Learn the best way to play the D Major Scale on the guitar with this guide.
Here are all the positions and notes of the D Major guitar scale, which can be played over one, two or even three octaves.
We'll learn the notes of the D major scale and how to play it easily for fingerstyle guitar, both ascending and descending.
I'll share with you the best fingering pattern to play this scale at high speeds and give all your fingers a workout.
What Is The D Major Scale?
The D major scale, or the D scale for short, consists of the notes D, E, F♯, G, A, B, and C♯. It is a very common guitar scale in Western music, like the G Major scale or the C Major scale.
When we name or play the notes of the scale in the same order as in the alphabet, we're using the ascending scale pattern.
An ascending scale refers to a scale that is played from a lower pitch to a higher pitch. It starts from the root note and moves upward to the next octave of the same note.
On the other hand, a descending scale is played from a higher pitch to a lower pitch. It starts from the root note at a higher octave and goes down to the same note at a lower octave. So, if we take the D major scale, the notes are in the following order: D, C♯, B, A, G, F♯, and E.
How To Play The D Major Scale Over One Octave On The Guitar
Here is what the ascending D Major Scale looks like on the guitar over one octave, played in first position using open strings.
This pattern is useful for identifying the notes in the scale, but not necessarily for playing the scale quickly.
To give your fingers a workout, you'll want to play the ascending D major scale (the sequence of notes played from lowest to highest) followed by the descending D major scale (the high note to the low note).
Let's now look at how to play the D major scale over multiple octaves.
How To Play the Two Octave D Major Scale On Guitar
The most common way to play the D Major scale over two octaves is starting at the fifth string. You can play this scale starting in the 5th position ascending and descending, with a minor change in position on the third string.
Here's how to play the D Major Scale over 2 octaves on the guitar, using a simple alternating i,m finger pattern.
The advantage of this finger pattern is that the fretting hand is very simple.
However, the problem with this fingering pattern is the uneven number of notes per string. Sometimes there are two notes per string, and other times there are three or four.
This can cause a problem when you want to play fast fingerstyle guitar scales. The solution is to use three note per string guitar fingering, which requires some stretches but lets you use an i,m,a finger pattern throughout.
Notice also the five notes at the very top of the scale, on the first string. You can choose to play i,m,a,m,i and switch to a,m,i when playing the descending pattern.
Be aware that it's not possible to play the D major scale on the majority of acoustic guitars. To play the 3rd octave, you would require a guitar that has more than 21 frets, which is rare even for a cutaway guitar.
You could, however, use an alternate tuning and lower your string down to the note 'D', but this would prevent you from using a strictly 3 note per string finger pattern.
How To Play the D Major Chordal Scale
The chordal scale involves playing chords that use every note of the D Major scale. In fingerstyle guitar, because we are able to pluck multiple strings, we can take advantage of this to play chords.
To play the D major chord scale, we create triads out of the notes in the scale, using the interval of a third. This interval consists of skipping one note in the scale and landing on the next.
Triads In D Major
For each note in the scale, we stack one note that is a third interval away, and likewise for the next note. So, the first chord we will create is the D major chord.
Starting with the root note D, we skip the next note (E) and land on the following note (F♯). Then, we skip the fourth note (G) and select the fifth note (A). Our first chord contains the notes D, F♯, and A, which is the D Major chord.
However for fingerstyle guitar, we don't use the root position of the chord when playing chordal scales. Instead, we use chords which are in the first inversion.
Here is what that looks like in the context of the D Major guitar scale.
Here, in the first chord of the scale which is the D Major chord, rather than starting with the root note D, we begin with the third, or F♯. Similarly, in the E minor chord, we start the chord on the note G instead of the root note E.
Ultimately, this approach to chord voicings in fingerstyle guitar lets us simplify the chord shapes and reduce stretches.
You will learn more about simplifying chords in the online course, Play Fingerstyle Guitar Now!
