Group A: Scales
Learn essential scales, chords and arpeggios with master technician and guitar educator James Barratt. Nail Group A of your Rockschool Guitar grade 3 technical exercises.
What's in the course
43 lessons (3h 11m) · 1 free
01. Intro to Approaches to improvisation
1:00
02. Getting started with improvisation
9:22
03. Improvising over chord tones
10:18
04. Assignment: Finding chord tones
4:05
05. Adding rhythmic interest to your solos
4:11
06. Assignment: Improvising over a chord change
2:52
07. Challenge: Submit your improv
0:24
08. Embelleshing a melody
5:36
09. Challenge: Submit your melody
0:26
10. Rhythmic improv & comping
9:55
Lesson transcript
Grade Three Technical Exercises
Introduction
Okay, then, so let's check out the Grade Three technical exercises. We're going to begin with the scales. I'm going to show you through each of the scales so you can see the fingering.
Remember: We need to know each of these scales in the keys of G, A, and B for your exam.
G Major Scale
So, here we go with the G major scale in the book:
- Start with: Second finger
- Fingering: 1, 2, 3, 4
A Natural Minor Scale
Now, moving on to the A natural minor scale:
- Fingering: 1, 2, 3, 4
- Note: This can be a tricky one to finger, especially when you get to the G string. You need that little position shift.
- And then back on the B string.
Tip: It's worth really practicing that shift to make sure you're comfortable with the fingering. There are lots of options you can choose from there.
B Minor Pentatonic Scale
Let's move on to the B minor pentatonic scale:
- Fingering: 1, 2, 3, 4
A Major Pentatonic Scale
Scale number four is the A major pentatonic scale:
- Fingering: 1, 2, 3
G Blues Scale
And last of all, we've got the G blues scale, one of my favorites:
- Fingering: 1, 2, 3, 4
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