Grant’s lesson this month focuses on major-scale exercises in the key of B♭. He prefaces his lesson with the caveat that while mastering scales is an essential skill, that in itself doesn’t lead to the ability to play improvised solos. That said, he confirms the value of learning scales and subsequent variations, and in these videos he shows you a variety of ways to extend your work with the basic major scale by changing intervals and even building compound-interval scales. In this video he shows you ways to vary your scale routine with exercises that vary the intervals you play within the scale as you move up and down the fingerboard. He starts with ascending and descending thirds, and then shows you how to do similar exercises with fourths, fifths, sixths, and even tenths. As you work on these patterns, remember that the actual number of half steps (frets) in those intervals varies depending on the starting note of the scale. Grant also points out that the choice of which finger to start with on the scale can change the fingering for everything that follows.
