Your complete guide to playing the C major scale for guitar. On this page you’ll find C major guitar TAB, notation, and scale patterns / fretboard diagrams for electric, acoustic and classical guitar.
Most notes on the guitar can be played in at least two places on the fretboard. For example, the C produced by playing the A string at the 3rd fret can also be played at the 8th fret of the bottom E string.
For this reason there is often more than one way of playing a particular scale on the guitar, and the C major scale is no exception.
C Major Scale
On this page you'll find notation and TAB for playing one, two and three-octave C major scales using a variety of fingerings.
You’ll also find a major scale pattern that can be used not only to play a C major scale, but also every other major scale, simply by moving the fretting hand to different fretboard positions.
When playing guitar scales, aim for an even tone and tempo. It is highly beneficial to practice scales with a metronome. Start slowly and only increase the tempo when you can play the scale smoothly, clearly and evenly.
C Major Scale Question
1 octave C major scale guitar TAB showing the scale being played in open position. (Recommended left hand fingering has been provided.)
An alternative way of playing a C major guitar scale is shown below. Note that although the notes of the scale are exactly the same as those above, several are being played at different frets.
The above scale can be extended into a 2 octave scale, as shown in the TAB below. You'll need to change the position of your fretting hand when you reach the top string in order to reach the highest notes of the scale.
The Major Pentatonic Scale
An alternative way of playing the same 2 octave C major scale for guitar is shown below. Using this method a position change isn’t required, although players of acoustic and classical guitars may find that playing this far up the fretboard may be slightly awkward.
The 3 octave C major scale below is only really suitable for electric guitar, as the higher frets may not be accessible on acoustic /classical guitars.
In the pattern above, the tonic notes of the scale are represented by green circles. The other notes of the scale are represented by black circles.
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(The tonic notes of a scale are the ‘name’ notes of the scale, i.e. the ‘C’s in a C major scale, the ‘D’s in a D major scale, etc.)
Play a one-octave scale by starting from the lowest green note and stopping at the next green note. Play a two-octave scale by continuing to the highest green note, as shown in the TAB below.
The beauty of movable scale shapes is that once you've learned one shape, you can move it to different fretboard positions in order to play other scales.
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Fret of the bottom E string instead of the 8th fret), and keeping all the fingers in the same position relative to the new starting note, you’d be playing an A major scale.
By learning just one pattern, you can quite literally play every major scale! However, most guitarists learn more than one shape for each scale so that they are not restricted to playing the scale at a particular position on the fretboard.
We hope that you've found everything you need on this page in order to be able to play a 1, 2, or even 3-octave C major scale on your guitar.
How To Play The C Major Scale On The Guitar
If you have any questions on playing this scale then feel free to ask them in the comments section below; we’d be happy to help. We also welcome any comments or suggestions on how we can make this page even more helpful!
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Play guitar or bass? Subscribe to the Guitar Command email newsletter for FREE guitar & bass news, lessons, reviews, offers and information.Once we know the C major scale, we will understand the key of C. If we know the key of C, we can jam and write music in the key of C.
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C major is the easiest key for musicians to think in because it doesn’t contain any confusing sharp or flat notes. It’s an excellent doorway into the world of music theory.
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NB: Our thumb doesn’t count as a finger when fretting notes on the guitar. Our fingers are numbered 1-4, index to pinky.
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Try not to just hop around with one finger or to just use any old fingers. Those are bad habits to form.
Although we’ve called this a beginer’s pattern, it’s one that will serve you well right through your journey as a guitarist. Don’t just discard it and forget it when you move onto more advanced patterns.
Once we’ve gotten to grips with the 1 octave open position version of the C major scale, we can move onto this next closed position C major scale guitar pattern.
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This pattern differs from the first in that it doesn’t feature any open strings (hence: ‘closed position’) and covers 2 octaves. (This means we get twice as many notes to play with.)
Some of your fingers, especially your 4th finger (ie. the pinky) might feel a bit weak and wobbly compared to the others, but that’s all the more reason to start using it. We need to build up strength in the weaker fingers.
When playing a one finger per fret scale we don’t really need to do any moving left to right across the fretboard. Our fingers are already hovering in the frets they need to be in.
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As with the previous scale, we must be patient and go slowly with this scale at first. Play it correctly, not quickly.
If you’ve gotten to grips with the beginner and intermediate C major scale guitar patterns, you might want to try a more advanced pattern.
With this pattern we want to start on each string with our 1st finger (the index finger) and finish on each string with the 4th finger (ie. the pinky).
Chord Embellishments: C Major Embellishments
If we’ve just played the 8th fret with the 1st finger then it’s less of a stretch if we use the 3rd finger to press the 10th fret.
However, we then have to stretch over to the 12th with our 4th finger, so perhaps our 2nd finger would have been better.
Obviously, with this pattern we can’t use the one finger per fret method. We don’t have enough fingers for that, but that doesn’t mean we just start using any old fingers for any old notes.
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Playing fast is by no means the be all and end all of guitar playing, but it is nice to have the option available to us.
This means we only pick the first note of each string and let the other notes sound on their own by simply hammering our fingers onto them.
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