Essential Jazz Guitar Scales For Beginners. Learning jazz guitar scales can be complicated and often beginners wonder which scales they should learn first. The 7 scales on the chart below are a good place to start. These scales are essential for beginning jazz guitarists and enable you to  play over almost any jazz standard. This lesson is by no means meant to be complete, but gives you a good overview of the most important jazz guitar scales. For each scale, there are 2 positions on the scale chart. These are the most important positions you should learn first. Once you master these two, make sure you learn all other positions as well. Below the scale chart, youll find some more tips on how to practice scales, as well as understand how to use them. The Scale Chart. How to Practice These Scales In the examples below, well be using the C major scale. A general rule for fingering the C major scale Notes on the 7th fret are played with the index finger finger 1. Notes on the 8th fret are played with middle finger finger 2. Notes on the 9th fret are played with the ring finger finger 3. Learn to play directly from the jazz guitar greats. Includes licks, transcriptions, style analysis and biographies of your favorite jazz guitarists. Notes on the 1. 0th fret are played with the pinkie finger finger 4. In some examples the fingering deviates from the rule, in which case I put the fingering underneath the notation. Scale Exercise 1. First, you should be able to play the scales up and down, from the low string to the high string and back, without hesitation and without hiccups along the way. All notes should sound clean and even. Heres an example for the C major scale Backing Trackhttp www. Index of Music. Parent DirectoryDaniela Mercury Maimbe Danda. Daniela Mercury Como Vai VocEA. Milton Nascimento Peixe Vivo. These 7 scales on this scale chart are essential for beginning jazz guitarists and enable you to play over almost any jazz standard. Barney Kessel Autumn Leaves Pdf Transcription' title='Barney Kessel Autumn Leaves Pdf Transcription' />1954. Cmaj. 7 backing track. Audio Example 1http www. The Last Poets This Is Madness Rarest. Scale Exercise 2. Another good starter exercise is to play each note of the scale double http www. Scale Patterns. When you have the previous examples under your fingers, youre ready to learn some scale patterns. Scale Pattern 1. In this first pattern, youll play the C major scale in 3rds, by skipping a note http www. Scale Pattern 2. In this scale pattern, youll play the C major scale in groups of 3 notes http www. Scale Pattern 3. In this next scale pattern, youll play the C major scale in groups of 4 notes http www. The Ionian, Dorian and Mixolydian Scale. The Ionian aka major scale, Dorian and Mixolydian scales are called modes in music theory learn more about guitar modes here. There are 7 modes, but in this lesson well only have a look at 4, to keep things simple The Ionian mode used over major chords. The Dorian mode used over minor chords iim. The Mixolydian mode used over dominant chords What is a dominant chord. The Aeolian mode used over minor chords vim. Lets say you want to play scales over a ii V I vi chord progression in C major Dm. G7. Cmaj. 7Am. 7iim. V7. Imaj. 7vim. 7Music theory tells us you should play the following scales over each chord Cmaj. C Ionian scale. Dm. D Dorian scale. G7 the G Mixolydian scale. Am. 7 the A Aeolian scale. The problem with this theoretical approach is that its not very convenient because you have to think about another scale on every chord. The good news is that these 4 modes all have the same notes D Dorian Mode. DEFGABC1. 2b. 34. G Mixolydian Mode. GABCDEF1. 23. 45. C Ionian Mode. CDEFGAB1. A Aeolian Mode. ABCDEFG1. As you can see in the table above, these 4 modes all have the same 7 notes, namely the notes of the C major scale C D E F G A B, they just start on a different note. This means we can pick one scale usually the scale of the Imaj. If you play the C Ionian scale over the Dm. D Dorian scale. If you play the C Ionian scale over the G7 chord, it will sound like the G Mixolydian scale. If you play the C Ionian scale over the Am. A Aeolian scale. In the following audio example I play the C Ionian scale up and down over a ii V I vi backing track, and youll notice all notes are in key Audio Example 6http www. Playing scales like this is good for initial practice, but it doesnt sound very musical. In the following example I play the same scale over the backing track, but in a more creative manner. When using scales to improvise, your musicality will dictate how you play them It doesnt matter what note of the scale you start on. It doesnt matter what rhythm you play or how long your notes are. The order of notes doesnt matter either, you can skip or repeat notes. Heres a more musical example of how you can use the C Ionian scale over the same ii V I vi chord progression Audio Example 7http www. Minor Blues Scale Study. In this minor blues scale study youll be using the minor blues, Dorian, Aeolian and Phrygian dominant scales. Cm. 7 on this chord you can play the C minor blues scale, the C Dorian scale or the C Aeolian scale. G7 here you play the G Phrygian dominant scale or C minor blues scale. Fm. 7 on this chord you play the F Dorian scale, which has the same notes as the C Aeolian scale. C minor blues works fine here as well. Dm. 7b. 5 on the half diminished chord you play the D Locrian scale one of the modes we didnt cover in this lesson, which has the same notes as the C Aeolian scale. Again, C minor blues works as well. As you can see from the list above, the C minor blues scale works over the entire minor blues, but for the sake of variation its a good idea to mix in other scales as well. C Minor Blues Backing Trackhttp www. Listen Playhttp www. Essential Guitar Scales For Beginners PDFTo learn more about the minor blues, and jazz blues in general, check out our Introduction to Jazz Blues Guitar Bundle.