Scales & Modes in the Beginning: Created Especially for Guitarists

by Ron Middlebrook (Composer)

(Instructional). The most comprehensive and complete scale book written especially for the guitar. Divided into four main sections: 1) Fretboard Visualization, the breaking down of the whole into parts; 2) Scale Terminology - a thorough understanding of whole and half steps, scale degrees, intervals, etc.; 3) Scales And Modes - the rear of the book covers every scale you will ever need with exercises and applications; 4) Scale To Chord Guide - ties it all together, showing what scale to use over various chords.

Genres: Music

136 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1984

Reviews

[William Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for a beginner who wants to understand the guitar. With a guitar, you can quickly learn songs by following tablature charts. But if you want to master the instrument, you have to be able to name every note on every fret and know how all the notes are related by scale, key, and mode. That's the instruction this book provides.

As a self-taught beginner, I found parts of the book extremely useful, such as the descriptions, with plenty of illustrations, of ways to learn the fretboard, such as the chromatic zone system, the CAGED system, and others. Also helpful is having every note and scale in musical notation. That's the only way to associate intervals with the fretboard.

This book is thorough. You start out with diatonic, pentatonic, and whole tone scales. It steps you through all the major and minor scales in detail, and all the modes of the major scales (Ionian, Dorian, etc.). Then you move on to learn the jazz minor scale, the bop, and blues scales, and mixed scales. It even covers a list of "exotic" scales, such as "Neapolitan," "Hindu," and "Hawaiian."

My long-term goal is to be able to express myself with the instrument. I have musical ideas I want to say. My goal is not to acquire a repertoire of songs and play in a rock band. I've spent nearly six months learning first five positions of the minor pentatonic scale, playing them smoothly, forward and backward, trying to hit each note cleanly, in time, with no buzz, and calling out the names of the notes as I play them. I'm almost there. I thank my long-suffering wife.

I have already written a couple of simple tunes that satisfy me. I couldn't have done that six months ago. And I goof around with popular and classical pieces for warm-up. This is not my only guitar book, only my most important one. I can hardly imagine achieving full mastery, but even as a beginner, it is rewarding to understand at least a little about what I am playing and why, rather than mindlessly rehearsing sing-alongs.

Charts and staffs are printed clearly and in a large size that you can read on a stand. On the other hand, some of the spelling and grammar in the book is atrocious, and occasionally the sentences (or fragments) are so vague you cannot even interpret what is intended. Such errors, while jarring, do not totally kill the book's usefulness. I found only one severe error in the diagrams, which threw me off for a couple of days. It's a shame the publisher did not hire an editor. The only other problem is that the glued paperback binding does not lay flat. The cover of my copy is now separated from the pages from trying to force it flat.

These flaws do not ruin the book but diminish it. At six dollars, I shouldn't complain. I still recommend it for someone who wants to learn what the guitar can do, either alone or with a teacher.

[Trent Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book....Used it for 20+ years