This chart was designed for the beginning guitarist, to become familiar where all the notes are located on the guitar, without the confusion of sharp notes & flat notes. The first couple of guitar scale sessions will be displaying scales without sharp or flat notes in them. Although as you move on in the sessions you will want to print or copy to your hard drive, the charts found on Guitar notes 2 The 2 charts found on this page displays all the guitar notes, including the sharp notes & flat notes.

The example diagram below is the "C Major scale". You will notice the fingers used for playing each note in the scale are marked next to the note. The symbols are as follows:

O = Open string played
= Index Finger
=Middle Finger
=Ring Finger
=Little Finger

Using the right finger for each note played in the guitar scale is important. { at first anyway } It helps give you good finger coordination and guides you in your movement around the guitar fretboard. It also helps get dexterity in all your fingers.

As you become more advanced in your guitar playing, you'll find that you'll play within the scale as you see fit, for the music and sound you want to accomplish.

On scale diagrams that use open string notes within the scale, the note will be marked above the string on the diagram. For instance, on the example diagram the " D, G, & B " notes are open strings played while playing the guitar scale. This is a note playing a guitar string without pressing down on any frets on the guitar.

The big E string is sometimes refered to as the 6th string. Often times the guitar strings are refered to by the number of the string. The note of each string while played open is as follows:

6th string = big E string | 5th string = A | 4th string = D | 3rd string = G | 2nd string = B | 1st string = small E string.

The example diagram above shows the notes for the "C Major scale" played in the 1st position on the guitar.

The 1st position covers the first four frets on the guitar. Playing in this position, your index finger plays all the notes in the scale that are on the 1st fret. Your middle finger plays all the notes in the scale that are on the 2nd fret. Your ring finger plays all the notes in the scale that are on the 3rd fret. And your little finger plays all the notes in the scale that are on the 4th fret.

Looking at the diagram below, this is the "C Major scale" in the 5th position. Notice that your index finger plays all the notes on the 5th fret. Middle finger covers all the notes played on the 6th fret. Ring finger plays all the notes on the 7th fret, and the little finger plays all the notes on the 8th fret.

As mentioned earlier, the right fingering for the notes being played is important. It gives the guitarist a guideline on the guitar, which helps you get better finger coordination for moving up and down the neck and fretboard of the guitar.

The guitar scale sessions are designed to get you familiar with this, which will help you maneuver around the guitar more easily.

By following the guitar scale sessions here on Musicmarks website, you will find that the same scale can be played all over the guitar. And played in 3 different octave tones.

By looking at the diagrams, you will notice that the C Major scale starts out with the root note C and ends with the root note C. Which happens to be an octave tone higher in pitch. At this point the scale starts to repeat itself an octave tone higher in pitch.

On the guitar there are 3 octaves of sound pitch. Where as on the piano there is 5 octaves of sound pitch all layed out in front of you. From the lowest note on the left, the chromatic scale repeating itself to the highest note on the right of the key board. The guitar does the same thing on a stringed instrument with only 3 octaves of sound pitch. For more information on this see_

Guitar Scales Introduction

There is one last thing I want to mention, and that is you will see the terms ascending and descending alot in the guitar scales sessions. Playing a musical scale from a lower note to a higher sounding note is called "ascending in the scale". Playing a scale from a higher to lower sounding note is called "descending in a scale".

All guitar scales sessions along with all the learning basic guitar chord sessions are found on the Learning Guitar Sessions page.