Questions & Answers with Neil Hogan #3

Q. Can I be a good musician without understanding or practicing my guitar scales?

A. The answer really depends on what you want to accomplish as a guitarist. If you will be satisfied with strumming some chords and singing songs around a campfire it is probably not too important. But if you want to extend your musicianship into improvising, composing, or anything in a more creative direction, some knowledge of guitar scales is absolutely essential.

We may even be able to draw a line between understanding and practicing. Practice requires playing the same thing repeatedly until your fingers have it. This is not necessary if you will be mostly writing music. Practice would be more beneficial to improvising while understanding would be helpful to composing.

At any rate, some musicians get by without any knowledge of guitar scales but those who want to reach a higher level must have at least a passing familiarity with them.

It’s not that complicated- crack the books a bit!

To read more please click on guitar scales.