Scales

Every line here comes from one of a handful of scales. Each page shows the scale as a shape on the fretboard, in notation and tab, in any key, with what each note does, a practice loop, and the lines that use it. Start with the intervals if the fretboard is new to you, then the minor pentatonic, which is under most of the hip hop lines.

• Intervals root, 2nd, 4th, 5th, ♭7, octave
  Before scales: the notes within reach of the root, as shapes that work from any note.
• Minor pentatonic 1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7
  Five notes, two per string. The funk scale, under Pusher, The R, Landlord and You Gots to Chill.
• Natural minor 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7
  The pentatonic with the 2nd and ♭6 put back. Don't Sweat the Technique walks it; Paid in Full and Musical Massacre sit in it.
• Major 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  Do re mi. Blister in the Sun and There Is a Light.
• Dorian 1 2 ♭3 4 5 6 ♭7
  Minor with a bright 6th: the funk and soul-jazz mode. Tweekers and Know the Ledge.
• Chromatic every fret
  No key, pure motion, and the one-finger-per-fret exercise. John the Fisherman.

New to this? How to read a line → · How to play a line →