I recognize. Even just the term “scale” makes you imagine mind numbing workouts and hours of uninteresting exercises. But I’m about to demonstrate a way to master almost any new scale as well as have the ability to work with it to improvise in only fifteen minutes. No matter how basic or sophisticated the scale.

Among the best aspects of the guitar is moveable positions. This means that one can learn a scale pattern in one position and be able to quickly change to any key you need just by switching the starting fret. Muscle memory and finger patterns become your best friends in learning a brand new scale.

Of course this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t also be learning just how the scale is constructed and what the actual music notes will be within each key. You need to learn that as well. Though that is the next phase. This quickstart formula is merely to help get the scale under your fingertips to help you begin using it. I am also presuming here that you have a fretboard chart or some kind of notation that tells you just what the notes for your new scale are.

The following list of simple steps will help you to learn the scale in one position. To be able to learn other positions, simply repeat these steps at the new position on the fretboard.

Here are the steps:

1. Employing your written notation to help keep track of where you are, play the whole scale ascending and descending one time. Concentrate on the fingering pattern and shape on each and every string and look for patterns. In my head, a natural minor scale looks like this: 1-3-4,1-3-4,1-3,(shift) 1-2-4, (shift) 1-2-4,1-3-4.

2. Play the lower two strings of the pattern, up and down 10 times.

3. Redo step 2 using each pair of two strings, ie. 4 and 5, 3 and 4, 2 and 3, 1 and 2. Do not forget to go both directions and make your tempo slow and steady.

4. Following that, play the scale with sets of 3 strings, ie. 4-5-6,3-4-5, etc. Go up and down, and complete every one 10 times just like previously.

5. Now, you'll be prepared to play the full scale in both directions rather comfortably. Play it with your eyes closed a number of times merely to learn that you can rely on muscle memory. If perhaps you are still having some problems with it, it is possible to play groups of 4 strings as with steps 3 and 4.

Right now we have got a scale, however we don’t yet have music. Playing a scale up and down won’t get you any platinum records. So let’s break you out of that up-and-down pattern.

6. Begin at the root note on the scale at the sixth string. Play every other note (called 3rds). Go down and up in your scale in this way and repeat five times. And then continue doing this step starting on each and every note in the scale. Begin at the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.

7 . Once again, starting on the root at the sixth string, play skipping two notes in between each note you play. This would be playing in 4ths. Repeat this 5 times. Exactly like step 6, try this same exact pattern beginning from each and every note on the scale.

8. Begin from the root once more and play this specific pattern: up 2 notes, down 1 note. Example: C-E-D-F-E-G, etc. As you descend, do the reverse: down 2, up 1. Repeat that five times.

You can now play the scale linearly and also break things up into 3rds and 4ths. Now you are able to start doing a little soloing using it.

9. Let’s get back to the technique of using two guitar strings at one time. Solo on each pair of strings, concentrating on creating intriguing rhythm ideas for between thirty seconds and 1 minute. If perhaps you have got a jam track or something like that to perform with, now’s the time to get it out. See if you can play 12-16 measures while soloing on only 2 strings of the scale.

10. Repeat that with every pair of strings.

11. Try that exact same approach, but choosing sets of 3 strings. Consider that everyone uses exactly the same notes. Therefore the true inventive music will come in finding cool rhythms for those notes.

At this point you'll be entirely at ease with your new scale. In order to learn about a different scale or some other position of the same scale, just duplicate all of these steps. Like with everything else you start learning on guitar, the important thing to keeping it locked in your memory is to try using it continually. Employ the new scale every single chance you can get for the next two weeks and you will get it secured into your mental scale archive.

If you don't always have a guitar at hand to practice with, you need to check out these useful tips for practicing without a guitar.