Three Note Per String Scales

Three note per string scales are a great technique for playing fast legato lines, as well as, simply extending our shapes. Legato means that the notes are tied together and have a long duration. Basically, the idea is to have no silence in between the notes. This is the opposite of staccato playing where you play sharp, quick notes with a short duration.

Memorizing these shapes will further increase your fretboard understanding by forcing you to look at a larger portion of the neck as a single entity. Eventually, the goal is to see the whole neck as A minor, or Eb major, or any other key, and not just see five shapes of each entity. 

Three note per string scales have seven patterns as opposed to five. 

This is because we want to play three notes on each string, and go across the neck in an organized way, which means that we must build a pattern based on each note in the scale, as opposed to building patterns based on just the five octave shapes.

This can be a little confusing because obviously these shapes overlap... all of them. 

But nonetheless, it is important to visualize large clusters on the fretboard instead of small clusters. This technique is standard operating procedure in shred scenarios. 

You want to go fast and you want to perfectly nail the harmony? Great. Grab some three note per string scales and tear it up and down and across the neck to your hearts content. Of course, you don't have to be into shredding to utilize three note per string scales, it is just very fitting.

I have attached the seven patterns of the major scale (Ionian) and all of its modes. I recommend that you loop one of the jam tracks and let it run for a long time. 

First, practice each of the patterns individually to get a feel for it. Be conscious of your roots! 

Then, try running up and down and across the neck using all of the 3 note per string patterns. Mix and match them. Try to really get a handle on these shapes.

Next, try some modes! Obviously, all of these patterns will be the same just with different roots. 

Hit a corresponding jam track and go up and down and across as you did before. This is modal shredding, so to speak. 

We will get into more complex scales and applications in the master section, but for now, I want you to really get these under your fingers before you move on. 

This is the last piece of diatonic information you will learn! There is nothing more!

Jam Tracks:

1.  G major vamp

2.  A major vamp

3.  C major vamp

4.  E major I IV V