If you’re looking for the best way to start playing better solos, jazz guitar scales for beginners are your best bet. And for one simple reason.
In music, scales are the building blocks of every melody you’ve ever heard. And ideally, jazz guitar solos are melodies that you improvise. Made up as you go, using scales.
Learning these jazz guitar scales for beginners is going to let you:
- Play solos in any key
- Learn the guitar fretboard
- Play what you hear in your head
- Easily learn and play melodies to songs
- Build your chops so you can play faster
I’ve made this as simple and straightforward for you to learn as possible:
- I’m only including the “biggest bang for your buck” scales. You’ll cover the big picture without getting into the weeds of theory too much. Less thinking about scales, and more playing good solos.
- You’re only going to learn 2 finger patterns for each scale. You just don’t have to learn a whole bunch of finger patterns to get started. In fact, trying to learn too many finger patterns right off the bat will slow down your progress.
Jazz Guitar Scales for Beginners – All You Need to Get Started
These 2 patterns will take you a long way – and work with the same strings as the Jazz Guitar Chords for Beginners lesson.
If you learn these scales in the order I show you, it will be easy. Because the pentatonic scales form the frame for all of the other scale patterns.
Your major and natural minor scales simply add a couple of notes to your pentatonic frames – you don’t even have to learn a whole new scale from scratch!
And your harmonic minor scale just changes one note from the natural minor scale. Again – not a ton of work for you to do.
So if you learn these in order, most of your work will be done once you’ve learned your pentatonic scale shapes. Not a bad deal, right?
Let’s get started.
Major Pentatonic Scale
You build a major pentatonic scale with a root (1) major second (2), major third (3), perfect fifth (5), and a major sixth (6).
This easy pattern is your first good option for playing solos in major keys – and it’s often your best starting point for playing the blues.
Think of the major pentatonic scale as your “frame” for major sounds in your solos.
6th String Form
5th String Form
Minor Pentatonic Scale
The minor pentatonic scale is built with a root (1), flat third (b3), perfect fourth (4), perfect fifth (5), and a minor seventh (7).
Note – when I talk about theory terms, I always prefer to use just the number, or a flat number. I’ll always say flat three instead of minor third, and four instead of perfect fourth.
This helps you avoid a lot of terminology that is correct, but not entirely helpful. Plus in my experience teaching and playing jazz, we mostly talk in these terms anyway.
So get used to thinking in terms of b3, 4, 5, etc.
The minor pentatonic scale is a great option for playing in minor keys. It’s your best place to start playing over a minor blues progression as well.
It’s a good idea to start thinking about the minor pentatonic scale as your frame for playing minor sounds in your solos.
6th String Form
5th String Form
Major Scale
You build a major scale with a root (1), major second (2), major third (3), perfect fourth (4), perfect fifth (5), major sixth (6), and a major seventh (7).
If you want to understand the basics of music theory, the major scale is one of the most important jazz guitar scales for beginners. Because all of our music theory terms and concepts are drawn from the sequence of the major scale. Or at least made in reference to it.
Your major scale is also a great option for playing solos and melodies in major keys – something around 80% of the melodies you hear are based on the major scale (or at least mostly based on it).
Connection to Pentatonic
The major scale is built on the same frame as your major pentatonic scale. You’re going to be adding the 4 and the 6 to the major pentatonic pattern to fill it out.
Recognizing this is going to make it easier for you to learn new scale patterns over time. Because it’s not like you’re really learning a whole new scale here – you’re just adding a couple of notes.
6th String Form
5th String Form
Natural Minor Scale
The natural minor scale is built with a root (1), major second (2), minor third (b3), perfect fourth (4), perfect fifth (5), minor sixth (b6), and a minor seventh (b7).
This is going to be your go-to scale for playing melodies in minor keys. Just like the major scale is your source for most melodies in major keys, your natural minor scale is the source for a lot of melodies in minor keys.
It’s also a great go-to pattern to use for playing solos in minor songs. The natural minor scale is one of the most important jazz guitar scales for beginners to know.
Connection to Pentatonic
The Natural minor scale is built on the same frame as your minor pentatonic scale. You are just adding the 2 and b6 to what you already have in your minor pentatonic shape.
So again, you can make life a little easier by realizing you’re not learning a whole new scale here. You’re just adding some extra color to what you already know.
(And practicing the motor skill of playing those notes)
6th String Form
5th String Form
Harmonic Minor Scale
The harmonic minor scale is built with a root (1), major second (2), minor third (b3), perfect fourth (4), perfect fifth (5), minor sixth (b6), and a major seventh (7).
This scale is a great way to add some color and tension to your solos in minor keys. The 7 in this scale creates and interesting stretch for your fingers, and gives you some color that can really grab the listeners attention.
From a technical standpoint, this is the “correct” scale for playing solos over many of the minor chord progressions – like the minor ii V i progression.
Connection to Natural Minor Scale
Sometimes I tell my students the harmonic minor scale is like learning half a new scale.
That’s because all we are really doing is taking the b7 from your natural minor scale and moving it up one fret. So it becomes a 7.
Remember, it’s always easier to make little changes to something you already know than it is to learn something new from scratch.
Personally, I like to alternate between the harmonic and natural minor scales when I’m playing solos on minor key songs.
I’ll play natural minor for a little while, and then switch to harmonic minor to add some color. Try it over a song like Beautiful Love once you’re comfortable with both scales.
Alternate between Natural and harmonic minor in D. You’ll probably like what you start to hear.
6th String Form
5th String Form
Jazz Guitar Scales for Beginners Practice Tips
Fingering and Technique
Follow the suggested finger patterns in the diagrams above at first. There might be some variations you need to make to keep things comfortable for your hands. But these are the finger patterns that are generally going to work best for most people.
Play slowly – give yourself time to double check each step of the scale at first. You’ll naturally be able to go a bit faster later on. But the slower you go in the beginning, the faster you’ll learn the patterns.
Stay relaxed – when you tense up, you slow yourself down. Make an effort to keep your hands, arms, and shoulders relaxed as you practice. Notice when you start to tense up, and make an effort to relax before you keep playing.
Going slowly will help with this.
Exercises to Master Jazz Guitar Scales for Beginners
I like to keep it simple. The first goal is to build up your muscle memory so you can play these scales without thinking too hard about them. So here’s my favorite exercise:
“Play the scale, move up a fret, and repeat. Do this until you’ve played the scale 12 times, and then work your way back down if you still have time and energy.”
It’s simple, and it works. This will make your new scale patterns automatic in no time.
Practice one scale shape per day, and a different one each day. Spend a few weeks on each type of scale in this lesson, alternating day by day.
Don’t worry about reviewing the other scales. If you practice the way I just outlined, you’ll learn all of your scales better. And you’ll have less need to review things you’ve learned in the past.
Application of Jazz Guitar Scales for Beginners
Practice improvising with these scales as soon as you are able to play them. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just try coming up with melodies you like.
Make sure you pay attention so that you’re always playing notes that are actually in the scale pattern. The way you get good at playing solos is by jumping in and trying – so get started now!
Backing tracks can be really helpful as you learn.
My favorite program is irealpro – i use it myself, and with all of my private students. It’s cheap, it sounds good, and their forum has backing tracks and chord charts for about any jazz song you could ever want to play.
Backing tracks and programs like irealpro are a fun alternative to using a metronome. And you get the added benefit of hearing what your scales sound like with backgrounds.
Jazz Guitar Scales for Beginners – Your Key to Better Solos
Jazz guitar scales are essential for beginners to learn. If you want to play solos or melodies, you have to put in some time and effort to learn your scales.
But you don’t have to know every kind of scale to become a good jazz guitar player. You just need the basics. And some practice time to get them sounding the way you want them to.
The scale patterns in this lesson are going to cover all of the major (and minor) bases – so you can spend less time learning scale patterns, and more time playing great jazz guitar solos.
Take your time, do the exercises, and you’ll be playing better jazz guitar solos in no time.