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horizontal guitar scales

4,763 views · Published 28 March 2016 · 7:55 · Indexed 31 October 2026

Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher · 2016 · Music

Horizontal scales on guitar. Scales played up and down strings. Single string scales on guitar. How to work out scales on one guitar string.

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Video script:
Once you understand about scales from the music theory perspective, an exciting array of possibilities opens up to you as to how you can use this knowledge.

In this lesson today we are going to take a foundational look at how to use scales horizontally. That means that instead of working across the fret board vertically from one string to the next, like this. Or even diagonally like this.

We are going to restrict ourselves to working horizontally on just one string like this. This approach to playing scales opens up a number of technical possibilities that really aren't accessible by any of the other means.

I think a good place to start with this, is with a major scale in the key of each of the open string notes. So let's start with E major played here on the 6th string.

To play the right pattern I can simply apply the major scale formula T T S T T T S or W W H W W W H as its called in North America.

Exactly which fingering you choose to play these scales will depend partly on the size and shape of your hands and also on the how you intend to work with the scale.

Here's a pattern I recommend as a starting point, that I think will work well for most people. 0 1 3 4 (shift) 1 3 4 slide...then coming back down start with the one fret slide so that's 4 4 2 1 (shift) 4 3 1 0

And you can simply play that on any of the strings to get the major scale in the key of that open string note. A Major, D Major, G Major and so on...

Exactly the same principal can be applied to playing a major scale that starts on a fretted note. So for example we can play G major on the 6th string starting at fret 3 and ending at fret 15. Or D major from fret 5 on the 5th string to fret 17.

But when you are not using the open strings the fingering has to be thought about a little more carefully. Those with long fingers can probably cover the octave in two bites using this fingering. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, but with smaller hands you may prefer 1 3 4 slide on the way up and 4 slide 4 2 1 4 slide 2 1 on the way down.

As always I recommend experimenting to see which works best for you.

I'll leave you to practice those single string scales for a week and then in the next Sound Bite in this series we'll look at a few fun things we can do with these horizontal scales.

horizontal guitar scales

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