This part is a major part, intentionally so, because it starts on an open string and goes up the fretboard.
Adding a slide to the next scale will become natural with a little practice.
I put in some effort to learn the basics and I think this is a great starting point as anyone can pick up a guitar and learn and perfect it in about an hour or so.
If you do this exercise in C major in the same way, you will run out of frets (you can change the starting point as you like), but in this way you will only play non-flat or sharp notes, such as cdefgabc, so that you can get some basis in explore where some (or all) of the notes are, if you wish to do so.
In Emajor, you play the notes E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯, and D♯.
Every major key has a relative minor key, which is exactly the same note, and vice versa.
For E major, the relative minor key is C# minor. Many people are already familiar with pentatonic shapes on the guitar, so it’s very useful to keep this relative minor in mind because it opens up a lot of scales/patterns that you can use in addition to your standard major scale.
You can play the C# minor pentatonic scale while playing in E major.
Hopefully, with a little practice, this little lesson will help someone open up the neck a bit. It is important to understand that C minor and E major are the same notes. It’s strange to accept this at first, but it’s really just the start and end points of the scale that define the sound. Just trust that these are the same notes as E major, because they are.
You can find the relative minor of your major key by counting 3 steps down from the base key/note.
Here’s a random backing track in E major that I think has a nice relaxing vibe to practice the E major scales with. A lot of people like rock music, but for me the best type of backing track for practice is something slow and calm so your brain doesn’t get too excited while you’re trying to learn something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHY4bSf3CnY
Even this track I find a little distracting, the best type of backing track you can use is one you create yourself to match what you find more relaxing and put more emphasis on learning while you pick the chords.
Focusing on the scales/notes/patterns you are using is the only way to learn properly because once you start enjoying what you are doing too much, you will get carried away enjoying the melody you have made and learn nothing. . It is recommended that you go very, very slowly to really choose where you are going, rather than trying to do something by a fluke.
Courage is a great free program that I use when I try these kind of training exercises. You can play one simple chord progression > select all > effects > repeat and repeat 50 times or as many times as you like. Here is one I made myself which is nice and chill for getting the job done. This is E Bsus2 f#m. There are a lot of useful programs out there that you could use, but just getting started and doing something is the only way to make progress, maybe just write it down on your phone and try to loop it somehow. Any mind-blowing program you can find has most likely been made by someone who really sat down, focused on what they were doing, and really tried to learn something.
Rock it Jimmy, enjoy my simple guitar lesson please.
Here are some photos of some of the tutorials I’m currently working on that might be helpful.
