Scale book

[lincolnblue]

A friend of mine is new to guitar and wants to learn scales using a book.

Any suggestions on a good scales book covering all the main scale patterns?

[frankus]

Try Fretboard Roadmaps - lots of scales and lots of practical advice.

[colski]

One of my favourites is Monster Scales and Modes by Dave Celentano, it's a bit 80's looking, but has some very useful diagrams.

[Bingefeller]

Scales and Modes for Guitar by Cliff Douse is the one I got when I first started. It's from 1991 so, again, it is dated looking.

[DLM]

Scales and Modes for Guitar by Cliff Douse is the one I got when I first started. It's from 1991 so, again, it is dated looking.

+1 Still find it a good reference occasionally, but am more likely to use columns in GT (by Shaun Baxter, mostly) for the insights into different approaches to applying the scales.

[Mike.L]

One of my favourites is Monster Scales and Modes by Dave Celentano, it's a bit 80's looking, but has some very useful diagrams.

This one, and his Pentatonic one cover just about everything.
Incidentally, I have a different scale book at home, which has about 1,000,000 different scales in it, 999,985 of which will never be used.....

[bptank]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...ls_o01_s00_i00
I purchased this one not so long ago from amazon, I would imagine it is very similar to how these other books are set out, this here has pretty much all popular scales, the major and all of its modes the harmonic minor and all of its modes, the melodic minor and all of its modes, major and minor pentatonic, blues scale, whole tone scale and probably another which I'm forgetting.
It's nice because it pretty much helps out learn the theory behind the scales, shows the scale spelling, what chords can be used, and 5 scale patterns on the guitar up the fretboard, just all in all very good.

[SevenSharpNine]

As a beginner you really only need to learn the Major Scale and the Pentatonic Scale. Most scale books will probably only feature those two scales, but transposed to each key. This ends up being less than useful as most guitarists learn scales by the shape of the pattern, and all you have to do to play the same scale in a new key is move the pattern. This makes most scale books a waste of money. It can also be a bit confusing when you're looking through a book that has twelve major scales and fails to explain that they're all the same scale or give any guidance on how to use them.

The best and easiest way to begin learning scales is to just look up the Major Scale and the Pentatonic Scale on the internet.

[Ouija]

If you learn the Major scale you've essentially learned the Pentatonic scale as well (Pentatonics are just the Major scale minus two notes). You've also learned the minor scale and quite a few other scales too (they all use the same overall neck pattern, it's simply a case of which note your treating as root).

[colski]

As a beginner you really only need to learn the Major Scale and the Pentatonic Scale.

just look up the Major Scale and the Pentatonic Scale on the internet.

Agree with what you're saying about the major scale, but to label the other one "THE pentatonic scale" is a tad misleading. A pentatonic scale is simply a five note scale, there are lots of them, some more useful/exotic/obscure than others. I assume you are referring to the minor pentatonic, ie the one every guitarist seems to learn first.