Hey everybody,  How are you?  The best advice that I can give anyone 

attempting to play the Guitar, or any instrument for that fact, is to 

play, play, play and play.  Practice is extremely important, as is listening 

to quality performers ( recorded and/or live performance ).  


Look at it this way.  Are you trying to become proficient at playing scales, 

fingering chords in various voicings, and tuning your axe?  Or are you desiring 

to pull emotion from your instrument, play the music in your inner ear or serenade your 

sweetheart?  


Practice (scales, chords, tunings) is necessary to acquire and perfect the skills necessary 

to do the latter items (play your ideas, communicate with your axe).  Think of the various 

components of practice as you would letters of the alphabet and the many rules of grammar.  

Then, in turn, see performance as the sentences, phrases and puctuations that make up your melody, 

song or solos.  Listening would then be viewed as the reading, studying and attending recitals 

of great literary works.


		  Well folks, thats my bit.............Enough of that stuff for now!

My  idea is to get to the playing side of things and not so much the theoreatical side.  
There are certainly enough, more prolific and appropriate, source for that.  The assumption 
is that you have a basic grasp on guitar playing:  How to hold your fingers, The number of strings, 
What frets are, etc.....

Here I'll cover three (3) basic sounds: Major, Minor and Blues.  
There are several others, but we'll leave that to future listings and/or possible publications.


 Example 1

This is a major scale played in the first (1st) position.  Its in "F" because the notes used 
make up the "F" major scale.  If we were playing this fingering in another area of the neck, 
or had the Guitar tuned to an other than "standard" tuning, we'd refer to the scale as 
"what ever" Major.  "First" position refers to the fact that we're starting or "anchoring" 
from the first fret of the neck.


 Example 1a

These are two voicings of a Major chord, particularly a Major seventh (7th).  
The reference name for these are also "F".

 Example 2

Minor scale played in the first position.  "F" minor, 
technically the Jazz Melodic Minor scale.

 Example 2a

These are two voicings of a Minor chord, particularly a Minor seventh (7th).  
Reference name "F" also.



 Example 3

Blues scale played in the first position.  "F" blues, 
technically I believe there are one or two other versions/variations.



 Example 3a

These are two voicings of a Dominant seventh (7th) chord.  
The Blues scale is just one of serveral scales that can be played 
with/over the sound of the Dominant chords.

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