 Guitar and Excel open chords C major scale A minor 6 chord and scale Get ready because it's time for our guitar scales to Excel Here we are in Excel if you don't have access to this workbook That's okay because we basically built this from a blank worksheet But we did so in a prior section So if you want to build this from a blank worksheet, you may want to begin back there However, you don't necessarily need access to this workbook if looking at this from a music theory standpoint because we'll simply use it as a tool To map out the fretboard give us the scale and chords that we're focused in on If you do have access to this workbook though, there's currently like eight tabs down below We've got six of these example tabs in green an og orange tab and a practice tab The og orange tab representing the original worksheet We put together in a prior section it now acting as Our starting point going forward mapping out the entire fretboard Giving us our entire musical alphabet in letters numbers and combining them together providing a key Which can be adjusted which will adjust the scales on our worksheets to the right Which provide the scale that we're focused in on as well as the chord constructions within That scale or that are constructed from that scale We then wanted to look at the C major scale and the chord constructions in open position From that scale starting with a C chord which we did on this first tab Minimizing or hiding part of the fretboard so we can see just the open positions which we're labeling as Fret one through three Then we mapped out the notes in the chord C major chord as the one three five three different colors And we discussed it in detail. We did a similar thing jumping to the four chord Which was the f major we jumped to the four chord first before going to the two and the three Because it will result in a major chord as opposed to the two three six which will be minor We then jumped to the g which is the five chord same thing We mapped it out on the fretboard discussed it in detail It also being a major chord then we went back to the two chord which was the d minor And we mapped it out on the fretboard discussed it in detail Then we went to the three chord which is the e minor Mapped it out on the fretboard discussed it in detail and now we're going to The not the four chord. We're going to the six chord And I apologize for the confusion there. I think I had the labeling wrong down here on my tab But obviously we're looking at the six chord when we see the worksheet up top if we're looking at it As a component of our construction from the C major scale Now last time we mapped it out. We mapped out our worksheet and then we discussed the fingering On the fretboard. So this time we're going to discuss the fingering and how we can kind of blend it together With the scales including both the pentatonic scale as well as the full major or you can think of it as the relative minor scale as well So if I look up top here, it's going to be our fingering just to recap it in open position It looks like uh, this this is going to be a fingering. We want to also kind of be able to see This way as our as our movable shape because this is going to be Our standard kind of minor movable shape that we can deconstruct as well if we were to move it up the fretboard So we're the things we're going to wring out typically are going to be The open a is going to ring out The e is going to ring out notice again that this worksheet, of course has the low string On top Just because I think that's easier to visualize and then the a And then the c and then the e now you could ring out the e up here too It wouldn't hurt anything because that's in the the chord But if you want the lowest note to be the root then you would ring out that open a So let's go down first to the major scale But before I do I just want to point out that When we look at this pentatonic scale now We can see the pentatonic scale as either Related to the c major pentatonic or the minor a minor pentatonic Which is also a mode of the major scale Whereas we cannot do that as much with these other Other modes when we played for example the d minor Chord the f didn't fit in our pentatonic scale because we built the pentatonic scale from the C major And it's just five out of the seven notes Whereas when we look at the sixth chord it will fit Beautifully in there so we can think about that pentatonic scale as basically in essence a c major pentatonic scale or The a minor pentatonic scale and remember when we look at this a minor I can think of it as the actual minor which is over here where we just have it as the one chord So we've just reconstructed this now it now being the one chord instead of the sixth chord You're more likely to do that When you're talking about the sixth mode of the major scale, which is the aeolian mode or the minor mode in essence Because it's such a popular Scale to work with but you still want to be able to make the connection between The major scale and the minor scale All right, so let's go down here to the to this worksheet now This one represents us mapping out the full major Scale on the fretboard. We're going to talk about scales more specifically In a future section you can learn the scale you can play it up and down on the fretboard if you so choose But we'll talk about doing that more in the future. Remember the problem with that There's it's good to do that. That's that's the way people learn scales. So that's fine But then of course we get to this rigid scale motion That we start to do whenever we play it and we we lose the musicalness Of it when we're trying to kind of blend it in with other stuff that we are playing So we'll learn the scale later and what we'll start to do when we learn the scale is we'll learn the scales kind of starting in the middle here with our classic pentatonic scale like that and that allows us to then Learn the scales kind of in the middle and grow naturally both sides of the fretboard This way when we're looking at open position It's natural for us to learn the chords as we are doing now because that's the more fun thing to do And as we learn the chords and we put them all together We've got all the chords except the seventh chord at this point if we put all those notes mush them together Then we would come up with this this colored shape So now when we're practicing Trying to trying to add in some of the scales within our plane We can think of it as like i'm going to play an a and then add some notes from this scale Or we can think of it as i'm i'm grabbing notes that are fair game In any of these shapes So i'm looking at any of these shapes and saying i'm going to try to fuzzy the line a little bit between Playing these shapes directly as their own chord Versus basically grabbing some of those notes possibly in between chords or possibly as i'm Playing one chord grab some of the notes that i know are fair game Because i know all the notes from the chords that we're grabbing fit in the key Before we do that remember that we could think of this six chord as basically Uh, we could play it if we're practicing it We could play as as though we're still in the key of c and we could make the c the one So i could the easiest way to do that is to start with the c is the one and then move around I'm going to an f e minor and then throw in like an a And then a c and then a c we're going back off Going to a g Going to a c c feels like home right if i want to throw the a and make it the home Bass that should be easy to do because remember that a is the minor is the minor Mode and so that is really natural for us to hear in western music so we can start here Natural thing to do would go to a c is very easy to do A minor so i'm just so now i'm gonna i'm gonna do that for the rest of the time here I'm trying to make the a minor be the home which you can think of as just playing the same chords But you're playing around the sixth chord most people because it's the minor will probably think of it as though It's the one chord of the minor scale But remember the minor scale has all the same notes in it as the major scale and all the same chord Constructions right so you don't have to memorize like a whole another scale to do that You could just say well i'm going to play it like as the one But it's the it's the relative minor to the c major So i know that the one four five on the minor scale Are going to be the same as the minor The minor chords in the major scale right all right so then so Now when you're playing it here, then the next thing to generally do is to say well, how can I add How can I embellish this possibly a little bit? And i'm going to be grabbing notes Grabbing notes so we talked about last time that all the open strings are fair game So the a minor shape is a great shape to just lift up your fingers so we can always Do that we can be here And so all i'm doing is opening from here to the d and back now we can analyze that later That's the 11 we're going back and forth from the 11, but i'm not trying to analyze right now I'm trying to just we'll do that next time right now I'm just trying to say what can I do in here to kind of embellish this to kind of blur the lines I'm kind of saying well it's an a minor, but i'm kind of I'm kind of blurring it and that takes me a little bit away from home Even though i'm still on in essence an a minor key And then I go back home Right and so you start get and you just kind of get the feel of that and then we'll talk about it technically Later we can do that here too. So here's the a if I open that up. I get a g So that's fair game When you put the finger back down it kind of takes you home And that's what we're always kind of doing we're creating some tension and then we're going home we can do that of course with the c and And that goes from a c to a b when we do that and then back to the c so that's Fair game all of those are fun to play and easy to play and if you get to the rhythmic the rhythm of it Just make different rhythms picking up while you're picking up your fingers You can pick up both of these fingers and and just Kind of practice around and play with that and I think that in and of itself There's like basically an infinite number of things you just can do when you start hammering on And doing different rhythms With that nice little shape because that shape is Very comfortable shape generally now So the next thing we could do is we could start to say hey Instead of me looking at this shape and trying to play it Like a scale and adding other notes Maybe I can I can look at these these shapes that we have played And try to try to add them in in either blend picking the notes as I strum this note Or picking some of these notes in between strumming the notes and before we do that I just also want to note that all the notes that we have played so we've played all The the the chords except for the one built off the seven which is the diminished which is Well has its own little thing But these are all like the normal chords right and notice how easy they are to play now When you use this as your pivot finger So so if I'm you so if I'm playing in a minor or around the sixth chord Then it's easy for me to play this and then pivot to a c So now I've pivoted to the c it's easy to pivot from the c usually to the f is an easy pivot Which you can play like this But I think it's actually easier to play like this That's our bar chord. You can play it like this, but if I pivot here I can go boom With that same finger That e is also a pretty easy pivot I could leave that finger down and just not play all the strings, but then you can pick that finger up if you want as well And then The g if you play the g like this You can use that finger to pivot up there and grab the pinky note down here if you want And so what you want it so this is a really good position to just basically Try to try to have everything from that pivot position right here to here to an f to an e to a g And then if you want the d minor You could kind of cheat on the d and play that like a little d like that, but then you should put this finger down here To pick that up so you have to move that finger a little bit to pivot to the d But it's it's really natural to go from an a to a c or an a To an e i'm to an f is really a natural type of thing to do and if you i'm not as good I didn't learn the g like this But that is also a quite natural movement to go To here you don't even have to put those pinky down because you can just play these top strings and you'd be fine And then the e quite natural as well, although you'd like to pick this finger up a little bit if you're gonna play the whole thing So then then of course you can look at each of these Notes each of these chords over here and start to pick it apart So if i'm if i'm holding down an a And i'm trying to say okay, what notes are in this are in the c You know, I could say okay. I can see that note. I can play So i'm just noting that these two notes are are open notes to play I'm on this note here. I have this so it's a quite of a natural movement again to be to just be So i'm just shuffling between a an a and a c So so that's a natural type of movement to do if I go on to the f Now I can see okay if I played the f That means now I've seen that I get this note this note in this note. So I could So i'm just trying to say what can I do to kind of add that extra note in there Possibly in the same position instead of lifting my fingers up and then playing the scale Up and down. I'm just trying to play it find my fingering within the scale. So now up here I could say okay. Now I have these notes So now I see I have this whole box And that note so I could if i'm trying to keep this finger kind of down here So i'm just trying to add Some stuff but do it without thinking of it as a scale So that I can kind of noodle around here if I go to the to the d I could say okay. Now I have these notes. So I see that I can put my finger here And play down there So i'm just Borrowing notes and trying to trying to put them in some kind of pattern so I can I can explore with my fingers up here The e is of course these two notes E minor Right and then and then back to the a minor So that's one way that you can explore the other way Of course you can explore is with the looking at the scale But remember when you look at the scale like if I look at just a piece of the scale So we've been looking at these pieces down here, right? So if i'm just looking at that piece I'm saying open notes are good and these four notes Are good right so I can Do I could switch from to any other chord and a or c And do that same thing Go to an f and do that same thing E and do the same thing To an a minor right i'm just noodling around all the Because everything we're playing is in the key of c. I can noodle around Anywhere within here In between every chord and I should be good right so here I'm doodling around in this box Right i'm just i'm just kind of trying to find just looking for some things just to play and around within that space In between any of the any of the chords you can of course also add uh your fingering To any note that's a that's a that's a legal note now that when you're fingering it like this you could add like this c up here So I could say that i'm I'm going from here to here. That's also In the chord I could add that b So you know a bit different of a sound here again, that's not in the chord But it's the nine right so that should be Something that's legal to do although now i've covered up the big a I still have an a down here So I can experiment with something like that You know I could I could reach all the way up here and try to grab it like a g So you can you can grab anything you want that's within within uh The scale and then you're going to be playing something That might have an extra note in it But the extra notes will be if you're grabbing something in that blue space They'll be either you know somewhere between the nine and the 13 which are all kind of legal things to play You'll just kind of blending blending things Together the other thing I like to play here Is of course the shuffle my little shuffle pattern, which I think is good for like just rhythm type of playing So you'll note that if you're on the a I could just say well, there's my open a right here So here's my open a and then if I grab that e Then i'm just i'm muting everything else And i'm just playing the open a and the e which is basically a power chord and then if I shuffle to the c Then you can think of that as kind of like you're playing a c That's what I usually think of it as i'm shuffling from an a minor to like a c Because that's my c and the c is built by having the the home or the root here And you're gonna have a third down one and back one so you can figure And then and then back and forth there so that little shuffle pattern is kind of fun So I can go back and forth here and I can lift this finger up And then if I add everything else that's in here now I can say well I have all I have like this whole box. I've got Everything within here And I've got that g up there That I can add and I've got like my a down here that I can add so if I start Doing different patterns within there you could start to expand just from a little shuffling rhythm pattern, right? I'm just so all I'm doing is is just Moving around between these four notes and noting that all the open notes are good And then just trying to find a rhythm So I'm just going back and then I'm opening this up I can double stop I could double stop here both of those strings at the same time in other words, I can double stop both of them off Pull in my g this a And that kind of helps you with your picking, you know just messing around with your picking and stuff as well Also, note that we talked about that shuffle pattern kind of works with All of the miners the the d the e and the a Because you have the open strings the a Uh the d and the e so notice that if you look at the a As the one chord it's the one four five Are are going to be the a the d and the e So if I did that shuffle pattern like here I can say I'm going to go shuffling From from this little shuffle going back and forth from The a to the c like we were here And then I can move that down and say that I'm going to do that down here On the d and this is kind of like a bluesy, you know type of pattern one four five, but it's in the minor And then I can bring it back to the a And I'm just doing a pretty easy little shuffle And then I can bring it to the to the e same little pattern Up to the e Going from And then usually it goes back down to the d if you're playing this kind of a bluesy shuffle thing And then back to the a and boom And so you could you could play around with just that little Box and notice you can also kind of think of it if you're if you're playing with that little pattern When I move when I when I see this whole box right here I can say that's everything in there is legal so I can And then when I move it down I can say okay every I can still play All of these notes that that are uh that are going to be legal on uh the d But You can also start to think of it well if the d You know if I actually switched to a d minor Then this whole relative position Would kind of move down except there's kind of a mix up between these two strings So you could start trying to switch your mind from going i'm in the key of a to i'm in the key of Of d minor and use the same Relative shapes up here Although again, it gets messed up between these two strings and do the same thing up here So if I switch my mind to be saying well now i'm i'm in e E minor instead of using the notes that are in the c major to kind of shuffle around Then you have a little bit different opportunities, but I won't get into that In too much too too much more detail here. That'll that's beyond the scope here So let's go back up top and then you could do the same thing with of course the Pentatonic so the thing I want to point out with the pentatonic is that When we looked at these other notes, they don't all fit all the all the Notes in these chords don't all fit in the c major pentatonic scale even though we built them From the c major scale Because there's two notes in the c major scale that are not in the pentatonic scale But remember the sixth chord which is the relative minor does fit in there Very well, which is why we can basically see the pentatonic scale as the c major pentatonic or its relative minor The a minor pentatonic and oftentimes guitar players start off by seeing these pentatonic scales as the minors right So you could learn you know this pentatonic scale and do the same kind of thing But shuffling around just in that five note in the five notes And sometimes some benefits with that is that basically it's an easier scale to learn And when you're switching from from chord to chord the pentatonic is usually a safer Kind of bet that you're not going to hit something that does that kind of does a clashy kind of note As you're moving around from it, but we'll talk more about The pentatonic scale and the major scale on its own in future presentations