August 17, 2022
Pro tip: please watch the short video version of this post that I link to here: https://www.guitarsuccess4u.com/skippingscale. It will give you a much clearer grasp of what I’m sharing here.
What in the wide world of sports is a skipping scale?
A skipping scale is actually something I invented out of necessity. And you know what they say about necessity, right? Today, I’ll show you how I came up with the skipping scale, and how it can be applied in multiple scenarios for learning chords in Major and minor keys, and even modes.
Now, chords can really show their beauty in context. The word “context” gets its root meaning from “together” and “weave.” So, in a way, “context” means “woven together.”
When I was a kid, one of the hobbies I really enjoyed was a craft called latch hook. If you’re familiar with it, you know that you typically buy a kit, and it comes with a printed canvas grid and a bunch of colored yarn that you attach to that grid, with a latch hook.
Once you start to place the yarn pieces in their appropriate contexts on the grid, the picture starts to appear in full color. What makes a latch hook rug interesting is that it has so many colors. If the rug was all just one color, that would be far less interesting.
Following this analogy, it makes sense to learn, and to use more than one chord. And that’s where I’m going with all of this. I wanted to find a way to learn and play all the chords in a given key, on the guitar, in their lowest and fullest voicings. So, I created the skipping scale.
With this new approach, instead of playing a simple ascending C Major scale, I actually decided to stop at the open 4th string D, and use it as my pivot point down to the low open 6th string E, on its way back up to C. Instead of moving from D up to E, I decided to skip from D down to E. This way, I was able to play the lowest version of all 7 notes, in position and in register. So here is the ascending C Major skipping scale.
Why have I created this? It’s because I want to latch the lowest, fullest chords in the key of C, onto each of these low degrees, using open chords whenever possible. Those 7 chords, many of which you may be QUITE familiar with, are: C Major, D minor, E minor, F Major, G Major, A minor, B diminished, and we can come back around to C Major. One thing I like to do is play the harmonized scale, emphasizing the root of each of the chords, so I can really hear the skipping scale clearly.
Now if this is review for you, that’s great! It just reinforces the fact that you know all the diatonic chords in this key. If some of this is new for you, that’s great too, because you are now making inroads into claiming all of these chords.
Now, with an infomercial voice, I’d like to go on to say: “But wait…there’s more.” We can, of course, play this as a descending skipping scale.
We can then of course, harmonize the descending version with the same chords, in reverse order.
Can this be applied anywhere else? Absolutely. We can use the skipping scale in multiple key signatures, which include minor keys, and even modes. Want to make this process even more interesting? We can latch 7th chords, or even color chords, onto these scale degrees. The sky is the limit.
But it all starts here, with a simple skipping scale. Once we know the scale, we can go on to tackle all the chords in each key, in their lowest and fullest voicings.
As you can see, there’s great potential here. We can make great music with a whole lot more colors. And once we know what all the colors are, we can weave a beautiful tapestry…right?
Now, chords can really show their beauty in context. The word “context” gets its root meaning from “together” and “weave.” So, in a way, “context” means “woven together.”
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David Harsh
Singer, Guitarist, Teacher
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