Octave Method for 6-String Guitar : Major Scales & Arpeggios
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eBook :Octave Method for Six String Guitar Fretboard navigation method for 6-string guitar based on an instrument specific modification of the CAGED guitar method, using linked octave shapes rather than open position chord shapes for ease and simplicity of use. |
Paperbook Book :Octave Method for 6-String Guitar Fretboard navigation method for 6-string guitar based on an instrument specific modification of the CAGED guitar method, using octave shapes rather than open position chord shapes for ease and simplicity of use. |
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Mark Morton
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Mark Morton is lead guitarist with US hard rock band Lamb of God. |
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Mark Morton: Dominion #1 Guitar Lesson
Mark Morton: Dominion #2 Guitar Lesson
Mark Morton: Dominion #3 Guitar Lesson
Mark Morton: Dominion #4 Guitar Lesson
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Mark Morton collaborated with Jackson to produce the Mark Morton Dominion™ D2 guitar. Mesa Boogie take care of his amplification needs. |
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Hal Leonard produce a number of tablature books from their Guitar Recorded Versions series for Lamb of God albums Wrath, Ashes of the Wake and Sacrament. |
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C major scale box shapes
To paraphrase the ancient Chinese proverb -
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
The guitar equivalent would be -
"Show a guitarist a riff and he plays it for a day.
Teach him how to understand
a scale
and he makes music his whole life"
With this ancient wisdom in mind let's learn the Granddaddy of ALL scales - the MAJOR SCALE.
The table that follows lists BLOGoZON issues where the MAJOR SCALE MODES are detailed:-
BLOGoZON ISSUE No. |
MODAL FORMULA |
MAJOR SCALE MODE NAME |
BLOGoZON No.24 |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
Ionian |
1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 |
Dorian |
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1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 |
Phrygian |
1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 |
Lydian |
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1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 |
Mixolydian |
1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 |
Aeolian |
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1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 |
Locrian |
This issue demonstrates the perfect mode to improvise guitar solos over the chords listed in the next table - the IONIAN MODE.
CHORD SYMBOL |
CHORD NAME |
FORMULA |
| C | C major | 1 3 5 |
| Cmaj7 | C major seventh | 1 3 5 7 |
| Cmaj9 | C major ninth | 1 3 5 7 9 |
| Cmaj9 | C major ninth | 1 3 5 7 9 11 |
| Cmaj13 | C major thirteenth | 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 |
The reason this mode works over these chords is that they are both essentially the derived from the same thing i.e the Cmaj13 chord IS the ionian mode stacked in thirds.
The easiest example of the ionian mode is rooted on C natural - as it is really the C major scale.
Hence the CAGED octaves sequence is shown for C natural in the diagram that follows:-
The diagram that follows shows all of the C ionian mode notes plotted over the 6-string guitar's
fretboard in both the 
and CAGED octaves styles:-
A more long term solution to fretboard navigation is to see scales/modes/arpeggios as INTERVAL shapes rather than note names - as these are universal to all scales, modes, arpeggios and chords rather than specific to one particular root note - with this in mind the intervals for the C ionian mode are detailed below in the CAGED octaves manner:-
All modes (and scales for that matter) have an underlying triad - 3 note chord - that defines their tonality.
In the case of the C ionian mode this the C major arpeggio - hence the notes for an C major triad are shown the CAGED octaves style in the next diagram.
Similarly the intervals forming a C major arpeggio are shown next:-
The C major arpeggio box shapes are explored in detail in BLOGoZON No.28.
The table and tabbed panel below detail all five box shapes for the C ionian mode in the CAGED octaves style.
CAGED octaves - C major scale box shapes
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- 5C2
- 5A3
- 6G3G1
- 6E4E1
- 4D2
- 5C2 at 12
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A Devil in God's Country....Zon Brookes |
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