As much as I love electric instruments, effects and amplifiers, acoustic guitar sometimes…

Major scales

These scales have a major third (E in the key of C), which makes them feel happy or bright.

Happy; can be majestic or sentimental when slow. The white keys on the piano. Examples: “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Bluesy, rock; can also be exotic/modal. Play over C7 chord. Same pitches as F major. Example: “” by .

Ethereal, dreamy, futuristic. Same pitches as G major. Example: “Possibly Maybe” by (from the line “As much as I definitely enjoy solitude…”)

Also known as the overtone scale or acoustic scale, because it is close to the first seven pitches in the natural overtone series. Same pitches as the G melodic minor scale and the F sharp/G flat altered scale.

Exotic, Middle Eastern, Jewish. Same pitches as F harmonic minor. Example: “Hava Nagila.”

Majestic, mysterious. “Lord Of The Rings” feeling.

Minor Scales

These scales have a flat third (E flat in the key of C), which gives them a darker and more tragic feel.

Sentimental, tragic. Same pitches as E flat major.

Tragic, exotic, Middle Eastern.

Mysterious, jazzy, very dark. Example: sixties . See a about melodic minor.

Hip, sophisticated, jazzy. Same pitches as B flat major. Example: “” by Miles Davis.

Spanish/Flamenco. Same pitches as A flat major.

Very dark and unstable. Use over C half-diminished chords. Same pitches as C sharp/D flat major and B flat natural minor.

Neither major nor minor

Bluesy, obviously. Works great over major and minor chords. C minor pentatonic with sharp fourth/flat fifth added.

Use over a C7 chord to make it sound very intellectual and jazzy. Same pitches as C sharp/D flat melodic minor.

Pentatonics

Pentatonic scales have five notes. The is the minor pentatonic plus the flat fifth.

Joyful; widely used in world and folk music. Major scale with 4th and 7th removed. Same pitches as A minor pentatonic. Here’s a blog post about .

Widely used in rock, world and folk music. Minor scale with 2nd and 6th removed. Same pitches as E flat major pentatonic. Here’s a blog post about .

Synthetic Scales

These scales are based on regular, symmetric patterns.

All of the piano keys. Freefalling, anxiety-producing. Same pitches as every other chromatic scale.

Dreamy, underwater. Every alternating key on the piano. Same pitches as D, E, F sharp, G sharp and A sharp whole tone scales. Example: Background parts in the Simpsons theme song.

Also known as the octatonic scale. Dark, mysterious. Same pitches as E flat, G flat and A diminished scales. Examples: movies about Dracula.

C hexatonic scale

Alternating minor third, half step. Wonderfully exotic.

Making chords

To make basic chords from the major and minor scales, start with the first note, then skip to the third, then the fifth. Using C Dorian, that’s C, Eb, G. This is called a triad, and it’s the simplest type of chord.

To extend the chords, add in the seventh, the second/ninth, the fourth/eleventh, and the sixth/thirteenth. Using C Dorian, that’s Bb, D, F, A. The more notes you add, the more complex and dense the chord becomes.

You can also skip or leave out notes: C, Eb, Bb, F for example. Also, you can double notes (especially the first/root.)

Don’t put fourths/elevenths into major chords unless you leave the third out, it sounds very dissonant.

Have fun!

Update: thanks to the enthusiastic users of Stumbleupon, this is by far the most-read post on this blog. Thanks for all the Stumbles, folks!