9 tips to learn guitar scales more easily

Learning guitar scales is a key step for every aspiring guitarist. With them, it will
be easier for you to understand what you play, which will allow you to compose
better songs and melodies, improvise more fluently, and elaborate plucking and
solos with a sense of good taste.
Contrary to what many people think, learning the scales is not difficult or boring.
You just need time, patience and enthusiasm to keep learning. Your reward will
be that once you know how to use them, they will become something natural to
you and you will become not only a better guitarist, but a better musician.
Through the tips below you will be able to make your learning journey much
more fun and efficient.
1. Use a metronome: although this advice is repeated frequently, it is often
overlooked. If you want to build an impeccable internal tempo, give meaning to
your musical phrases, improve your speed, rhythmic control and precision, you
must practice with a metronome.
Remember that all academic musicians and the greatest musicians in history
have used this tool to forge consistency and create new skills.
2. Start slowly: practice your scales at a tempo you feel comfortable with and
can play without making mistakes. Gradually increase the tempo as you
progress. Don't despair—speed is something that comes with time, and it has to
go hand in hand with precision.
It's important that you stay relaxed at all times and that, at the slightest sign of
pain or discomfort, you stop, take a break and then slow down a few BPMs and
start again.
3. Improvise: apply the knowledge—get a backing track in the tone you want
and improvise the scales you learn. You can also put your favourite songs in the
background and play over them. This will keep you motivated because you will
see results, and will also keep you in shape for when you play with other
musicians.
4. Learn the basic scales: use practical scales that adapt to different styles of
music such as the blues, pentatonic, melodic and minor harmonic scales. These
are the best scales to learn on guitar, and ideal to start with.
5. Warm up with the chromatic scale: this is very useful to start your practice
session. Go through the whole neck of the guitar from the lowest notes, to the
last high note of the last fret, and if possible sing the notes so that you become
more and more familiar with the guitar and the different positions and tonalities.
6. Apply chromatics when using any scale: this will add more colour and
expressiveness to your phrases, and will also help you to know where and
when they work. Ideal if you are into jazz.
7. Use your little finger: this is the finger that beginners and intermediates
should generally strengthen. Force yourself to use it in your scales, and
incorporate it from the beginning into your practice so that you get used to using
it.
8. Do not conform: every knowledge you acquire on the guitar, every new
scale you learn, is a new universe full of musical possibilities that opens up for
you, another perspective that will allow you to express yourself better and
create your own language.
9. Memorize one position at a time: one mistake that happens when we start
studying is that we want to learn all the positions at once. An excess of
information in a short time can cause you to end up confused. The brain
assimilates information better if you present it to it one by one.
Take a position, memorize it and apply it along the fretboard in different tones.
Once you feel that you've mastered it and you've practiced it in different
exercises for a considerable time, move on to the next position.

Remember it is important that you see your practices as something fun—it’s a

productive game for you.
Challenge yourself, learn calmly and stay motivated by practicing all the time.
That's the secret of the best guitarists of all time.