You may have heard about ukulele scales or seen someone play a scale before, but do you know the importance of learning to play ukulele scales? Knowing how to play scales can help you when you solo or write your own music. Scales can deepen your understanding of ukulele music. In this article, I’ll review two common scales that will help you kick your musical knowledge up to the next level.
Ukulele Scales: Start with the Musical Alphabet
When I first started to learn to play the ukulele, I didn’t know anything about playing music. It was my first instrument and I was in my late 30s. I’ll admit, I felt a little behind. One of the first things I had to learn was the musical alphabet (so I could tune the ukulele).
The musical alphabet goes from A to G. Eventually, I learned this alphabet would come in handy for learning about scales, too. Become familiar with the musical alphabet and make sure your ukulele is in tune before moving onto playing a scale. You want to make sure everything sounds just as it should. This will help train your ears, too.
The C Major Scale
The C Major Scale is a good scale to start with. You can use a high G or low G ukulele in any size. The C Major Scale is made of whole steps and half steps (intervals) and the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. There aren’t any sharps or flats in the C Major Scale. If you were to play this on the piano, you would only play the white keys. Since there are no sharps or flats in this scale, you don’t need to the black keys.
Read more: Are Ukulele Strings the Same Size?
The interval pattern for the C major scale (and any major scale) is whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. This simply means you can make any note on the ukulele your starting point and if you apply this pattern, you’l get a major scale. Since we are playing the C Major Scale, you will want to start on a C.
You can learn how to solo with this scale in this video by Terry Carter:
You can even play this scale with a backing track. You’ll see and hear that this sounds like a solo! You can use all or some of the notes in the scale to create a solo. Don’t be afraid to limit yourself. Terry explains that just a few notes can sound very musical. You can also think of it just as a few colors, a limited palette, can convey a strong emotion.
The Blues Scale
Have you ever played the blues on your ukulele? This is one of my favorite styles of music to play on the ukulele. There is so much to discover with the blues and it has a rich history. There’s never a moment to be bored when you are playing the blues.
This blues scale can be played in any key. A good one to start with is the blues scale in the key of A since it is an open scale on open strings. The notes in the A Blues Scale are A, C, D, D#, E, G.
This scale is a lot of fun to solo with. Terry Carter will show you how to solo in the A Blues Scale in this video:
You’ll see that by repeating some notes and just skipping around can be a fun way to improvise and stretch your musical muscles. Terry explains you can just play chunks of the scale and “feel the music”. You can play along with a backing track with this video, too!
Conclusion
You can learn more about scales through courses on the Uke Like the Pros site. Terry is great at challenging you while making learning fun. There is so much more to explore with ukulele scales. With yearly and monthly membership options, there’s something for everyone. Happy strumming!
