This may be a good time to talk about ways of practicing those Scales and Modes so that we have a facility for "grabbing" them while soloing.

The first thing to work on is the obvious, and that is being able to play the scale cleanly and "in a row" for at least two octaves before turning around and heading back in the other direction as well.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,15,14,13,12,11,10,9... etc.

Understand that those numbers represent the note order or succession in each particular mode at hand, NOT the notename numbers. Therefore, if the scale is minor, the "3" is understood to be the b3, etc.

Once that pattern is familiar and we are able to play it - always always striving to make it sound musical in nature and not just a robotic sounding execution. One way to work towards the goal of musicality at all times is to play games with the dynamics as you practice the scale. Try the easiest first, which is always a good approach, and that would be the emulation of what wind instrument players naturally do, Crescendo (gradually get louder) as you play upscale, Decrescendo as you play downscale. Later on, try the opposite (!) which is to get gradually softer going upscale and the reverse.

Now comes the part where we practice the scale in such fashion as we gain total "ownership" of it.

This involves practicing first in repeating groups.

123,234,345,456,567... etc. and when you get to the "top" - which, remember, is always two octaves from where you started or more, make the "musical sounding" turnaround and head back downscale in the same fashion, "unwinding" it.

789,876,765,654,543,432,321,217,1... And always hold that last "1" out for at least three beats if working in 4/4 time.

Then try doing it in "fours". Same type of thing as the above, but this time there will be 4 notes involved in each group instead of three.

1234,2345,3456,4567,5678,... etc.

"Every Other Note" drill:

13,24,35,46,57,68,79,8...

By now you should be able to guess the next one: Same thing, but this time skipping 2 notes to go in 4ths:

14,25,36,47,58,69...

Arpeggios are simply playing *every other odd note* of the scale. I teach approaching the dreaded Arpeggio at the same time as the scales, saves time, and you don't end up viewing the Arpeggio as something different from those scales and modes, for it is not. This I think is especially important for guitarists, as I've found that with the keyboard, the operator can "see" every other note a bit more easily than we can with the fretboard view, likely due to the string breaks and fret counts. So the guitarist should view the arpeggios as patterns derived from chord shapes first, IMO. But eventually the two goals should merge to where we aren't really even thinking all that while playing, we should know them so well at some point where in our mind we are merely calling, "macros" ie thinking, "This would be a good place for..." and the execution of that is so well known and understood, the muscle memory from practice is "right there" and you simply execute the move, while the mind is left free to listen to the muse that will give us something to do in the NEXT part of the solo. Maybe insert a nice quote. Or maybe its time for a little bit o' the blooz. (If there's a dom7 chord or two comin' up, time for blooz, certainly. Don't neglect the #9 here, ya'll. Not the chord, just the note.)

Always practice counting and playing evenly when doing these drills, pays to get and use a metronome.

Always strive to make your scale drills sound MUSICAL. Don't fall prey to having the hands execute the drill while the mind goes elsewhere. Sure sign of attempting to practice it too much in one session. Put it down and go do something else, come back to it.

This kind of practice seems to work best for me and my few students these days by making yourself confirm to a "short but sweet" approach: Ten minutes at a seating, Twenty minutes per, tops.


Hope this Helps Scott as well as others,


--Mac

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