Scales are important for a few different reasons

1. They build strength and independence in your fingers.
2. Playing scales helps to train your ears to recognize some common note combinations.
3. They can be used as note choices in both improvisation and writing of music.

Practicing scales should become part of your daily practice routine. How much time you devote to scales really depends on your goals as a guitar player and musician. But at the very least play through a couple of scales 4 or 5 times daily to help warm up your fingers.

Finger Exercises
Pre-scales

Before learning some real scales, here is a good first step. These are just some finger exercises. They are written in tablature format, and the numbers above indicate what fingers you should use.

Finger exercise on 1 string

First just go up and down using all 4 fingers on adjacent frets on the first string. The 5th fret is a good place to start. As you are going to the next note higher, keep the previous finger down and just stretch with your next finger to the next fret. It is important to keep your left hand thumb in about the middle of the back of the neck. This will help you reach the notes more easily. Try and pick right at the point when you put down your left hand finger. You are trying synchronize your right and left hands. If you place your left hand finger before you pick, then you will get some unwanted noise and your notes will sound sloppy. Play this exercise slow at first. Only increase the speed once you can play each note clean and in time. You will develop bad habits if you try and play too fast too soon.

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Finger exercise on 2 strings

Next try going up on both the 2nd and 1st string, and then coming back down.

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Finger exercise on 6 strings

Keep adding strings until you can play the finger exercise using all 6 strings. Your left hand position is going to be very important as you play this exercise, and other scales. Make sure that your left hand thumb is approximately in the middle of the back of the neck. If your thumb is up too high you will find it nearly impossible to stretch and reach the notes.

Page 2, Reading horizontal scale charts

Scale primer jump zone

Intro to scales - basic finger exercises Reading horizontal scale charts Reading vertical scale charts The root of the scale