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G Major Scale: Fretboard
Diagrams, Chords, Notes and
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July 28, 2020 by Aaron Matthies

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The G Major Scale is one of the !rst scales you should learn
on the guitar. After you learn the C Major Scale (learn the C
Major scale in this guide) I recommend learning the G Major
scale because it only changes one note. ···
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This guide covers everything you might want to know about

the G Major scale including common open chords, note
positions on a fretboard diagram, and more.

These resources are based on having your guitar in standard

tuning. Read this guide on Alternate Guitar Tunings if you
want to try something di"erent. DISCLOSURE: articles may contain
a$liate links, meaning when you click
the links and make a purchase, I
Note: the resources here are helpful, but they should only receive a commission. Find out more
be a starting point for your practice. Once you memorize here.

these notes on your fretboard, you won’t need to use the

resources found in this guide. Find out how to memorize the
notes on the fretboard here using e"ective methods that
don’t require much time or e"ort.

Table of Contents [ show ]

G Major Scale = E Minor Scale

For every Major scale in music, there is what we call a
‘relative’ minor. A ‘relative’ scale is one that uses the same
notes but is used in di"erent ways. This means for every
Major scale, there is a minor scale using the same notes.

The G Major scale and the E minor scale both use the exact
same notes. The main di"erence between the two (to keep
things simple) is the root note of each scale. In the G Major
scale, the root note is ‘G’. In the E minor scale, the root note
is ‘E’.

···

The E minor scale is an incredibly popular scale for guitarists

due to the way we tune our guitars. Rock and metal tend to
focus on this scale more than any other scale.

Once you learn some basic music theory you will understand
how two di"erent scales can use the same notes, but for
now, all you need to do is remember that both G Major and E
minor scales use the same notes.

···
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This means you can use all the diagrams, exercises and
chords covered in this guide for both the G Major scale and
the E minor scale.

Notes in the G Major Scale

The G Major scale is easy to remember because it only
contains one sharp note. The notes in the G Major Scale are:
G A B C D E F#

This is what the key signature for G Major looks like:

···
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Even if you don’t know how to read music, if you see a key
signature with only one sharp symbol, it means the music is
in G Major (or E minor).

The notes in the E minor scale are: E F# G A B C D. As you

can see, it’s the exact same notes as the G Major scale. The E
minor scale starts on ‘E’ (called the root note) and the G
Major scale starts on ‘G’, but both scales contain the same
seven notes.

The key point to remember with the G Major scale is F# (F

sharp). You only need to remember that the G Major scale
uses F sharp and all the other notes are natural (not sharp or
#at).

This is why the G Major scale is so easy to learn after you

learn the C Major scale. All you need to do to change from C
Major to G Major is remember to raise the note F by one fret.

···

G Major Scale Fretboard

Diagram
Here are the notes of the G Major scale across the entire
fretboard:

···

The main notes to focus on when you try to memorize this

scale is G and F#.

You want to pay extra attention to G because it’s the root

note, so you want to be able to easily !nd those note
positions while improvising or writing ri"s.

You also want to pay attention to the F# positions to help

you switch into this scale from C Major.

Here is the G Major scale diagram up to the 12th fret with

the root notes highlighted on each string:

···

Read my lesson on how to memorize the fretboard to get

the most out of this diagram.

___

···
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How to use the above fretboard diagram:

Improvise over a G Major or E minor backing track by

playing any of the above notes
Learn to !nd chord shapes that !t with the
highlighted notes
Practice scale runs between any two points on the
fretboard (don’t just stick to scale shapes you’ve
already memorized)
Memorize the notes on the fretboard one string at a
time

If you’ve already spent time memorizing the C Major scale, it

should only take a day or two of practice to fully memorize
the G Major scale.

···
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G Major Scale in Guitar TAB and

Standard Notation
The below Guitar TAB and standard notation show four
examples of the G Major scale starting on di"erent root note
positions:

···

If you don’t know how to read the above example, !nd out
how to read Standard Notation in this guide and how to read
Guitar TAB in this guide. Knowing at least one of these
methods can signi!cantly speed up your progress.

Try playing the four examples to get a feel for how G Major
sounds and where the correct notes are on the fretboard.

···

I recommend trying to avoid playing scale runs like this as

your main form of practicing scales. Playing up and down
scale shapes can lead to bad habits and a lot of guitarists
eventually get stuck in a rut.

Instead of merely running up and down scale shapes, I

recommend learning to randomly walk around the fretboard
by focusing on the note names.

This feels harder in the beginning, but once you learn how to
do this with one or two scales, all of the other scales quickly
fall into place.

G Major Scale Open Chords on

Guitar
One of the reasons why the G Major scale is such a popular
scale for guitarists is because there are a lot of open chords
that !t with the scale.

···

Once you learn the G Major scale, you’ll quickly realize how
many songs are written in G Major or E minor.

In music theory, we can ‘harmonize’ the scale to !gure out

what those chords are. To make things easy for you, here are
the seven main chords of the G Major scale:

···

You might already know most of these chords as they are

some of the most common open chords on the guitar.

Apart from Bm (B minor) and F#dim (F sharp diminished), all

of the other chords are simple open chords every beginner
learns.

There are countless songs that use the chords G, Am, C, D,

and Em in progressions.

If you’ve memorized the open chords from the C Major scale,

you will notice that both scales share the chords C, Am, Em,
and G. If you see a song using those chords, you can normally
tell if it was written in the C or G Major scale depending on
whether you see the chord D Major or D minor.

···

Try making up some chord progressions using the above

chords and listen to how they sound when played together.
A lot of songs use the above chords so you may !nd you
accidentally play a progression from a well-known song.

The chord Bm is a barre chord, so if you’re a beginner, leave

it for last or until you’re ready to start learning barre chords.

Don’t worry about the last chord (F#dim) as you’re unlikely

to use it. When we harmonize a Major scale, the last chord in
the scale is always a diminished chord. While diminished
chords are used in music, as a beginner or intermediate
guitarist you may not have much use for them yet.

···

Note: remember that the E minor scale uses the exact same
notes as the G Major scale. This means the above chords also
!t in the key of E minor.

As mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t rely on these resources.

Learn how to memorize the notes on the fretboard. It might