Major Scale Soloing Masterclass: Box Set

The major scale is quite possibly THE most important piece of musical information in all of western music. It may be 'Book 1, Page 1' in music lessons but this is the scale that most of popular music throughout the century has been based off of. Contained within it is the major pentatonic and minor pentatonic scales, the relative minor scale, all 7 diatonic modes, we even derive most of our harmony (and it's extensions) from the triads created inside this scale - It is the building blocks of modern music!

The major scale is often given an unfair reputation as being a bit bland and we're here to not only prove that reputation wrong, but to give you the most thorough and complete understanding of the workings of the major scale. This will become a solid foundation, laying the essential ground work from which you can stack all of your other guitar and theory knowledge on top of! This isn't just a theory lesson though... the theory is covered but we're more about the practical application here. We don't want you to memorise useless information but instead want you to understand 'why' the sounds you're going to be hearing work as they do, so you can use them in your own playing and put the concepts to work right away.

Each pack comes with explanations to help you learn the new ideas and material, then we have some exercises designed to guide you through the new ideas on the neck and help drill the material into your playing. Next up comes the licks which place the concepts into musical phrases and lastly comes a full solo which will cover all of the concepts covered so far, and use them in the context of a 'real world' musical solo.

So what's covered?

Beginner:

Starting with the beginner masterclass you'll be covering the very basics: Explaining what a scale is, what intervals are, what target notes (over static chords) are, and why it's important that you know them!

After some explanations (complete with useful scale diagrams) we have some exercises designed specifically to help you learn the major scale across the entire neck. If you've ever wondered how the pros are able to solo so freely on the guitar that's because they can visualise their scales as one big shape that spans the whole neck. With this series you can learn to do that too! This part lays down the groundwork and ensures that you know the basics very well before we move on!

Intermediate:

This second part of the series takes things up a level. You'll be covering targeting notes (this time over moving harmony), arpeggios within the major scale, viewing the major pentatonic scale as a subset of the major scale. We will start to look at playing in string groups to break out of box shapes, and increase the tempo so that you have to think that little bit quicker! Inside the licks and solo we will be looking at a few melodic studies, some arpeggio studies and we will be working on viewing the major pentatonic scale all over the neck!

Advanced:

Following on from parts 1 and 2, we really start turning things to the max, challenging you technically and theoretically by adding in more advanced target notes (over faster chord changes), using the pentatonic substitutions in context, exploring non-diatonic intervals and their character sounds as well as including more advanced concepts like chromatic passing tones! Being able to freely play/think and understand these concepts at both fast and slow speeds is the overall goal of this masterclass, so that you can demonstrate just how well you know the material! The exercises in this final section will challenge you by using quick shifts between positions, working through triads and their inversions at a faster pace as well as using pentatonic substitutions.

Rounding things off for pack 3, we have the last and most advanced sample solo which takes the concepts covered in all three parts of the masterclass, along with some cool new ideas to challenge you one last time! Mastering (and genuinely understanding) the lines in this solo is your final task for this masterclass and studying this will require you to use everything you've learned so far by putting your new skills to the test!

As ever, we have included everything you need to practise and perfect the material in this package. There are video and audio tracks for you to watch/listen and study, accurately transcribed TAB/notation for you to analyse and master, and backing tracks for everything!

We would also like to extend a huge thanks to Jake Willson for being our 'Stig' and sessioning on this JTC Masterclass!