Guitar Solos – Pt.13 – Up one shape, down the next w. Major/Minor scales

Hi there,

In our last blog we looked at a great way of getting to know your scales better by going up one shape and down the next with the minor pentatonic scale. Now you’ll want to do this with the major/natural minor scales.

When you are improvising you’ll want to move freely between shapes and this is a great way to be able to do this.

Here are your 3 note per string Major + Natural Minor shapes (the white dots are the root notes):
Click to enlarge!

If we start with going up the first shape (of the major) you go up 2 from the last note to come down the second shape. Then once you’ve gone up the 3rd shape, you go up 2 again to come down the 4th. Once up the 5th shape, you go up 2 to come down the 6th. Once up the 7th, you go up 1 fret to come down the 1st.

The minor shapes are the same as the major just starting from the 6th shape 🙂 (but root notes change)

If you watch the short video above i’ll go through it step by step 🙂

So practice these in different keys all up the neck (in major and minor keys)

Many thanks for reading

Rock ‘n’ roll

James Schofield

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