Chords for Beginner Mandolin Lessons Series (Part Four): The G Major Scale

Hi everybody, welcome back to Mando lessons
My name is Baron Collins Hill and this is lesson 4 in the mandolin beginners series over at mandolessons.com
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Today we're gonna be working on the G major scale.
So let's jump right into it
You're probably familiar with the sound of the major scale.
Even if you don't know how to play it yet
It's the classic Do Re Mi from the song in the sound of music and it gets used in all kinds of
songs and tunes throughout the world
The first thing to do when playing any kind of music is to get the sound of the music that you're trying to play
Into your head, so I'll play it through now and then we'll break it down into pieces
_ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
[Fm] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Fm] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ [G] _
_ _ so the scale starts on the open G string string closest to your head and the lowest pitch string and
_ Moves up from there to the first finger on the [A] second fret
Then _ the second finger on the fourth [B] fret
_ Third finger on the fifth [C] fret.
[G#] Let's go up and down that scale a [G] couple times one two, three four
[A] _
_ _ [C] _ [B] back down
So [A] _ [G] _
_ _ that's the first half of the major scale the G major scale [D] and the second half is the same finger pattern
Starting on the open D string.
So open D
second fret with the first [E] finger
fourth [F#] fret with the second finger
fifth fret with the third [Cm] finger
and then back down
[D] _ Let's do that twice
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] And again
_ [F#] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[C#] So using the same finger pattern on two different sets of strings when we put those two [G] strings back to back.
It sounds like this
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [G] _ Now starting from that [D#] fifth fret.
Let's go back down _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ again
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _
Back down
From _ _ _ [B] _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ there we can do what's called playing in a higher octave and that just means the same scale or the same set of notes
Up in a higher range.
So instead of starting on this low G here the open G string
We're gonna start on that G also a G note just higher up and that's the fifth fret of the D string
Which is the note that we ended our first scale on and we're gonna start from there and play this pattern
[F#] _
_ _ [E] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ [Fm] _ _ [B] _ _ [C] _ _
_ So breaking that down a little bit.
We have the fifth fret starts in the fifth fret of the D string
[G]
and the [Dm] open A string
_ [Bm] second fret on the A and
third fret on the A [Fm] and then back down third on the A
[Bm] second on the A
[A] open A
fifth fret on [G] the D
Let's go up and down that [A] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [B] _ _
[D] _ _ and just like the lower octave
We're gonna do the second half of the upper octave scale just by using the same finger progression
Just starting in a different place.
So it starts on the fifth fret of the A string [Am] and then open E
second fret [F#] on the E
With your pointer [G] finger and middle finger on the third fret
And then back down three [C#m] two [Dm] open five
Let's run up and down that once
5-0 [G]-2-3-3 [D#]-2 [D]-0 [Gm]-5
Now putting that together it starts on the fifth fret of the D string it sounds like this one two three
_ four [Dm] _ _
[Fm] _ _ [F#m] _ _ [D] _ and back down
_ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Em] Do it again going up _ [G#] _ _ [Fm] _
_ [E] _ _ _ [G] and back [D] down
[E] _
_ _ [G#m] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ One thing to keep in mind is that our ears have a lifetime of listening behind them [A] and often
We'll have a good sense of when we're playing the right thing or not
Even if we're new to actually creating sounds on an instrument, for example, if I were to play this major scale _ _ _
[Cm] _ You might notice that oh that [G] didn't quite sound like the major scale
I was just playing even if you can't quite identify what's wrong at the moment and from there just [F#] keep trying
[D] _
_ _ [G] Still didn't quite sound [A] right _ _
[G] _ [F] There we go
_ [D] _ _ _
Didn't quite sound right
_ _ [G] _ No
[Fm] _
_ _ [G] _ Almost let's try that again
[D] _ _
_ There we go
_ By keeping your ears open while listening to music and playing music you can start to identify
When the sounds you're hearing and playing are in a major key or in something else
You don't even necessarily need to know what that something else is
But if you can start to identify a major scale out of the plethora of other options that come up in music
You're on the right track in the upcoming lessons in the beginner series
We're gonna be taking these chords and strum patterns and scales
We've been working on and turn them into our first song and our first tune
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Thanks for watching.
Keep on picking and see you in the next one.
Bye.
Bye
[N] _ _