Guitar Scales

Welcome to Guitar scales! This page serves as a kind of directory for everything relating to scales on my site. It is my hope that this page will help you find what you are looking for while on your journey to learning scales for guitar. I update this page frequently when I add new stuff so be sure to bookmark it for easy reference.

Why learn scales

Learning to play scales on guitar is essential for you to become a well rounded musician / guitarist. Scales open up the fretboard to you so can know what to play. Scales are the foundation on which all chords, and licks / riffs are built. They also improve your over all hand dexterity. It may seem like a daunting task to learn scales and it might even get boring at times. But the end result of truly knowing how to navigate the guitar fretboard is well worth it. It's a valuable skill that no one can ever take away from you.

Which scales should beginner guitar players learn first?

I believe every guitarist should start learning the Major and minor scales first. Then the Pentatonics, Blues, Harmonic minor and Melodic minor scales. My free guitar scale lessons listed below feature guitar TABs and animated Gifs to show you not only how to play scales but also how to memorize them. Check them out!

Beginners guide to learning how to play scales
Learn Major and minor scales
Learn Pentatonic scales
Learning the Blues scale
The Harmonic minor scales
The Melodic minor scale

List of guitar scales chart generators

The Ultimate Guitar Chords and Scales Generator - is the main generator that helps show chord and scale relationships as well as lets you hear the chords.

I also make individual apps you can use to generate scale charts / guitar fretboard diagrams in tons of different tunings. Some even have PDFs you can download. I'll be making new scale generators about once a week until I run out of scales. Here are the links to the completed and coming soon apps:

Major and minor scales generator
Pentatonic scales generator
Harmonic Minor
The Blues scale
Melodic Minor
Bebop Major
Bebop Minor
Bebop Harmonic Minor
Bebop Melodic Minor
Bebop Dominant
Bebop Half Diminished
Neapolitan
Neapolitan minor
Neapolitan Major
Enigmatic scale
Japanese Ichikosucho
Japanese Taishikicho
Prometheus
Harmonic Major
Diminished Scales
Hungarian Minor Scales

Coming soon

Augmented
Wholetone
Japanese

Scale charts for 7 string guitars

All the scale chart generators above can also make diagrams for 7 string guitars.

Scales for Bass guitar and other instruments with 4 strings

A Bass guitar and other 4 string instruments tuning option is available on the scale generators too! Just select the Bass option then set the tuning to match your instrument. This is great for Violin, Cello, Ukulele and some Mandolins.

Scales charts for left handed guitar

I try to accommodate left handed guitar players too. Right now I have an option to flip the fretboard pictures so that the diagrams will be correct for lefties. I know this isn't the best way to do things because the letters come out backwards. However, at least the dot are correct. It's kind of similar to looking at the diagrams in a mirror or another guitarist sitting across from you. So if you don't mind reading letters backwards the flip option might work for you if you are a lefty. Also have a look at this left handed guitar chord chart.

Summary

As soon as you get a pretty good grasp of scales, you should start exploring how to build chords. After that, learn about the many types of chords that exist within a key. Remember scales are your road map to making music!

If there is a scale not listed on this page that you would like to see a generator or a lesson for, contact me and let me know!