[Newsletter] Scales are useful to make music. Music is useful to learn scales. Here's why.
Kirk Fletcher vibing and being wise; designing your own exercises
Hello!
Welcome to new subscribers this week. If it’s your first time receiving one of these emails, I write about strategies, tips, and frameworks to help self-taught guitarists have the best guitar playing experience they can.
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Something to think about
If it’s not immediately clear why you’re working on a scale, strumming pattern, or finger exercise and how doing this work brings you closer to your musical goals, then question why you’re doing it.
For example, take the G major scale.
Very few guitarists will be inherently interested in learning the G major scale. The G major scale in a vacuum is inherently uninteresting. To learn the G Major scale by itself will take maybe one session. You’ll learn the fingering and be able to play the scale. Maybe, as a bonus, you’ll figure out some note names or intervals as well.
But there’s a constant shadow of “so whatness” and “now whatness” lurking behind every session like this.
What’s funny is that putting the G Major scale into a context (like a melody) means you spend less time actually talking about the scale and more time understanding the scale. Learning the scale is almost like a by-product of learning the melody.
The melody to Amazing Grace, for example, will require knowledge of the G Major scale. You’ll need to know the fingerings and patterns. But the context is where the deep understanding happens.
To play the melody beautifully, you will need be aware of a few things:
Which notes resolve strongly and which notes resolve weakly? You will develop a sense of tension and release.
You will need to worry about tone quality - playing each note clearly and articulated well.
You will need to worry about rhythmic accuracy - playing the syncopations in good time without rushing or dragging.
You will need to worry about appropriate expression - changes in dynamics to match the lilt of the melody.
This approach is bottom-up rather than top-down. You will learn the spirit of the G major scale as you learn the technical aspects of it.
Learning the scale in the context of some actual music will forge it in your mind and fingers way stronger than learning it in isolation.
Something to watch
Kirk Fletcher's playing is made even better by his loveable personality.
He is such a nice guy. I like his work on YouTube because it's not about production value or overthinking the point. He just plays what he feels like at the time and imparts some wisdom from the current moment he's in.
I really liked his message at the end of this slow blues improvisation.
He mentions that he might not have gotten technically better in the last few years, but he can get to where he wants to be pretty easily. This is a self-actualized approach to learning guitar and sustaining an interest in it for a long time. He's reached a point where his musical taste is the main concern and his technique only needs to be so good to get him there.
This isn't an idea you hear often in guitar education, but I think it's an important one.
Check out more of Kirk's videos if you want to watch a guy vibe and say wise things!
Something to practice
Last week, I talked about using first principles thinking to help you figure out the most important parts of what you're learning.
Continuing with the example of modes, you figured out what it means to know them, but how do you effectively create exercises to learn them? If knowing modes means understanding which feeling and moods they evoke, you'll want to get acquainted with the sound of each of them and be able to use them in your playing or recognize them in the wild.
If you already know what modes are, that's great. But if not, you can find a good resource to explain the concepts. When you're learning something new, a good resource is super helpful because, even if you don't understand everything yet, it gives you a chance to find patterns in the concept and use them to simplify what you're learning.
In the above resource, you notice this pattern: the modes are mostly either major or minor.
Now start thinking of ideas to use this pattern to help you learn. Here are some examples:
If you already know the major and minor scale, learn each mode as a small variation of that. For example, the Dorian mode is just a minor scale with a raised 6th. Now you're not starting from scratch with each mode, but instead, you’re learning them in reference to something you already know.
Play each mode over a backing track of the corresponding chord quality. For example, play Dorian, Phrygian, and Aeolian modes over a minor chord backing track. If you play them all over the same root note, you'll hear the drastic difference in feeling and mood. If you're familiar with some of my other writing, you might know about the benefits of interleaving what you're learning. This is a good chance to mix up each mode as you play them to help each sound stick in your head a bit better.
Finding patterns in what you're learning and trying to place it in relation to something you already know well is a great way to design your own exercises that are most useful and unique to you.