One of my favorite scenes in "The Sound Of Music" is when Maria (Julie Andrews) is teaching the von Trapp kids the song "Do-Re-Mi." Not only is it a great Rodgers/Hammerstein song, but it is a great training exercise in what are referred to as MUSICAL INTERVALS (or the spaces between notes).
Learning to hear and being able to identify the different notes in a musical scale will not only help you be a better player, but it can help you be a better singer as well. And it can also help you to figure out how to play songs by ear!
This sort of ear training becomes especially important when students are learning chords, because chords are made up of notes from musical scales. So are melodies and solos! Think to yourself, "Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do!"
Major chords, for example, are made up of the 1st note of the scale, plus the third note, plus the fifth note--on other words, the "Do" plus the "Mi' plus the "So." Being able to hear that will ultimately help you to understand how chords are built, and why you finger them the way you do on your guitar's fret board.
Now--it does get a little more complex when you start talking about minor chords and minor seventh chords and so on--but knowing and being able to hear the intervals in a major scale is a GREAT place to start!
In the video below, I talk a little more about this--but in the meantime, thank you Maria, and Happy Pickin'!
Video on Scales and Intervals
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