Group A: Scales

Grade Eight Technical Exercises

Hi, guys! Let's take a look at the grade eight technical exercises together. We've got a few groups broken up into:

• Scales
• Arpeggios
• Chords
• Stylistic studies (which we're going to deal with a bit later on)

Tempo

The tempo for these exercises at this grade is 100 bpm. I will be playing all this to a click at 100 bpm.

In the exam, you can choose whether to be counted in and then continue at that speed without the aid of the click, or have the click on for the whole time. It's entirely up to you. I personally think it's really good practice to play with the click and get used to it. So, I'm going to leave it on and demonstrate each of these exercises for you now.

Scales

G Whole Tone Scale

Here's the first one for you. This is as shown in the book, the G whole tone scale.

Count: 1, 2, 3, 4.

It's quite a stretchy one there with it being the whole tone scale. Every interval is a tone, creating quite an unusual sound. I think you'll agree there.

D Whole Tone Scale

Here it is with the root note on the A string. I'm going to do it in the key of D for you now, starting at the fifth fret on the A string.

Count: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Diminished Scale

Next, moving on to the diminished scale, the second scale in group A. Here it is as shown in your book, in the key of D, starting on the fifth fret of the A string.

Count: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now, I'm going to show you with the root note on the E string in the key of G, starting at the third fret on the E string.

Count: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Altered Scale

Now we move from the weird to the weird. We've got the altered scale. Here it is as shown in your book, in the key of C. This is a really, really unusual scale. If you're familiar with the modes of the major scale, think Locrian with a flattened fourth in there as well. So, it's basically flattened everything.

Count: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Let me show you now on the E string as the root note. I'm going to do it in the key of G, starting at the third fret on the E string.

Count: 1, 2, 3, 4.

And that's it for our scales!