Free Printable Guitar Scale Charts

Start learning guitar major scales with these free printable guitar scale charts and guitar lessons. This lesson is designed to boost the skills of intermediate level guitarists. What's an intermediate guitarist? You know how to strum basic guitar chords to a few songs and also know the difference between a simple minor and major barre chord. You know at least one version of a power chord and also know the names of the notes along your E and A strings. The ability to do some basic soloing with minor pentatonic scales would also be helpful in getting the most out of this lesson.

Why learn scales? OK…this is big. I'm actually not a huge fan of learning scales! So why do I have a web page with a bunch of guitar scale charts for you to download? Good question!

I'll be as brief as possible here. Scales are an artificial arrangement of notes in whole steps and half steps. Usually people learn them in a stepwise or "conjunct" manner. This can end up being very mechanical sounding. Real music doesn't usually work in a "conjunct" way. And even when it does, if it's good and cool sounding music it's built around strong chord tones. The scale notes are really just there on weak beats as stepping stones and to "decorate" strong notes.

The other problem that can happen with learning basic guitar scales is that it's all out of context. A lot of people will at least use a metronome to keep a beat, but there's still no connection to chords or harmony. This can sometimes lead to a weak perception of music or even worse…the erroneous belief that music comes from scales.

Guitar scale charts and the free guitar scales on this page can still be useful though. It could even be argued that learning guitar scales is absolutely necessary. Personally, I don't agree with this as plenty of excellent music has been made by guitarists who probably never formally studied scales. But I do believe that at some point in their development, anyone serious about getting better on guitar should consider spending some deep time to memorizing at least the 12 major scales in all forms over the guitar fretboard. Yes, it's a lot of work! And only for slightly insane people ;-) There are also the forms of the harmonic minor scales and melodic minor scales and the ever so infamous modes of all of these scales. Of course, there are diminished scales and "exotic" scales as well.

But don't fret! That's a joke, get it? :-) It's not as intimidating as many guitar books seem to make it. Help is here. If you go to how to play guitar scales it'll give you a strategy on how to learn these guitar scale charts in a way that will make it far less overwhelming and helpful to you as a guitar player.

Benefits of Learning Scales On Guitar

• As long as you connect the scales to chords and rhythm in some way you should be able to stay on track and get the benefit of learning your way around the guitar fretboard.
• It will strengthen your alternate picking technique. Especially if you practice to some kind of beat or metronome. Eventually as you gain experience, your own tapping foot is also a great option to keep time.
• It will give you insight about which fingers to use when fretting and perhaps get you using your pinky for the first time!
• It will help your musical ear develop to some degree. Especially if you practice singing the scales in tune.

Drum roll, please! Here's the link for the free printable guitar scale diagrams.

These are the forms I had to memorize at Humber Jazz in Toronto ( sort of like Canada's version of Berklee )…but I don't really use them anymore as I have much more freedom on the guitar fretboard these days. However, you may also encounter others who strongly preach that they have developed some kind of new "holy grail" solution for learning scales. I would strongly caution against thinking there's any kind of "magic" way. Some ways may work better for you than others -- at certain times in your guitar playing career. For now, this is simply a solid place to get started. In the meantime just keep playing, stay alert and enjoy the journey :-)

Important: Remember to make sure you go to how to play guitar scales for very important information that will help you learn how to practice these guitar scale charts. It also includes a free downloadable guitar lesson video.

I hope you enjoyed the information with this lesson and that it's helpful to your quest. If you have any difficulties please contact me with your questions. Thanks for tuning in and tuning up :-)

Dave

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