25 Guitar Scale Hacks

When it comes to scales and improvising, the guitar fretboard is a maze, and this is both good and bad… Well, instead of bad, let’s say it’s ‘challenging’ because like any maze it’s easy to get lost, familiar routes can often lead to dead-ends, and it can be overwhelming to find your way out. On the other hand, we have countless routes (possibilities) to choose from, all of which provide different creative opportunities; what I’m basically saying is that by learning one or two scale systems to ‘get through the maze’, we stop seeing (or even avoid) the many other ways there are to navigate the fretboard. This is where 25 Guitar Scale Hacks comes in. This book is about exploring the fretboard using those other routes to create motion, fluidity and bring the music out of any static pattern. Here, we dispense with the standard patterns such as 3NPS scales or the CAGED system in order to explore the many other patterns, nuances and hacks the guitar fretboard has to offer. Who is this book for? This book is for the intermediate to advancing students who really want to make their playing stand out from the crowd, feel stuck in a rut, or want to move away from rote pattern playing and predictable-sounding solos. 25 Guitar Scale Hacks looks at improvisation based on the guitar fretboard; in other words, we’re putting the guitar and all its nuances first, rather than working from generic patterns that are traditionally taught in scale and arpeggio books. The concept of 25 Guitar Scale Hacks then is a collection of mini-lessons or hacks for a deeper exploration of scales and how to make music with them. Feel free to work through the book in the order it’s written or choose the hacks that interest you the most.

The Woodshedder’s Guide to Guitar Scales came about after a request from a student. Obsessed with scales, she wanted a practice regime that allowed to her to learn a considerable number of guitar scales all over the fretboard using the most efficient and least time-consuming method I could come up with. To accomplish this, I suggested using just three patterns per scale, all of which are derived from three master patterns. In essence, we bypassed traditional (and outdated) scale systems that have you learning anything from five to seven or more patterns per scale (as this is both time-consuming and unnecessary) and grouped scales in a way that makes them far easier to digest, woodshed, and have the results show up in your playing relatively quickly. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a shortcut, it’s simply a very efficient method if you’re willing to spend hours in the woodshed. In this guide we dispense with traditional concepts to give you the most efficient and effective way to not only learn a ton of scales, but to achieve levels of technique and precision that will serve you for years to come.

3NPS (three-note-per-string) scales, as used by legions of guitarists but popularized mainly by Joe Satriani, are one of the most efficient ways to navigate the fretboard and get your scales down IF you follow the guidelines in this book. As the name suggests, a 3NPS scale is any scale that contains three notes on each string, and as you'll see in this eBook, this makes for a very consistent way to map out scales on the guitar fretboard. What we’ve done here is revamped the 3NPS scale system and turned it into an incredibly effective means to learn a wide variety of scales all over the fretboard by streamlining the number of patterns, as well as the picking system. This is not a scale theory book, and contains no pentatonic scales. This is a quick and dirty (and very effective) method for learning 3NPS scales all over the fretboard; something to work on in the woodshed. It will improve your picking technique and speed. It does not require a great amount of thinking as you only need to learn two picking patterns, which is really one in two directions, and only three scale patterns instead of the usual seven per scale.

50 Guitar Hacks for the Thinking Man's Guitarist has just received an extensive update and now features more detailed explanations, plus new hacks, diagrams and insight. Thank you for your invaluable feedback!Guitar Hacks can be clever ways to do things on guitar, priceless nuggets of information, or new perspectives on vital concepts for learning and understanding guitar, out-of-the-box thinking and much more besides. These hacks are based on 20+ years of hindsight so that you can get to where you want to be with your playing quicker and more efficiently. whatever your current level, or provide an excellent reference for guitar teachers looking for lesson ideas that can be easily expanded upon. Here's exactly what you'll get an insight in the updated version of this bestselling eBook:1. How to Remember Chords in the Beginning2. How to Learn 3NPS Scales in order to Improvise3. How to Learn More Chords without Learning More Shapes4. Modes: What to do first5. How to Make Music from Scales6. How to Learn any Technique to Perfection7. How to Write Using the Modes8. Don't Be Scared Off by Long Chord Names9. How to Make Your Solos Sound Better Overnight10. Modes: The Thing That's Stopping You from Understanding Them11. How to Play Outside the Key and Sound Cool12. How to Play like Your Idols without Learning their Licks13. How to Get Better: The Four Levels of Awareness14. How to Write Great Stuff15. How to Get a Great Tone16. How to Write a Great Guitar Riff17. 3 Essential Ingredients for a Productive Practice Session18. How to Choose a Guitar Book19. How to Design an Effective Practice Routine20. How to Break Out of Scale Patterns21. When to Use Alternate and Economy Picking22. Find Your Path of Least Resistance23. How to Make the Most of Altered Tunings24. How Long Does It Take to Get Good?25. How to Make Your Own Songbook26. How to Start Improvising on Jazz Tunes27. Make Sure You Know What You're Learning28. The Absolute Fastest Way to Improve Your Guitar Playing29. Avoid the CAGED System... Or Hack it!30. Are You Really a Visual Learner?31. Learn How to Build a Solo32. How to Instantly Improve Your Blues Guitar Soloing33. How to Invent Your Own Guitar Chords34. How to Learn the Notes on the Neck without Dying of Boredom35. How to Hack Scale Patterns for the Melodic and Harmonic Minor Modes36. Blues Guitar: You're Trying Way Too Hard37. How to Hack a Guitar Solo and Make It Yours38. How to Use YouTube to Actually Learn Something39. Why How It Sounds is Always More Important than How It's Done40. Use Your Pinky Right from the Start41. How to Bend a String Properly42. Use Your Guitar's Volume Control43. The Heavy Gauge Strings Fatter Tone Myth44. The One Thing You Should Fatten Up45. Throw Away Your Metronome46. Songwriting: Don't Try to Reinvent the Wheel47. The Quick and Dirty Way to Learn Arpeggios48. The Best Kind of Warm-up Exercises49. Work on One Thing50. How to Learn Music TheoryPutting this eBook together was enjoyable, cathartic and insightful experience. I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did.

Due to the fantastic response to the first book in this series, ’50 Guitar Hacks for the Thinking Man’s Guitarist’, it gives me immense pleasure to bring you this second installment; 50 More Guitar Hacks for the Thinking Man’s Guitarist. My hope is to again provide you with timely insight into all aspects of learning and playing guitar. These hacks are things I’ve learned from years of playing that should and will be passed on to those seeking insight, out-of-the-box thinking, and the deepening of their knowledge of the guitar whatever their current level may be. The information herein takes the form of mini-lessons, anecdotes, wisdom and knowledge, divine inspiration and friendly advice. It is my desire to help you on your journey to being the best guitarist you can possibly be.

50 Guitar Hacks for the Thinking Man's Guitarist has just received an extensive update and now features more detailed explanations, plus new hacks, diagrams and insight. Guitar Hacks can be clever ways to do things on guitar, priceless nuggets of information, or new perspectives on vital concepts for learning and understanding guitar, out-of-the-box thinking and much more besides. These hacks are based on 20+ years of hindsight so that you can get to where you want to be with your playing quicker and more efficiently. whatever your current level, or provide an excellent reference for guitar teachers looking for lesson ideas that can be easily expanded upon.

I was watching a YouTube video a while back where Lee Anderton (of Anderton’s fame) gets a guitar lesson from Ariel Posen. Ariel tries his best to teach him a few things in a very thorough and well-meaning way, but about half-way through Lee says something along the lines of, ‘Just teach me the quick and dirty way to do things, I’m a middle-aged man who doesn’t have the time (or the patience) to practice scales for 8 hours a day’, which is both totally valid and completely doable on guitar as it’s one of the few instruments that lends itself well to a wide range of methodologies, be they theory-based or the other extreme. This book was also inspired by many students of a variety of ages who came to me saying they just wanted to play and not be bogged down by theory and scales and whatnot. They weren’t looking for shortcuts, they just genuinely wanted to solo and sound good without having to learn theory in order to do it. Admittedly, I was discouraged at first but I put myself in their shoes and came up with this method to get to the good stuff faster, and sound good. I won’t deal with pentatonic scales here as you’re probably already well-versed in those and are looking to be able to solo over simple and common chord progressions or add more variety to your improvisations. If you’re looking for a system to learn pentatonic scales (and modes), which is also theory-lite, check out another of my books: Beyond Pentatonics. All the music theory terms you’ll find in this book are for labeling purposes only and will help you recognize these concepts in songs or pieces you already know; they’ll also help you find the information on the fretboard when you need it instead of fumbling around. What’s more, due to the simplicity of this approach, you’ll be able to reduce your thinking to a minimum and concentrate on making a musical contribution to whatever situation you find yourself in and making jamming/playing out a far more enjoyable experience. I love this approach and often teach it to people who don’t want to practice 10 hours a day, are not interested in theory or knowing the whys and wherefores of everything. They just want a straightforward, “if you learn this and play it here, it’ll sound good”, method so that they can express themselves in a jam session, solo with more than just a pentatonic scale, or play out on the weekends. If you have even half an hour a day to play/practice guitar, you can make a world of progress with your soloing by using this method.

The Advancing Guitarist faces many challenges on the instrument, yet it is one of the most exciting periods in a player's development. This eBook features hacks, mini-lessons, insights, tricks and tips to push you past your new-found comfort zone and make real progress on the instrument. You will reach many plateaus as you progress on guitar, and these are fantastic opportunities to do something different, and to learn something new while deepening the knowledge you've already acquired. This eBook provides solutions to many of the issues faced by guitarists on the intermediate plateau, those stuck in a rut, or those simply wishing to break into advanced territory on the instrument. I hope to be a facilitator on this journey, and help you get to where you want to be with your guitar playing. Here's what we'll be getting into in this 50 Guitar Hacks eBook:1. The Secret to Fast Playing that Everyone Overlooks2. How to Move Beyond Pentatonic Scales3. Do You Need a Mentor Rather than a Teacher?4. How to Get into Melodic Soloing5. How to Use the Other Four Minor Pentatonic Boxes6. Why Your Solos Still Sound like Scales and How to Turn It Around7. What's Your Specialty?8. When to Learn the Notes on the Neck9. How to Get the Gig10. How to Learn New Scales without Learning New Patterns11. How to Balance Your Pickups for a Sharper Sound12. Write This Down Before Every Practice Session13. How to Get Free Gear14. Buy Tons of Picks15. The 'Hendrix' Chord and When to Use It16. How to 'Johnny B. Goode' Any Scale17. Scale Fragments: Practice This to Increase Your Speed18. Repetition Is Only Half the Story19. Split the Fretboard20. Zone in to Improve Your Phrasing21. Take Advantage of Your Own Hindsight22. How to Spice Up Your Chord/Rhythm Playing23. How to Memorize New Material Faster24. The Hearing Lag25. Beyond the 'Hendrix' Chord26. The Reason You Find Chord Tone Soloing Hard27. The Real Meaning of 'Less is More'28. Stop Learning Guitar Solos29. Sweep Picking Made Easy 30. How to Play the Minor Pentatonic Scale Over Almost Anything 31. 4 Neglected Pentatonic Scales32. Are You Using Your Best Picking Technique?33. What Do I Use This for?34. How to Know What to Learn Next35. How to Make the Most of Backing Tracks36. How to Tap into an Infinite Supply of Riffs, Licks and Ideas37. Instant Jazz/Fusion Soloing with 9-Note Scales38. How to Take the Tedium Out of Learning Arpeggios39. Improve Your Phrasing with the Pivot Technique40. The Law of Overcompensation and Fretting Hand Strength41. The Best Books for Learning to Sight Read42. How to Find the Right Gear for You43. If You Use Tablature, You Must Do This44. The Dreaded, 'Now Practice This in All 12 Keys...'45. Is It Time to Forget Scales?46. More Than Repertoire47. Make Time for Noodling48. A Healthy Obsession You Should Have49. How to Play Over Changes without Getting Frustrated50. Are There Any Skeletons in Your Musical Closet?