The following rule is key, and very important to learning to play guitar solos correctly:

When the song you are playing is minor, you want to play a major scale, and when the song is major, you want to play a minor scale.

I call this the "relative rule". I can't explain why, but trust me, it works.

You do have to know how to figure out what the "relative" of the key is though. Don't worry, I'll make this easy.

The "relatives" are just two letters apart.... Its that simple....everyone wants to make this difficult, and it isn't...here's the trick:

When going from major to minor, go backwards in the alphabet (notes).

And when going from minor to major, go forward.

OK, if the song you are playing is "minor", figure out the relative, put the root note on the "A" string, and start your pattern there.



If the song is "major", put the root note on the "E" string, and just play around the pattern.






First, use the fret board diagram above to familiarize yourself with where the different notes are on the guitar's E and A strings. These notes repeat themselvesstarting at the 12th fret.

By knowing where the notes are, it becomes really easy to start at the correct position on the neck, and place the root note in the proper position of the fingering patterns

You can also look at a scale, and make up your own patterns. You don't have to stick to the same old patterns that are shown on the different scale charts....mix them up by playing the "back" half of one pattern, and the "front" half of the next pattern, or vice-versa. Don't get stuck playing the same little patterns, mix it up so that there's some variation.

A Note About Modes:

This is just my opinion...it is only an opinion. Guitarists always want to get into discussions about the different kinds of modes for guitar, and how they effect the feel of a song. Forget it. It doesn't matter. You can create the mood of a song simply by how you play. String bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, playing slowly or quickly...all of the techniques that guitarists use every day, is where the emotion of a song comes from.

If you have a guitar book that shows you the scales and modes, look at them, and you'll see that the patterns are all the same. They're just in different places on the guitar's fretboard, and once you get to the 12th fret, they just repeat, and they're all movable anyway!

So bottom line, learn the different scale patterns, and learn where to put the root within those patterns so that you can play them on your guitar, and stay in key.

If you really want to know more about different scales and modes, go to the next page...