, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5-B, 6, 6-B, 7, 8, 8-B, 9, 9-B,

Before you start exploring the sound you can get from your instrument you need to clear your mind of expectations.  Don't try to control the sound yet - explore, understand, and then control. You may ask "what does this have to do with scales?" The answer is simple. Everything.  The sound you create as you move through a scale is exactly what will drive your music forward.  If it's flat and boring - guess what? - that's how an audience will perceive your playing. As your ability to understand the music grows, your ability to play fast and clear will also grow.  If you focus on playing fast and clear then you might achieve those goals, if you focus on understanding and controlling the music than you will become a musician.

You will not use the left hand at all for this first step.  We are going to explore the range of sounds you can get from your right hand without moving the right arm.  Most guitarists change the color of the sound by gross movements of the right arm, bringing the right hand closer to or further from the sound hole.  We are going to use the free stroke with alternating i and m fingers of the right hand.  Then we are going to go through a range of movements of the right hand by only moving the hand at the wrist. Vary the angle of the fingernail across the string by turning the right wrist left or right. Vary the angle that the finger makes with the string by lifting or lowering the right forearm and adjusting the up and down angle at the wrist.  Finally, vary the speed of the stroke from quick and short to long and slow.  Initially these actions will be purely physical, but as you listen to the sound of each stroke try to correlate the various motions of the finger and wrist with variations in the sound.  Work to accentuate a particular aspect of the sound - brittle, soft, smooth, quiet, loud, rich, thin - apply your own adjectives - these sounds must start to develop a character.  You must begin to "own" the sounds and be able to find a desired sound at will.

The next step is to start playing the Case 1 scales again, but this time color the sound as you move from one note to the other.  Be patient and listen V  E  R  Y  closely.  Don't expect to control the sound in one sitting.  Explore, understand, and then control the sound.

Case 2 - one string, left arm moves up or down the neck
I hope at least a month has gone by before you started studying Case 2, if not, go back to Case 1 and practice some more.  The motions and their correlation into controlled sound have got to be automatic before you try to tackle this next step.  You have to be able to think of a sound and automatically do what's necessary to make it happen.  A person can only focus on one new thing at a time, so please don't try to rush the process.

The most critical physical factor in this next step is timing.  Remember when we talked about the moment of preparation between notes? That minute moment of silent preparation must be there. Surprisingly, it must also be there to make the sound appear connected.  That fraction of a second of preparation fixes, or anchors the string so that the next note will resonate properly.  Physically, you must time the move so that your fingers are prepared on the next note with exactly the same amount of time between notes as you allowed when you didn't move the left arm.  Prepare the move mentally before you actually move your arm.  The motion should be smooth and not jerky, it should be very deliberate and not sloppy.  Place your finger onto the next note and don't slap it down.  The guitar will sustain the music when the note is played properly.

We now have to define the word "properly."  What is properly?  It is defined as "the way you want it to be!"  That is the essence of control and the reason we took so much time to learn to control the sound. Now that you know what to listen for you can use your ear to direct you when you change positions by moving the left hand up or down the neck.  The sound should only change IF YOU WANT IT TO.  A good way to verify your ability to move correctly between positions is to move only a couple of frets so that you can play the short scale first with no left arm motion, and then with a short move of the left arm.  You should strive to make it sound the same - your ear can now be your guide.  Gradually expand the length of the move until you can easily move up and down the neck of the guitar without diminishing the sound.

Case 3 - change strings, no left arm motion

- First the left hand...
When playing a scale requires you to change strings, the left hand must move across the strings by a motion of the left arm, keeping the angle of the hand constant with respect to the fingerboard. This motion was discussed in an earlier lesson.

The fingers of the left hand must prepare in the same way they prepared for the case of the single string - except that you can now also prepare ahead of time for ascending notes.  Use the same type of exercise patterns you used earlier but continue each repetition of the pattern by moving from the lowest sting to the next higher string until you reach the highest string, and then move back down to the lower string again.  Practice by not lifting any finger until you must do so in order to play the next note. This technique will be applied later on to control the duration of notes which must be held or released to support the harmony, but it is good for the purpose of this lesson to ignore any harmonic disonances that might be created by holding two notes together.  You will find that you will be holding a note on one string while you are preparing to play a note on an adjacent string.  This same technique will apply when going up or down in pitch.  The pitches aren't that important yet, we are focusing on the sound of the notes in transition, so that is the most important consideration for this lesson.  Repeat the same exercise you did at the beginning of this lesson where you first lifted all fingers between each note and then repeated the scale while keeping the fingers down where possible.  You will hear the difference in sound caused by the action of the left hand finger, but it will most likely be occluded by the overwhelming difference in sound caused by the fact that each string has its own characteristic timbre.  Try to mentally filter out those timber changes and listen to the differences caused by the left hand motion.  We will discuss how to work with the natural timbre differences between strings in the next part of this lesson.  Learn to control the sound as you did before.

- now the right hand...
The right hand must also move from the arm so that the angle of the hand at the wrist doesn't change unless you want it to. You will notice the right hand will require more thought, planning and control in order to move smoothly between strings. Be careful not to tighten up your shoulder as you move your right arm.  The motion should come from the elbow.

As you practice to control the sound of each note you'll once again find that the variation in sound caused by changing strings will be much more obvious than the changes caused by the actions of the right hand. Don't worry about it.  You will be able to hear the changes caused by the right hand by repeating the scales with different fixed right hand positions.  Your earlier training from the single string case will be very important because you must trust your ear. You must experiment again to discover what sounds the guitar is capable of producing.  It is impossible to change strings without also changing the timbre of the sound because each string has its own characteristic timbre.  Learn to appreciate the different timbres of each string and to understand the different sounds you can get by altering your touch. Finally, practice until you are again in control of the sound.

General Case - string changes and left arm motion as needed

By now, you probably are realizing that this general case can be mastered by simply combining the things you learned in each previous case.  What you probably don't yet realize is that one of the most beautiful and interesting aspects of the guitar is a result of conscious use of the variety of sound built into the instrument.  When you practiced the previous sections you strove to control the sound by experimenting and then understanding the possible sounds.  The final part of this lesson will discuss how to use the variety of sounds which exist in the instrument to help you color the sound so it brings out your own musical ideas.

Most notes on the guitar can be played in several different positions on the fingerboard.  Did you ever wonder why the suggested fingerings on some Segovia publications seem a little more difficult than they need to be?  Segovia understood how to use the guitar to produce exactly the sound he wanted.  He would very often choose to remain on a single string even though it would be physically simpler to continue a scale on an adjacent string.  He would also change strings even if the next note of the scale could be played without even moving his hand, but by changing the string he was forced to move far up the neck of the guitar. Segovia used the characteristics of the guitar itself to highlight his musical ideas. Learning the notes to a piece of music was only the first task involved in learning to play a piece of music. I heard a story about a friend of Segovia's who listened to the Maestro play a new piece of music he was working on. He asked Segovia if the piece was to be played at Segovia's next concert. Segovia laughed and said that it would be at least two years before he performed the piece in public. It's sort of like a diamond in the rough. It may be beautiful even in it's raw form, but it is dazzling after it is polished.

You now have the skills to play any scale in any position on the guitar.  You also know what sounds are available, and how to get the sound you want when you want it.  At this point you should begin to study some real pieces of music.  It isn't too important what pieces you choose to play, only that you are moved by the piece.  I personally hate practicing "standalone" scales!  They are boring and I lose interest really quickly.  I recommend that you find some interesting pieces of music that contain scales, and practice the scale passages using the principles you learned in this lesson.  Try changing the fingerings so that you get exactly the sound you want.  Be creative and have fun.

I had originally planned for the next lesson to examine some more advanced techniques using simple pieces of music, but there is still one more set of fundamental elements of music that we need to cover. Lesson 9 will expand on this lesson. You will learn about the music alphabet we use, how the notes in that alphabet map to several common scales used in our music, and how to find any note on the guitar.