Welcome to this free lead guitar course where we're looking at how to solo using the Major Scale on acoustic guitar!

This is ideal for anyone wanting to learn how to improvise to create solos, or if you want to just learn the techniques to enable you to play higher level guitar solos.

This first video will show you how to play the Major Scale over 2 octaves, in what is known as 'position 1'.

Major Scale Introduction

The major scale is a 7 note scale. It is the foundation of all western music. While the minor pentatonic scale can be more commonly used in Rock and Blues solos, the major scale is used in all, yes ALL other genres including pop, folk, country and even major sounding Rock songs.

The easiest way we can play this scale is in open position. This is covered in my Beginners Course here, which you should be confident with before proceeding any further with this course.

Major Scale Position 1

So that we can play this scale in ANY key, we need to learn it in a higher position on the neck. This means we can learn this 1 shape, and move it up or down the neck to play it in any key! The most popular and common position to do this is Position 1, shown below.

The first note (Fret 8 on the thickest string) should be played with the middle finger (strange if you are note used to it). The little finger is also used on every string, making it tougher to learn than the minor pentatonic.

If you really, really struggle with playing this, try these finger exercises first to get your fingers to coordinate better.

This bit of the course is the most physically challenging bit to play. From this lesson onward, the focus is far more on creativity and smaller patterns on the fretboard. So please, put the time in now to learn this scale correctly and you will reap the rewards later in this course!!