Learning scales is an essential part of playing guitar and the ability to work alongside band members and synchronise with other musicians is key in maintaining good timing and musicianship.
Speedscale GT shows you how by mapping out the Major scale patterns along the neck of the guitar so that beginners can see where to place their fingers and play along with the audio at a speed (tempo) you choose. Start slow while you learn the patterns and eventually work your way up to speeds your guitar heroes would be proud of.
The flexible speed options can also provide a challenge for professional players who wish to improve their speed and accuracy. Useful for warm up, general practice, scale revision and to help improve picking technique.
Play along with the patterns in Speedscale GT to learn scales, improve timing, refine your sense of pitch and gradually increase speed and accuracy. Speedscale GT is suitable for self tuition or can be used as part of a structured learning programme with guidance from your guitar tutor.
Most beginners will benefit from the instruction of an experienced musician who can judge your ability to synchronise with the notes and gauge your timing accuracy while playing. They can then point out any errors or areas in your playing that need to be improved over time. Eventually your skills should develop to a point where you can honestly judge your own ability.
Use Chromatic scale patterns to warm up and exercise your fret and picking fingers. These simple patterns provide an ideal starting point before lessons or practice begins to warm up and flex the fingers. These exercises are particularly useful to get your fourth finger moving and working up to speed.
Learn all five interlocking Major scale patterns in the key of your choice. These patterns can be used throughout the guitar neck with the key position and root notes indicated in green. The fret positions are indicated below the neck.
Listen to the playback of the notes and follow the alternate pick pattern as the scale rises from the sixth string to the first string and then loops back again. With regular practice you can learn the scales as you play along with the audio, tune your ear to recognise the pitch of each note and improve your timing and picking technique.
Set the speed (BPM) to learn mode (use the same BPM for the low and high input) and use a low fixed speed until you memorise a pattern. Then gradually increase the fixed speed as you become more competent or for a more challenging exercise use the speed mode where you can input a lower BPM value as a starting point and then automatically have the speed increase periodically to your selected higher BPM value.
To learn about how notes work in harmony, use the learn mode with a fixed tempo to listen back to a scale pattern as you play along with some chords chosen from a relative key. For example with the route note in C Major scale play the chords C, Dm, Em, F, G or Am. Play some major and minor chords for a while in any order and you will hear how the notes in the scale harmonies with the different chords, in particular listen to how the sound of notes changes against the different chord voicing.
Learn mode with visual indication of alternate picking technique, up and down pick motion, fixed tempo.
Speed mode with tempo increase indicator, automatic speed increase, set start and finish BPM.
Speed range from 30 to 601 BPM
Beat step value from 1 to 30 BPM
Time step value from 1 to 34 seconds
Set volume and reverb level
Chromatic Mode
Major Scales – 5 x finger patterns in all 12 Keys
Major Scale – Linked patterns, learn how patterns link and practice moving from one pattern to the next.
Major Scales – Played in a thirds, these pattern are a more interesting way of learning scales and are slightly more challenging to play. The patterns can help further improve technique and dexterity.
*Not recommended for use on the smaller screen sizes of iPhone SE, iPod Touch.
