Lesson No. 1: The Long and Winding Scales

I would like to start off our lessons together with an examination of two critical sets of scales. Again and again, I will be referring to and building upon these scales for a vast range of lessons in all different styles and genres, and they will also be extremely useful and powerful tools for you to open up your playing across the entire length of the fret board.

There is often some disagreement on not only how to teach these scales, but where they should lie, and how they should be played. Here I show you the correct way, and give you these as a kind of “checklist” for you to refer back to many times over the course of my online lessons.

You’ll also note that there are certain slides and other key factors that come to play in the creation of phrasing, fills, and soloing when using these scales. They also utilize one of the more beautiful things about the guitar: How we can find often the same note, in the same octave, in several different positions on the neck.

This is a great way for us to start off on our journey together, and I hope you really enjoy these positions. They’re going to feel a little different to many of you, but take it from me, this is the way to do it. Enjoy!—Arlen Roth