Musicians use both note names and numbers when thinking, writing and talking about music theory. That's why your hear people say things like: 'it's a one-four-five progression'. Using numbers allows a much faster way to learn and communicate music. Scales on the guitar neck form patterns which are easily described and played when thinking about them in terms of numbers. If you learn to think with numbers, you'll find that you'll be setting fire to your guitar on stage in front of thousands of people a lot quicker than if you learn music theory by note names.

The E Major Scale in Notes and Numbers

E Major Scale - 6th (low E) String

E|----------------------------------------
B|----------------------------------------
G|----------------------------------------
D|----------------------------------------
A|----------------------------------------
E|-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12-14-16-17-19-21-

The guitar tab above shows you the notes to play an E Major Scale on the 6th (low E) string.

Starting with the open E string you play the Root note of the E Major scale. The Root note of the scale is the 1st note in the scale, also called the '1'. That may sound pretty obvious but it's very important. On guitar it's good to think in terms of numbers. It's essential to know the name of the Root note, in this case E, no matter what key signature (or just 'key') you're playing in. Once you know the name of the Root note, it's not as important to know the names of the other notes in the scale you are playing. It's more valuable for you to know the other notes relative to the Root note in terms of numbers. The reason for this is that you can then easily transpose (i.e. play in other key signatures) similar scales on the guitar.

There are 12 notes in music. Because there are 12 notes it means there are 12 Major scales to learn. If you have all the time in the world and want to miss the Super Bowl 5 years in a row, the Summer and Winter Olympics, the next 3 Harry Potter films as they are released in the cinema and the release of the next four versions of the iPad - then by all means spend your time learning all 12 Major scales and the names of the notes within each scale.

However - if you want to have a life as well as learn to play the guitar, you can make things a lot easier on yourself by learning your scales by Root note and the relative note number of each of the other notes in the scale. Then instead of learning 12 separate scales for the Major scale alone, it's more like you only have to learn 1 Major scale. Once you learn how to construct a Major scale in one key, you can apply the same note patterns to all of the other keys.

So that's exactly what we're going to do...might even give a piece to you, 'cause I'm a voodoo chile...

There are 7 notes in the Major scale. We call these notes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. When we get to 8 we are playing the 1 again but an octave higher.

The Root note is the 1. We also want to know the name of the Root note we are playing, in this example its E.

The 2nd note of the scale we call the '2nd'. As you can see from the guitar tab above, the 2nd is being played on the 2nd fret.

The 3rd note of the scale is the '3rd'. It's also called the 'Major 3rd'. In the key of E it's on the 4th fret of the guitar.

The 4th note of the scale is the '4th' (yep - its so obvious even gold fish can remember it). The 4th note in the key of E is on the 5th fret.

The 5th note of the scale is (can you guess): the '5th'. (Congratulations, you are today's lucky winner). In E Major we're playing it on the 7th fret.

The 6th note is the '6th' and in the key of E is played on the 9th fret.

The 7th note is the '7th' and is played on the 11th fret.

To play the 8th note at the 12th fret we are playing the Root note one octave from where we started.

That's the E Major scale played on the 6th (low E) string. Here is the guitar tab, from Root to Octave, just showing the low E string: E|-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12-

If you continue playing the scale from the 12th fret you are repeating the scale up to the 21st fret of your guitar: E|-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12-14-16-17-19-21- So the 14th fret is an Octave up from the 2nd fret which we've already said is the 2nd note of the E Major scale. The 16th fret is an Octave up from the 4th fret which is the 3rd note of the E Major scale.

You can listen to me playing the above examples as well as the A Major scale (shown below) here:

mp3: Music Notes and Numbers
wma: Music Notes and Numbers

Time/size: 1 mins 38 secs/2.3mb

You can see that an octave on the guitar is 12 frets. If you are at the 14th fret you can subtract 12 from it to realize you are playing the same note you would if you were playing on the 2nd fret (14-12 = 2). The only difference is that the note on the 14th fret is one Octave higher than the note on the 2nd fret. The note on the 2nd fret is one Octave lower than the note on the 14th fret. Same note, just an Octave apart.

The 17th fret is the same as the note at the 5th fret which is the 4th of the scale.

The 19th fret is the same note, one Octave higher, as the 7th fret which is the 5th of the scale.

The 21st fret is the same note, one Octave higher, as the 9th fret which is the 6th of the scale.

The 23rd fret - hang on a minute - if you have 23 frets on your guitar then you've been listening to too many 80s guitar players and not enough 90s guitar players. 80s guitar players were awesome but it lead to men getting perms and wearing spandex on stage. IN PUBLIC! In 1987 Kurt Cobain formed a band opposed to this entire era and in 1990 jeans were back in fashion and all perms were gone.

Thank God for Nirvana!

Ok - so now you can play an E Major scale and you know that the Root note, also the 1, is E which is then followed by notes: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. 8 is our Root note again so we can call it 1 and keep playing up the neck: 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 but we stop at the 21st fret and say 'Thank God for Nirvana'.

Here's where you'll be able to see the point of your new favorite numbers: 1 to 7.

We could have said that the E Major scale is the notes: E, F#, G#, A, B, C# and D#. But we went with 1 (E), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Now if you want to learn to play the A Major scale, you play the same pattern as you did for the E Major scale with the only difference being that you play it on the A (or 5th) string.

Here is the guitar tab for the A Major scale on the 5th string:

A Major Scale - 5th String

E|-----------------------------------------
B|-----------------------------------------
G|-----------------------------------------
D|-----------------------------------------
A|-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12-14-16-17-19-21-
E|-----------------------------------------

Play it. Same pattern as for the E Major scale on the 6th string. And when you play it you can think of the notes in the same manner:

The 1 or Root note is the open A string.

The 2nd is on the 2nd fret.

The 3rd is on the 4th fret.

The 4th is on the 5th fret.

The 5th is on the 7th fret.

The 6th is on the 9th fret.

The 7th is on the 11th fret.

The 8th, or Octave, is on the 12th fret.

And that completes our scale.

If you learnt the scale by the note names you'd be thinking: A, B, C#, D, E, F# and G#.

See what I mean about missing the Super Bowel 5 years in a row?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 is what you need to remember when learning the Major scale.

You do need to know the note name of the 1 so you know what key you're in. The reason you want to know what key you're in is so when you get together with a bass player and a drummer you can have a secret conversation with the bass player that will make the drummer look like they are kind of stupid. The upshot of making the drummer feel stupid is that they'll get aggressive tendencies and start to hit things with sticks - let there be rhythm! Once the rhythm starts, both you and the bass player, knowing from your secret conversation that you're in the key of E will be able to make some kind of sounds that gel.

If all you played with the bass player was the note E, and you had the drummer letting out their aggression on the drums in a grooveful way, that'd be enough to give a band the taste of rock n roll.

Hang on - that's not a bad idea ... (Nick goes away for an hour) ...

mp3: Thank God for Nirvana
wma: Thank God for Nirvana

Time/size: 1 mins 29 secs/2.0mb

See what I mean?

The above track is literally the guitar playing the low E string (just the open note E), the bass playing the same and the drums going agro cause the drummer didn't understand the secret conversation between the bass player and the guitarist. You can hear me playing just the E note with a clean sound (and I played it in A) on the example track Music Notes and Numbers.

Pretty much sounds like the feel good hit of the summer to me!

So that's why we're talking about notes and numbers. It helps simplify music theory in a way that allows you to adapt each type of scale to any different key.

The next thing we'll look at is more about the E Major scale. Once you get that in your head, keeping the above in mind, we'll move to the E Blues scale and then repeat the process for all scales. Then we'll take that knowledge and use it so that you'll be able to jam along with any style of music in any key.

At this rate you're going to be setting fire to your guitar on stage in front of thousands of people before the lead singer can say 'there's a brown m&m back stage'.