Major scale practice routine - pattern 1 (E-shape)

This practice routine will get the major scale under your fingers and under your skin.  Mastering the major scale will improve your playing in all sorts of ways.  You can read 10 reasons why you should learn scales here.

I developed this routine as an easy and quick way of keeping major scales in my warm up after I had completed studying Master The Major Scale by www.justinguitar.com.  The idea is that this routine is something to aim for if your scale knowledge is rusty (or non-existent if you are in denial like I was), and part of a regular warm up/practice routine if you are developing further from intermediate playing. 

The routine has 4 sections which can be learned and practised separately, but the end goal is to be able to play the whole routine, correctly and smoothly, first time every time when you warm up.  I leave speed up to you and your ego, but practise with a metronome at least twice a week.

Here's how to use it:

Section A, bars 1-4, is a straight-forward two-octave pattern played up and down.
Section B, bars 5 - 11, is the major scale played in thirds. 1st note, 3rd note, 2nd note, 4th note, 3rd note etc
Section C, bars 12 - 22, is played in runs of three notes. 1st, 2nd, 3rd; 2nd, 3rd, 4th; 3rd, 4th, 5th etc
Section D, bars 22 - 35, is played in runs of four notes.

1. Make sure you can play each section smoothly and consistently on its own. Check out www.justinguitar.com for more on this.  Sections C and D offer some fingering challenges which I'll leave to you to find ways of playing these that are smooth and comfortable for you.  Working this out will help you learn it.

2. Practice the transitions between sections. Part of the purpose of the routine is to be able to move easily between different note choices in your playing.

3. Play the routine twice everyday when you start your warm up.  Keep doing this until you never play it wrong. This is much harder than aiming to be able to play it right.

Tips

• Play it slow to learn it fast.
• Practice with your eyes closed, moving slowly from note to note, hearing and visualising your fingers finding the notes.
• Focus on using small, smooth finger movements and using just enough pressure to make the notes sound clearly.
• Once you've mastered pattern 1, move on to the other patterns.

Get the PDF.  Get the Guitar Pro 6 file.

For more advanced players, check out Adrian Galysh's @adriangalysh 3-note per string work out http://t.co/NLl1tpbxVi