Guitar & Musician Forums

If you were to quiz me on how much I know about a scale or my mastery of it, what would you ask me or look for. There has to be more to a scale than just the shape and knowing the order of the degrees. I’m trying to gauge how to effectively learn a scale.

The Royal College of Music Scales and Arpeggios grades 5-8 will give you classical left-hand fingering over generally 3-octaves.
This is a great place to start.
Get the whole book under your belt, then I would be wondering how you implement this improvisationally in a musical situation.

What chords are in the scale, and the intervals between notes. For an easy example, if we're talking about C major scale, and I asked you about the interval between the E and the G, would you quickly be able to identify that it's a Minor 3rd? Or, still working in C major, if I asked what the 3rd triad-chord in the scale is, could you quickly identify that the chord would be E minor, and what notes (from the scale) would be in it? There's probably a better answer but that's just off the top of my head.

Can you play all five positions fluently and can you play the 2 main diagonal shapes?

Why do you think that there is more to a scale than the shape and intervals? A scale is just a map so that you know where the 'right' notes are when you're playing. They're just a tool, sort of like a keyboard layout. Most people over-practice scales. Scales aren't musical...you don't play scale shapes, you play scale *notes* in a way that creates a melody.