Scales for E9th Pedal steel guitar

I use the scale charts to find places to play licks. To see music on a standard E-9th guitar, I made scale charts by hand that resemble that one below. This shows a C scale on a 12 by 10 graph. Frets 1-12 and strings 1-10 are represented. You could use a chart that matches your tuning, but to see how to get the information from these charts, we'll concentrate on the "oh so popular" E-9th.

The tablature below shows different ways of playing a C major scale. Some use pedals and so we use slides to connect scale tones. I see each square as a building block. By connecting the squares with pedal moves and slides we can play music. With the charts you can instantly see what note your playing and what its relationship is to the rest of the scale tones. As you get better at readin the charts, licks will start to jump off the page. Study this major scale pattern and memorize it. This is your guitar. The scale tones 1-6 are the white keys on a piano. The blank squares are the black keys on a piano. Did you know that the black keys make up a F# pentatonic scale?

We see to our left two ways of playing a C major scale. One uses picking and bar movements, while the other uses picking and pedal moves.

There are more places to play a major scale and to fully utilize the chart you should search for more. Now you can see the key of C at any fret on your guitar. The key is to memorize patterns and then connect the musical blocks with pedal moves and slides.

The more you find yourself behind your guitar looking at these charts, the more you'll be seeing on the fretboard. This pattern of the major scale can be used in many ways. Did you know that the E phrygian scale is a C scale? Did you know that a D dorian scale is a C scale?

To help learn the patterns that a scale makes on your fretboard, I've subdivided the chart into sections. You can learn each of the sections on their own and then learn to put them together. Moving from section to section horizontally and vertically will bring you different licks.

Once you see the patterns on your guitar it is time
to make the right hand able to play those notes.
Practice, Practice, Practice.

Scales 6