The E Major Scale is a fairly common scale you’ll see used on a lot of popular songs. It may not be as common as E Minor (G Major), but it’s a good scale to learn on guitar.
This guide covers open chords, note positions on a fretboard diagram, popular songs in E Major, and everything else you might want to know about the scale.
These resources are based on having your guitar in standard tuning. Read this guide on Alternate Guitar Tunings if you want to try something different.
When Playing G Shape Caged Scale In Key Of C Major, Do I Start On The 5th Fret Or The 8th On 6th String Because Of The Root Note? If It's The
I suggest learning the E Major scale after you memorize the A Major scale, because changing from A Major to E Major only needs you to change one note.
Note: I suggest only using these resources as a basic reference to help you learn the scale. The best way to truly memorize a scale is to follow the advice in my guide on memorizing the notes on the fretboard here. Once you follow the advice in that guide, memorizing a scale becomes much easier.
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 different ways. This means for every Major scale, there is a minor scale using the same notes.
E Minor Pentatonic Scale
The E Major scale and the C# minor scale both use the exact same notes. The main difference between the two (to keep things simple) is the root note of each scale. In the E Major scale, the root note is ‘E’. In the C# minor scale, the root note is ‘C#’.
Once you learn some basic music theory you will understand how two different scales can use the same notes, but for now, all you need to do is remember that both E Major and C# minor scales use the same notes.
This means you can use all the diagrams, exercises, and chords covered in this guide for both the E Major scale and the C# minor scale.
How To D Major Scale On Guitar
Even if you don’t know how to read music, if you see a key signature with four sharp symbols, it means the music is in E Major (or C# minor). Find out how to read standard notation in this guide.
As you can see, it’s the exact same notes as the E Major scale. The C# minor scale starts on ‘C#’ (called the root note) and the E Major scale starts on ‘E’, but both scales contain the same seven notes.
If you compare the notes in the A Major scale (A B C# D E F# G#) and the E Major scale, you’ll notice that the only difference is the note D#.
Finding The Major Scales On A Guitar
This is why I suggest learning the A Major scale before you learn the E Major scale (learn the A Major scale in this guide). Once you memorize the A Major scale, all you need to do to change from A Major to E Major is remember to change D to D#.
You may have heard about the circle of fifths. The circle of fifths makes use of patterns to help you move from one scale to the next.
If you know the basics of intervals (learn about intervals in this lesson), you’ll start to see the patterns as we move from C Major to G Major to D Major to A Major to E Major.
How To Practice Scales On Guitar
If we start from the C and move up a fifth, we end up on G. If we move up a fifth from G, we end up on D. A fifth up from D is A. A fifth up from A is E.
That’s the same order I suggest memorizing scales. Start with learning the C Major scale (no sharps or flats), then learn the G Major scale (one sharp), then the D Major scale (two sharps), then the A Major scale (three sharps), then the E Major scale (four sharps), and so on.
Notice the jump in fifths between each scale root note? If you can, you can probably already figure out what the next scale in the series might be (hint: what’s a fifth up from E?).
The Major Scale On Guitar
Hopefully, this short description gives you a glimpse of how useful music theory can be. With some basic music theory, you can easily memorize the notes in all scales without having to look anything up.
Answer: if you’re wondering what the next scale is after E Major using the circle of fifths, it’s B Major (learn the B Major scale here).
When memorizing this scale, try to pay extra attention to all of the ‘E’ positions. You want to focus on all of the positions where you play E because that’s the root note of the scale. Memorizing those positions first helps you when writing riffs, licks, or improvising.
Major Scale Positions
As I mentioned earlier, I highly recommend you start by memorizing the C Major scale, then work your way through the circle of fifths.
By the time you get to the E Major scale, you won’t even need to spend time memorizing it. You’ll be able to instinctively change D to D# as needed.
Something you might notice about this scale is that it doesn’t use the open G string or the open D string. The most common guitar scales make use of the open strings, so it might feel a bit strange playing a scale that doesn’t use these two strings.
Key Of E Guitar Notes
This is why the E Major scale isn’t as popular in standard tuning as other scales that make full use of all open strings.
If you’ve already spent time memorizing the A Major scale, you might be surprised by how quickly you can fully memorize the E Major scale.
The more scales you learn using the method covered in the above guide, the faster it is to learn any new scales.
Learn How To Play The E Major Scale On Guitar
If you don’t know how to read the above example, find 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 significantly speed up how fast you can learn new songs.
Try playing the examples to get a feel for how E Major sounds and where the correct notes are on the fretboard. Then I suggest trying to come up with your own examples of scale runs in different positions on the fretboard.
But as a general rule, I don’t recommend practicing scale runs like this. Playing up and down scale shapes is how a lot of guitarists get stuck in a rut.
E Major Scale
Because the E Major scale uses four sharp notes and it doesn’t use the open D or G strings, you may need to use some barre chords if you want to create chord progressions in the key of E.
When you compare these chords with chords in the C Major, G Major, or F Major scales, you’ll see why I suggest starting with these scales.
If you feel comfortable with barre chord shapes, try creating some chord progressions using all of these chords (except D#dim). Get a feel for how the key sounds before you go on to learning some songs in the key of E.
Schematic View Guitar Neck Scale E Stock Vector (royalty Free) 1245380974
Don’t worry about the last chord (D#dim) as you’re unlikely to use it. If you learn the theory behind harmonizing a scale (which is how you figure out what chords fit in a scale), you’ll understand why every Major scale includes a diminished chord.
Note: remember that the C# minor scale uses the exact same notes as the E Major scale. This means the above chords also fit in the key of C# minor.
As mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t rely on these resources. Learn how to memorize the notes on the fretboard. It might be easier to use a chart like the ones above to find your way across the fretboard, but you’ll become a far better guitarist if you properly memorize the fretboard notes.
A Complete E Major Guitar Scale Guide
While the E Major scale contains fewer open chord shapes than other scales, there are still a lot of popular songs that were written in E you might want to check out.
Keep in mind that the E Major and C# minor scales use the same notes, so some of the above songs are in the key of E, while others are in the key of C# minor.
For more resources, check out these guides. You can get notifications on new resources, guides, lessons, and reviews by subscribing to email updates here.
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DISCLOSURE: articles may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, I receive a commission. Find out more here.Memorizing scales -- like the E major scale -- and various ways to play them, can help expand your knowledge of music theory. Developing a stronger foundation in knowing the notes of a given scale can help you play songs you love or aid you in your own songwriting.
In this lesson, we’ll cover
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