How To Play Open Zone Major Scales

The benefits of learning scales may be obvious for finger conditioning, practicing patterns, learning keys and endurance …

… but they’re also great for building right hand awareness and dexterity.

In this lesson I’m including a few open zone and zone major scales.

Open zone means you’ll be utilizing open strings to play them and zone scales means you’ll be assigning your 4 fingers in a 4-fret zone.

Right hand fingerings are never set in stone, however if you assign the same number of fingers to the same number of notes per string, you’ll be in pretty good shape.

Feel free to experiment with fingerings and what feels natural to you.

Maintain consistent pressure against the strings for even volume levels. You can also work in some dynamics as you play these scales.

Build a crescendo (gradually play) louder), decrescendo (gradually play softer), or abruptly change dynamics for a more dramatic feel.

E major:

E |------------------------------------------------0--|
B |--------------------—-------------------2--4-------|
G |-------------------------------1--2--4-------------|
D |---------------------1--2--4-----------------------|
A |-----------0--2--4---------------------------------|
E |-0--2--4-------------------------------------------|

G major:

E |-----------------------------------------0--2--3---|
B |--------------------—---------0--1--3--------------|
G |------------------------0--2-----------------------|
D |--------------0--2--4------------------------------|
A |----0--2--3----------------------------------------|
E |-3-------------------------------------------------|

C major:

E |----------------------------------------------------7--8--|
B |--------------------—----------------------8--10----------|
G |--------------------------------7--9--10------------------|
D |---------------------7--9--10-----------------------------|
A |---------7--8--10-----------------------------------------|
E |-8--10----------------------------------------------------|

F major:

E |------------------------------5--6--8--10--11--12----|
B |--------------------5--6--8--------------------------|
G |--------------5--7-----------------------------------|
D |----5--7--8------------------------------------------|
A |-8---------------------------------------------------|
E |-----------------------------------------------------|

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