Advanced Guitar Player

These lesson notes correspond to the Guitar Pro Tab, PDF and Audio files for Lesson 7 - Introducing the VI Degree of the Major Scale from Sight Singing Major Scales - Part One of Perfect Your Pitch - Ear Training And Sight Reading For Guitar Players.

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The sixth degree of the C Major scale is A natural - if you didn't already know - and as it's also the Root Note of the Relative Minor Scale of C Major - A Natural Minor - it's the next most useful not to learn after the notes that make up the C Major Triad.

If you've followed the practice exercises so far, you should be really confident singing the C Major Triad over the Octave and a half or so that span from the Low G on the Third Fret of our Bottom E String to the High E - either the Fifth Fret on the B String or Open Top E.

If you're not as confident as you should be sing the C Major Triad, you should really go back and practice some more - Now!  Learning to sing and hear the rest of the Degrees of the C Major Scale is completely based on their relationship to the notes in the the C Major Triad.

In order to learn to sing the sixth degree - A, you must use the the fifth degree - G - as your point of reference. You have to fix the sound of the G in your head and find the next note above it in the scale. At the moment, the fact that the difference is a tone (two half steps) is irrelevant.

Work closely with the tabs until you're really confident with the sound of the suxth degree - you've heard and played it a zillion times before. Make sure you use the G - the fifth degree - as you're point of reference initially. After some practice, you'll have no problem singing the A when using the C - Root or Octave - as your reference point, but if you do this at the beginning you may end up singing the Major Seventh of the Chord - the B - because this is the note that resolves most easily to the Root.

Anyway, take your time, listen closely to the tabs. play everything on your guitar and 'A one whole step up from G' firmly fixed in your ears!

Guitar Ear Training Programs And Links

The accompanying Guitar Tab Files for the complete Ear Training Course are available in Guitar Pro 6 format from the Advanced Guitar Player Downloads section.

If you haven't got a copy of Guitar Pro yet, Click here to visit the Guitar Pro download page.

Although they often don't provide progressive Aural Skills development for beginners, ear training software programs can be very useful. I personally use EarMaster Pro - Click here to download a Trial Version of EarMaster Essential, Pro or School.