How to Play Scales Smoothly on Fingerstyle Guitar – 5 Steps

Scales are one of the most important things you will have to practice on the guitar. Almost every guitar player on earth spend time playing scales and you, my friends, are not an exception. In this lesson, I am going to show you how to play scales smoothly on fingerstyle guitar and how to finally achieve the control and tone you hear from guitar players such as Tommy Emmanuel and Don Ross.

The question is: How can you play scales smoothly on fingerstyle guitar? You should start by learning the right-hand plucking position. Always use a 45-degree angle and pluck the strings with the side of the fingertip for smooth plucking and use a combination of flesh and fingernail. Keep your fingers as close as possible to the strings and move as little as possible. Also, play the scales with different rhythmic patterns.

Playing scales smoothly doesn’t mean you should play them fast. I firmly believe that speed is never the ultimate goal when playing scales; instead, focus on tone, control, and rhythm.

This lesson should be the next step after you learned how to practice scales on the guitar. Check this article if you want to learn how to get started with playing scales on the guitar.

These are the five steps when playing scales smoothly.

Right-hand position for smooth strings plucking.
Fingerpicking patterns for scales.
The left-hand position.
How to practice scales on three strings.
How to practice scales on six strings.

1.Right-Hand Position for Smooth Strings Plucking

One of the very first things we should work on for smooth strings plucking is the right-hand position. When it comes to fingerpicking technique, the right-hand is your most valuable weapon. Soo many beginners start playing guitar without knowing how to pluck the strings correctly, so it becomes almost impossible for them to achieve smooth plucking.

You should position the right-hand at a 45-degree angle. Position the thumb in front of the fingers and let the index, middle, and ring finger fall on the strings. When playing scales, the main plucking pattern is the i-m-i-m (index, middle) so make sure the thumb doesn’t clash with the index.

In the picture below I am going to show you the difference between a good and wrong right -hand plucking position.

2.Fingerpicking Patterns for Scales

Let me show you some of the most common fingerpicking patterns for scales that guitar players use all the time.

A fingerpicking pattern is a combination of fingers movement repeated over and over. When I practice scales, I mainly use five fingerpicking patterns.

Pattern 1. Index-middle (i-m).
Pattern 2. Index-ring (i-a).
Pattern 3. Index-middle-ring (i-m-a).
Pattern 4. Middle-index (m-i).
Pattern 5. Middle-ring (m-a).

If you are just getting started, choose only one or two patterns. The index-middle and middle-index are the ones beginners prefer the most as they are simple and easy to remember. Always apply the right-hand rules for each pattern you decide to use.

3.The Left-Hand Position

There are two rules that you should follow to achieve the correct left-hand position. Even though in this lesson we are learning how to pluck scales smoothly it is also important to understand how to position the left-hand correctly so that you can get the most out of the fingerstyle technique.

The two rules are:

1. Thumb position
2. Fingers position

Let-Hand Thumb Position

So, how should you position the left-hand thumb on guitar? Place the left-hand thumb behind the neck in the middle of the neck. The phalange should lay flat on the back of the guitar neck. Leave space between the bottom neck and the palm and stretch the fingers close to the frets.

When you practice and play scales, you should never seat the left-hand thumb on top of the neck. I know that there are a lot of guitar players who do that, but I don’t recommend that when you practice.

Below, how to position the thumb correctly.

Left-Hand Fingers Position

When you practice scales, you should stretch the left-hand fingers as close as possible to the frets. By doing so, you will improve your fingers stretch and dexterity. The reasons why we keep the thumb in a low position behind the neck to allow the fingers to stretch properly.

By achieving a more significant finger stretch, you will also be able to move less and reduce what we call “Flying fingers,” which is the unnecessary movement on the fingers.

This is how your fingers should look like on the guitar neck.

4.How to Practice Scales on Three Strings

Practicing scales on three strings only is one of the most beneficial exercises for developing smooth plucking. The top E string, B, and G string are thin and less rough than the D, A, and low E string so if you want to play scales smoothly, I highly recommend that you start with practicing scales on three strings only.

In the example below I am going to show you an A major scale in one position played on the top three strings. Practice the scale with the fingerpicking pattern i-m and m-i. Keep the plucking thumb relaxed or rested on the D string. Don’t use a metronome yet. Just play the scale as evenly as possible.

Once you familiarize yourself with the A major scale, add the bass note on the first note. Pluck the A string simultaneously with the A on the G string fret two and let the bass note ring out while you perform the scale.

This simple trick makes you focus on the melodic side of the scale, and it will help you smoothen up the sound.

Here is a list of a bunch of scales played on the top three strings only. Practice the scales without a metronome and apply the right-hand and left-hand rules we talked about at the beginning of this post.

Remember to pluck the strings with a 45-degree angle and focus on the tone and dynamics. Don’t worry about the speed. Just focus on the plucking movement, tone, and dynamics.

Notice that the scales don’t necessarily start from the Root note.

C Major Scale

F Major Scale

G Major Scale

E Major Scale

D Major Scale

5.How to Practice Scales on Six Strings

The very next step to learning how to play scales smoothly on fingerstyle guitar should be practicing scales on six strings. There are a lot of different scale shapes that you can work on, but in my experience, I find that Pentatonic scales are probably the best starting point.

I usually practice the scales in this order.

Pentatonic Scales.
Major scales.
Minor scale.
Hamonic minor scale.
Melodic minor scale.

Pentatonic Scale

The reasons why I love the Pentatonic scale is because of the symmetrical shapes that this scale has. It is mainly played with two notes per string, so they are easy to memorize and great for skyrocket your fingerstyle technique.

This is an example of the F# minor pentatonic scale that I use all the time to practice the fingerstyle technique. The starting speed is 60 Bpm (beats per minute). Because the scale is played with sixteenth notes, at 60 Bpm, you should play four notes per beat.

Use the five fingerpicking patterns we talked about in chapter 2 but mainly focus on i-m and m-i which are going to be the one you will use the most.

Major Scale

The Major scale is the number one scale every musician refer to when it comes to modern music theory. This scale is also one of the first scale beginners learn. We can use the major scale to practice the fingerpicking technique and make it smooth and groovy.

In this example we are checking out a B Major scale played in a vertical box. The speed is 60 Bpm, but this time we are using eighth notes so you should play two notes per beat.

Always practice with different fingerpicking patterns.

Minor Scale

The minor scale is very similar to the major scale. The minor scale is a major scale played starting from the 6th degree of the major scale. If you lay down, for example, the C major scale and play this scale starting from its 6th degree, you are then playing an A minor scale.

In this example, I am going to show you an A minor scale in position V.

To make the exercise more challenging we are changing the rhythm to triplets which are played with three notes per beat.

Let’s Wrap This Up

I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Learning how to play scales smoothly on the guitar should be one of your main goals. A lot of guitar players play scales to improve their speed and control, but in this lesson, we focused more on how to play scales smoothly with the fingerstyle technique.

Start by learning the right-hand and left-hand position and focus on the scales played on the top three strings only. You should then focus more on tone and dynamics rather than speed.

Good luck!

Marco Cirillo

FINGERSTYLE GUITAR LESSONS