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Guitar Scales! I know I've harped about how important modes are to being able to expand your musical horizons. It's time to focus on the more basic principle: if you learn how to play guitar scales well, playing melodies will follow nicely, allowing you to play that kick-ass guitar solo you've been hearing in your head but can't bring out of your axe yet. If you know chords, you'll be able to add an appropriate chord progression to your melody as well. If you don't know chords, learn them! Even if you only learn a couple of power chords, you'll be able to add a progression to your tune.

My point is that you need to practice guitar scales, even when you're good at your instrument. The best musicians do this regularly, on any instrument. They all play some incarnation of scalar exercises. In piano, they're usually called etudes. Playing etudes and scales will help build the muscle memory in your fingers, and also strengthen them so that the more you play scales, the more natural it feels.

I've included the A Aeolian (minor) guitar scale here, which is is fairly popular since you can play an A chord with an open string. Plus, it goes along well with a piano player who isn't too well-versed with the black keys. I'm only including it as a reference, not as a teaching guide. When playing both octaves, remember to adjust your finger position from fret 5 to fret 7 for the second octave.

Find some rhythmic patterns to play the scale to, and you'll find that it's not that hard to find a unique melodic groove.