In reality, there are an unlimited number of different scales you can learn (Major, Minor, Blues, Whole Tone, Dorian, Chromatic – there are literally hundreds). You could practice your whole life and there would still be scales left to do.

Because of that, it’s better to pick and choose the BEST and most IMPORTANT scales to learn – and learn them REALLY well – instead of learning 100 different scales at an average level.

Major scales are the most commonly used scales in ANY genre, so they’re by far the most versatile and the ones every student should  focus on first.

Once you’ve mastered the Major Scales, you can go onto Minor Scales if you want depending on your goals, but for most people, it’s actually unnecessary (see the explanations for each below).

There are 3 types of minor scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic). Here’s the ins and outs of each:

Natural Minor
Each Major Scale has a “Relative Minor” scale, which contains the EXACT same notes as it! You can find the Relative Natural Minor by going 3 notes down from the Major Scale. Here are some examples of Major Scales plus their Relative Natural Minors:

C Major / A Natural Minor – All white notes
G Major / E Natural Minor – All white notes except F#
F Major / D Natural Minor – All white notes except Bb
And you can repeat this pattern to find ALL of the Natural Minor Scales

Since ALL of the Natural Minor Scales have the same notes as their Relative Major, if you learn all the Natural Minor Scales you’re essentially learning all of the scales TWICE (since you’ve already learned the Majors!)

In other words, it’s not BAD to learn the Natural Minors as well, it’s just not efficient. We only have a limited amount of time in a day, and that time would be better spent working on other technique drills, or choosing a scale that’s more relevant to the genre of music you want to learn.

Harmonic Minor
This scale has the same notes as the Natural Minor scale, except the LAST note of the scale is raised up one note. For example:

A Natural Minor:       A B C D E F G A
A Harmonic Minor: A B C D E F G# A

E Natural Minor:       E F# G A B C D E
E Harmonic Minor:  E F# G A B C D# E

You can use this same method to find any Harmonic Minor scale. These scales are mostly used in classical music. I personally learned the Harmonic Minors in college because the music program was geared towards classical, and I used to teach them to all students because that’s the way I personally learned.

And if learning Classical is your main goal, you might want to learn the Harmonic Minor scales after you’ve mastered all of your major scales, especially if you want to play really advanced pieces.

But as I’ve worked and re-worked this course, I realized for people who’s goal was to play Jazz or Blues or Pop or other more contemporary styles of music, you’re better off spending your time learning songs, or how to play by ear, or scales directly associated with the genre (the Blues Scale for Blues, or Dorian Scales for Jazz). But either way, learn the Majors first – they’re still used all the time in almost every genre.

Melodic Minor
These scales are essentially a combination of Major Scales (going up) and Natural Minor Scales (going down). Again, you’re essentially learning the same notes twice, which is why I don’t recommend learning these. Use your valuable time to learn something else instead!

Ok, so this is based off of the concept of consistent fingering. For Bb Major, for example, once you get it to 4 octaves, you’ll be using finger 4 on ALL the Bb’s going up the scale.

Because of this, we want to keep our 4th finger on Bb even at the beginning of the scale when it doesn’t matter as much to keep everything consistent so that we’re ALWAYS using finger 4 on Bb.

I have seen some fingering charts out there that use 2 on Bb just for the first note. It isn’t a huge deal, and you could probably get away with it, but why not just drill in the SAME muscle memory throughout the whole scale, it makes more sense that way.

This same concept applies to Eb Major and Ab Major.

There are 100’s of different types of scales out there. And it’s always better to learn a FEW different types of scales REALLY well than to know a TON of different scales, and they’re all just “okay”.

Master your Major Scales first. They’re used in every genre of music, and WAY more common than any other type of scale. So no matter what your goals are, Major Scales are critical and should be learned FIRST.

Once you’re done learning your Major Scales, IF you want to learn more scales, you’re going to want to pick scales that are specific to the genre you want to learn instead of just learning 100s of random scales. Here are the most common genres, and a few types of scales associated with each:

Pop/Rock/Country: Major, Pentatonic
Classical: Major, Harmonic Minor, Chromatic
Blues: Major, Blues Scale (duh haha), Major Blues
Jazz: Major, Dorian, Mixolydian
New-Age Classical: Major, Whole Tone, Octatonic

You’ll notice ALL of these genres use Major Scales, so learn these first, then feel free to expand onto other scales.

Ok, so basically when you’re starting off, you’ll typically want to use one note-per-click. But as you get faster and faster, the metronome will start clicking really fast, and you’ll find it’s easier to cut the metronome in half, and just play two notes per click. As you get this even faster, you can even eventually play at 4 notes-per-click.

So, notice that we can achieve the same actual SPEED that we’re playing at any time we HALF the metronome, and DOUBLE the notes per click. For example:

Metronome 120: 1 Note Per Click
Is the same as
Metronome 60: 2 Notes Per Click

You can try this for yourself – set the metronome to 120 and snap your fingers every time it clicks. Then keep snapping your fingers at the same rate and change the metronome to 60 and you’ll notice your “snaps” line up perfectly with 60, except now there are 2 snaps per click.

You can do this with any metronome setting, halving the metronome and doubling the notes per click. For example:

Metronome 200: 1 Note Per Click
Is the same as
Metronome 100: 2 Notes Per Click
Is the same as
Metronome 50: 4 Notes Per Click

Or…

Metronome 160: 1 Note Per Click
Is the same as
Metronome 80: 2 Notes Per Click
Is the same as
Metronome 40: 4 Notes Per Click

Basically, the only reason to change this when you’re practicing is to make it easier to play. If we take the last above example, trying to play at Metronome 40 at 4 notes a click is kind of annoying, since 40 is SO slow and it takes SO long for the next click to come it’s a bit of a hassle to subdivide the long pause. So in this case I’d bump the metronome up to 80 and simply play 2 notes per click. Same exact speed, just easier for my brain to latch onto.

On the other hand, let’s say I’m currently playing at Metronome 208 at 1 note per click. Well, on my metronome, 208 is the highest setting. So if I want to play FASTER than 208, I’m forced to half the speed and double the notes per click. So I would reset the metronome to 104 and play 2 notes per click (this is the SAME speed) and then gradually increase the speed from there.

Whew, that was a lot, I hope it all made sense. If not, make sure you try it with the metronome, often times once you actually try it, it becomes obvious.