Primary Green Scales - Upper String Scale Series #4

The final set of primary major scales are the green pattern scales. These are the scales that begin on the second finger. They are also the first scales in this system that use flats. I will have already discussed what flats are and how they function because of the B-flat on the G string for the blue pattern, but I use this opportunity to reinforce their role in music.

F Major (Figure 1) is the first green scale. The trick with this is the use of the lowered first finger. Every scale before this one has used the first finger a whole step away from the open strings, but in F Major we place the first finger a half step away. As discussed in the finger pattern post [link] the green pattern is a modification of Barber’s blue pattern, created by lowering the first finger by a half step. This should be familiar to the student by drilling the green pattern in isolation before beginning work on F Major.

Many of the discussions about the blue scales [link] apply here as well. The finger that is likely to be the main issue, in this case the lowered first finger, is on the top tonic for these scales, which allows us to reinforce ear training and the structure of the scale by calling that to the student’s attention. This is also a case of the scale color and the key color not matching up on the first string, as we can easily see with F major. If we were to play down the D string we would need to be in the blue pattern to remain in the correct key. It is usually after I cover both green scales that I take the time to explain this concept to the student if I haven’t already, looping back to cover it with the blue scales as well. It can help to use the two octave G Major scale to reinforce the concept.

Once the F Major is comfortable I move onto B-flat (Figure 2), which is the final green scale, and also the last primary scale. Previously there was a two octave scale introduced with every new set of scales. Some form of B would be the scale to cover this round, but we cannot do that because of the difference in the primary and secondary scales. The primary yellow scale was B major, and the primary green was B-flat; because of this we have to wait until we cover their secondary counterparts for the next two octave scale.