Scale Listings:

All scales - each with their own characteristic sound - can be created by flatting and/or sharping various intervals of the major scale.  Try each of the scale patterns below.  Pick out the numbers indicated, and adjust the notes up or down, according to the flats and/or sharps in the interval pattern.  Be aware of the different characteristic sound that each interval (number) pattern creates.  Diagrams are provided for each of the C, A, G, E, and D ("caged") shapes:

Major:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Natural Minor (Aeolian):

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Harmonic Minor:

1 2 b3 4 5 b6 7

Minor Pentatonic:

1 b3 4 5 b7

Blues:

1 b3 4 b5 5 b7

Major Pentatonic:

1 2 3 5 6

Mixolydian:

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

Dorian:

1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

Lydian:

1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

Locrian:

1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7

Bebop Dominant:

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 7

Bebop Major:

1 2 3 4 5 #5 6 7

Bebop Minor:

1 2 b3 3 4 5 6 7

Diminished:

1 2 b3 4 b5 b6 6 7

Whole Tone:

1 2 3 #4 #5 b7

Lydian Dominant:

1 2 3 #4 5 6 b7

Chromatic:

1 b2 2 b3 3 4 b5 5 b6 6 b7 7  (every possible note)

Note that C major, D dorian, G mixolydian, F Lydian, and B Locrian all contain the same notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, and B).  D dorian, G mixolydian, F Lydian, and B Locrian are said to be "modes" of the C major scale - they contain the same note spellings, just starting on a different degree (i.e., C major starts on C, D dorian starts on D, and G mixolydian starts on G, etc.).  It is more important to understand that those scales all have a particular sound based on their starting note and the particular interval pattern above the root note - just like any other scale.  They just happen to contain the same note spellings.

Familiarize yourself with the scale patterns presented above ... they form the fingering patterns used to create every type of lead guitar solo.  Every good lead guitarist has the important scales memorized and deeply ingrained in practice, up and down the fretboard as a series of "caged" fingering patterns.  They will be used extensively in the lead sections of this book.