Dr Steven Allen Gordon

Guitar Scales in Three Octaves in All Keys: the New, Logical Path for Scale and Fretboard Knowledge Dr Steven Allen Gordon

Publisher Marketing: Violinists, violists, cellists, pianists and many other instrumentalists practice three octave scales in all keys on a daily basis. This establishes and maintains technical competency and a core knowledge of their instruments, as well as a fundamental understanding of the foundation of Western music. As a violist, I begin every practice session with three-octave major and minor scales and arpeggios in all keys. This routine, along with other studies and repertory, has been essential in building the muscle memory that has been vital to my work for over 27 years as a studio musician. Muscle memory is fundamental to sight reading, which is any session player's stock-in-trade. Moreover, muscle memory is an instrumentalist's foundation when learning a new piece, no matter what the style. In short, muscle memory probably is the single most purely physical aspect to learning an instrument. As a guitarist, I have searched endlessly to find a logical and systematic approach for three-octave major and minor scales similar to those that can be found for other instruments. There are many guitar scale books, and many guitar books that contain scales. However, I have not found a three-octave guitar scale system that provides functional and logical fingerings in one simple and succinct book. So, I wrote my own. In time, you will find that you can play through all thirty-six scales at a slow to medium tempo in about twelve to fifteen minutes. I can say without hesitation that this scale method is truly logical and easy to assimilate. I am completely sold on it. I hope you will be too.