while playing.

How do you identify each scale pattern box?

Each scale pattern box is shaded a specific color and circumscribed by a darker solid bracket line. The boxes overlap each other almost like a series of playing cards.




In the case where two patterns overlap; hiding the underlying shaded color of the next pattern, it is still identified by its solid color bracket line.

In this example, note that pattern box 4 is green. The number 4 is in a green box, the solid color bracket line is green and the inside of the box is shaded green. But you can also see that it extends from fret 1 to just past fret 4 - as marked by the solid green line.

Use the outer solid color bracket lines to get a quick visual of the overall pattern box while you are playing. The obvious clue is the shading of the box itself which your eye can not miss. Then its just a matter of spotting the green solid line to see where the pattern stops.

Now let's take a look at a real life example of how a guitar player (you) can use the guitar map to play a specific scale pattern along with a backing track in this video clip. And while you are watching this video, download the free guitar tabliture for it.

Now you have the visual reference, the backing track and the notes from the tablature to help learn this simple scale pattern and get a tiny taste of the fun and freedom that comes from knowing the notes and scale patterns on your guitar. Its the secret to learning to improvise.

Lastly, I really want to stress how much more fun and productive your scale practise sessions will become if you play guitar scales against music in the same key. But a picture (or video in this case) is worth a thousand words.

What do the smaller half sized dots mean?

The half sized dots refer to the notes just beyond the end of the Map because there is an inherent limitation to the Map. It can only span so many frets. So we chose to cover the first 12 frets because the patterns repeat after that point anyway.

As an example, with the Cmajor map, you will notice that the 3rd box starts at then end of the Map - at the 12th fret to be exact. The same place where the guitar map ends.


So to finish playing that particular scale mode would entail playing the notes beyond the end of the Map and continuing up to the 15th fret.

But if that is too confusing for you, learn the 3rd pattern box by playing it at the “lower” end over the first few frets. You can easily do this by noting the color of the 3rd box and the dark blue color of the bracket around the box.

Flip your eyes back to the nut or zero fret and you will see the blue brackets marking the end of the box. Play any of the notes within the blue box.

Remember that the half size notes refer to the notes when you play the open strings E, A, D, G, B, E. We had to differentiate between notes that fit within the physical limits of the Map and those which are found just beyond the last fret position covered by the Map.

If you learn this pattern (3) it is simply repeated if you are playing at the 12th fret to the 15th fret.

What do the white diamonds mean?

The white diamonds that are within some of the notes indicate another special quality found within the guitar string at or very near that fretted note location. By tapping the string lightly over the nearest fret forward you will hear a very clear tone called a harmonic. The exact location that you must tap on the string is called a harmonic nodal point.

To show you the exact nodal point would require a lot more explanation than we can explain in this short section and it’s a bit advanced for a beginning guitarist but we thought we would include references to the general vicinity along the strings where common harmonics can be heard.

Each note that you hear when you tap one of these nodal points is a note which will fall within the actual scale of the particular Map you are using. That is why you will also notice that the harmonic nodes in the Em and Cmajor Maps are not the same.

As you become a better guitar improviser, playing a couple harmonic notes really adds depth and texture to your playing.

What do the black dots mean?

The black dots represent the other notes in the scale. We could have made it a lot more complicated by assigning certain colors to these notes as well but we chose to keep it simple and only color code the octave and fifth degree notes. The human mind works better and retains information easier if it receives information in small bits or chunks rather than overload.

What do the blue dots mean?

The blue dots signify the fifth note or degree in the scale. This is a very important note in the guitar scale and Western music in general. It is the dominant note in the scale and amplifies the intensity of a song or melody. It also hints or suggests to the listener that from this point the melody will go back to the octave and resolve. The seventh note in the scale is even more profound as a note to resolve back to the octave from.

But if you can remember the note positions of the fifth degree and the root note in the scale, identified by the blue and red dots respectively you will have two excellent visual markers in the scale to keep you oriented.

What do the red dots mean?

The red dots signify the first note or degree in the scale. This is also the octave and marks the point where the scale begins to repeat its pattern. This is an important point in any scale to remember because it is often used as a resolution point when you are playing a melody. In other words, after you have played a bit of a solo, heightened the tension melodically and the chord changes back to the beginning of a new verse, it’s a perfect time to consider “resolving” back to the root note or the octave.

So use the red dots as markers along the road to give you a visual clue where to head when you want to bring your melody back home.