Chords for 4 Ukulele Scales in the Key of C

Hello everybody, this is Scott Sharp with Fretboard Toolbox and today
we're going to be looking at how to visualize the four most common scales that you're going to want to know to be able to
solo along and pick out melodies to songs in the key of C major with the ukulele.
So we'll be looking at C major, C major pentatonic,
C minor pentatonic, and the C blues scales and I'll show you how to visualize those all up and down the fretboard.
Today I'll be doing that on a [E] tenor ukulele that has a low G tuning, _
but the same finger positions and placements apply to [Gb] soprano and concert ukes
or tenor ukes that are tuned with the high G or [Ab] reentrant tuning,
but you're just not going to be able to get [Gb] some of the low bass runs that I'll be able to do [N] with my
low G string, which is why I like that tuning so much.
So let me show you how it works.
Okay, to see how to visualize
C scales in
all [A] over the fretboard, we're going to use a fretboard toolbox [Abm] complete ukulele C tuning edition.
And first we'll look at page [G] 19, which is the key of C [Am] major page.
In a previous video, I showed you how to [G] build these chords
using these notes.
And today what we're going to look at is on the fretboard jig,
_ we're going to look at the notes in white boxes because those notes in white boxes are the major scale.
So major scale notes are
the notes found in white boxes and
the special C [Gb] box is because [C] I want to be able to find that C note all up and down the fretboard.
So if I look on the fourth string fifth fret, [Ab] there's [A] a C.
If I look on the third [Cm] string open,
there's a C.
If I look on the first string third fret, [Ab]
there's a [Gbm] C.
And [F] so I can [G] look here and see, okay, there's a C here, a C here, a C here,
[E] _
_ second string eighth fret, so I [N] can find C's all over the place.
And then if I want to go from one C to the next, [G] I can see what are my major scale notes here.
So if I want to play a C major scale, I can play
C D E F G A B [A] and C.
[Ab] And that would look like this.
So on the [G] fifth fret here, we've got [C] your C [G] D [Em] _ E
[F] _ [G] _
G [A] _ A
[G] _ [C] _
B C.
[A] So that was just C D [Gbm] E F G A [G] B C.
I can do another C major scale here, C open and then D E F
G A B C.
And that's a nice position [F] because there's [G] a lot of open notes there.
So [Am] that was [C] third string open, [G] C D [Em] [G] E F [A] G [G] A
_ [C] _ B C.
And the reason I want to know those notes is because I can _ _ _ _ _ _ make lots of different melodies just [G] by playing those [C] notes.
[D] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ So [Gm] if you just take some time and maybe pause [A] the video and start goofing around with these notes and
see [G] lots of different orders that you can play them, then [Ab] some [G] cool things will start coming to light.
You'll start recognizing some [Am] melodies.
_ [N] So all white box notes are going to be my C major scale notes.
They're also [Ab] going to be the [G] A natural minor scale,
which is why this is my A [N] minor root.
And the key of A minor is called the relative minor of C major.
But we'll worry about minor keys in another video.
_ C notes, white boxes, are the C major scale.
Then the underlined notes are what's called the pentatonic scale.
So my C major pentatonic scale is going to be any notes you see here that are underlined.
_ So major scales are [G] made out of taking notes in the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 boxes.
That's [Gb] Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti [G] if you know that system. _
[C] And [A] pentatonic scales are made just by [G] taking notes in the 1 2 3
5 and 6 columns.
So [Am] pentatonic [Ab] scales skip the 4 [G] and 7 notes in every key.
And you hear people in lessons talk about pentatonic scales all the time,
so it's important to be [Bb] able to visualize them.
And the [G] nice thing about pentatonic scales is that they don't have a lot of [N] sour notes.
So if I wanted to run from C to C again using [G] only pentatonic notes, I would go C D E G A C.
So that's open second, open third, open third.
And that would look like [C] this.
[G] _ _ _ [A] _ [C] _ _ [E] And the reason you want to [G] know those notes is [C] because _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] you can do all kinds of little soloing runs with pentatonic [F] scales.
[E] And [Em] if I play C and then D, I can slide up to the E [G] and then play G A C.
[F] _ [Ab] I'll show you that real [C] quick.
So that's [G] C _ _ sliding from D to E.
[Cm] _ G [C] _ A C. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] And then if I get to that [Gb] C and I want to [Ab] run C D E.
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [G]
So that was just C D and then I hit D and slid to E.
_ And then if I want to get back to that C, I can play E D [E] C.
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _
_ [D] And [C] then if I want to finish that off with a C major chord, it [N] looks like that.
So being able to see the major scales, major key and the pentatonics together is really helpful.
But sometimes you're going to hear some bluesier kind of sounds and want to know where those came from.
So if you look on the C blues page on page 20 of the toolbox, here in white boxes, we're going to have the notes of the C minor scale.
_ And so the C minor scale is made of the notes [A] C, E flat, [G] F, G and B flat.
So the difference from the major scale is going to be no two note.
We're going [A] to play [Ab] the flat three note.
We're going to skip the [G] three from the major key. _
[N] We're going to play the four.
We're going to play the five.
We're going to skip the six.
Play what's called the flat seven and then skip the seven.
So if you want to know what the scales are made of, if you look on the [Gb] scale chart here, you can see major scales are [Ab] the one, two, three, four, [G] five, six, seven columns.
My major pentatonic is one, two, three, five, six.
Minor pentatonic is one flat, three, four, five, [Gm] flat seven.
And then the blues is is going to add this flat five note or a G flat note. _
So if we want to just look at how do I visualize a blues scale here?
If I come down here in white [G] boxes, I'm going to have the notes of the C minor pentatonic [Gm] in white here.
So to play to get run from C to C in the blues scale, [Gbm] I'm going to play C, [Ab] E flat, [G] F, G, B flat, C.
And after I play this first E flat, you'll already hear where that blues sound kind of comes [Ab] from.
[C] So here's C.
_ [Eb] _ Here's E [Cm] flat.
_ _ _ So that's C, E [Fm] flat, [Gm] F, G, [C] B flat, C.
[Abm] Again, that was C, E flat, [G] F, G, [Ab] B flat, C. _
_ _ _ [Am] _ [G] Oops, that was playing an A there, so that one didn't sound _ right in my little run here.
So [E] C, E flat, F, [G] G, B flat, [Cm] C.
_ _ [Fm] _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
And then once I get to the C, I can slide up to E flat. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ I could run [Gb] to the F here and then I could play F, E, B flat, C.
_ [Abm] _ _
[Bb] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ So I can just play all over here.
[Gm] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
[C] _ _ _ So that was just [Gb] walking down here, getting down [G] to the C note.
_ _ I can play all over when I can see that blues scale, and [N] that's going to sound good with any kind of bluesy chord progression or like a kind of a blues rock progression.
And I'll show you how to [G] play through these in a [N] later video.
But the quick thing is, if you want to know how to see the C [G] minor pentatonic scale, you're just going to look at the white boxes here.
And then if I want to add in that blues note, that flat five note, [N] it's shown with an asterisk.
So I can just play C, E flat, F, [Em] G flat, G, B flat, C.
[Gbm] So it's like [Cm] this.
_ [Fm] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ So that's C.
[Eb] _
E flat's a blues [Fm] note.
F's a major [Gbm] note.
_ G flat [G] is a bluesy note.
G _ is a _ regular major scale [Eb] note.
B [Ab] flat is a bluesy note. _
C's the root again. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ So that just finished off E flat C.
So it's a lot of fun to just pick around with [E] songs that [Gm] are in _ _ _ the key of C and be able to see where those [C] notes are.
And [N] then the cool thing about a toolbox is that _ there's a page like this for _ all 14 of the major and _ _ _ _ relative minor and blues keys.
So anyways, I hope you found something cool in there today.
And if you have any questions, please shoot me an email.
And if you _ found something useful, please subscribe _ to the YouTube channel.
And if you want to pick up [Ab] a toolbox of your own, check [Dm] out the fretboard toolbox website.
Thanks again for checking it out. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _