C Major Scale

Major Scales For Beginners

A skill worth your time and effort!

When used correctly, scales are super helpful in advancing your guitar playing! Practicing scales is great for practicing picking individual strings.

At this stage in your guitar journey, scales should be part of your practice routine. Add this as a practice element in your practice assistant, and track the speed of your scale playing! 

In this lesson, we’re going over the C major scale n the open position. Once you’ve got this down, you can improvise around it on your fretboard. This means making up melodies and guitar! How fun is that? :)

Scale Box For C Major Scale

Use these visuals to help guide, and position your fingers on your guitar!

How To Play The C Major Scale

For the C major scale, as with any scale, you’re going to start and ending, on the lowest root note - C. You can find C on the 3rd fret of the 5th string - it is highlighted in red on the diagram.

For this scale, the finger numbers match up with the fret numbers. So, for example, your 3rd finger plays in the 3rd fret.

Using all down picks and going very, very slowly, play the scale ascending. This means your going up from the root note. Once you get to the top, make your way back down to the low open E string. Since you always end a scale where you started it, come back up from the low E to your C root note.

Follow along with the TAB below. NOTE. Read the TAB as a repeating pattern of four bars, one that takes you from the last note back to the first note. When you are ready to stop make sure to play fret 3 of the 5th string - the root note - to end.

How To Practice Scales On Guitar

I've said this before, but practice makes permanent - not perfect! Practice as perfectly as possible, no matter how slow you need to go!

That way, you're committing the right things to memory rather than the wrong things. You're building code in your brain, so you need to be sure everything is in there.

This isn't a speed game! You can always speed it up later.

For now, focus on getting the notes in the scale right and picking the correct strings. 

6 Tips To Practice Guitar Scales

Are you struggling with your scales practice? Here are 6 tips to help you play your C major Scale! 

1. Break up the scale in chunks, and practice the scale going up only. When you feel comfortable with it there, you can work on coming back down.
2. When you're learning the scale, it helps to close your eyes and picture the scale in your mind. This will further cement it in your memory.
3. Pay attention to what the scale sounds like. When learning music, sometimes we get caught up in techniques and rules. Don't forget that we're learning to play MUSIC! :)
4. Listen and train your ear to hear what a major scale should sound like. It will also help you spot mistakes!
5. Once you're comfortable with the scale, work on your timing. Try playing along with a metronome. Start at a slow bpm, and pick the note on the metronome's click.
6. Keep an even tempo. Find a speed you're able to do that while playing the scale correctly. Sometimes going either too fast or too slow can trip you up, so see what works for you!

Got any more tips to play scales? Share with the JustinGuitar community in our discussion tab. Make sure you log in to your account first. Now, let's explore the 16th note strumming pattern for beginners! See you there :)