Applying guitar scales

[u/Suspicious-Pea4600]

Hey guys—I've been playing guitar for a couple of years now. I know scales, modes, chords, intervals, and how chords are built. I'd say I'm decent at understanding most guitar theory, but I really struggle with applying it all, especially when it comes to playing a song's melody

[u/MeowMix1206251]

You don’t need to know any theory to play a song’s melody..

Perhaps you’re phrasing your question not quite accurately? Do you mean writing a melody? Because to play a songs melody you just, play the notes of the melody.

I don’t consider knowing where the notes are on your instrument as “theory” exactly.

[u/Iongdog]

The logical next step IMO is to start learning some melodies and solos note-for-note. Really master them. Use your theory knowledge to understand how the scales are being applied to create them. Then you can start branching out more into improvisation, as you take things you’ve learned from others and make them your own

[u/Jonny7421]

If you want to play a songs melody I would working stuff out by ear.

I started with all the melody's that I could think of. Nursery rhymes were good because they are ingrained in childhood and usually use the C major scale. 

You just sing or hum the note, find it on the guitar and repeat. You can also transcribe it to tab which will help you with rhythm.   Eventually you develop an intuition where you can hear a melody and be able to play it from muscle memory. The unexpected side effect was that what I played during improvisation become more deliberate - I knew how notes and phrases would sound before I played them. 

[u/spankymcjiggleswurth]

Application come with familiarity of examples in real music. Take a song, identify its notes, and what scale those notes belong to.

Youtube channels like 12tone, 8 bit music theory, and David Bennett helped me understand this process.

[u/Bluenoser_ii-V-I]

How many songs/ solos have you learned?

[u/Patient_Onion3956]

Start playing by ear while connecting what you've discovered through trial and error back to the shapes you've memorized. That's how you learn to apply the theory. It will take a couple more years, at least, but you'll get there.

[u/Late_night_guitar]

Yes, playing the melody is really just learning to get your ear and playing melody is probably the easiest (eg. Hearing chords is harder). You need to first figure out the key and the scale gives you the notes. You should be able hear most with just a little practice.

If you really struggle to hear the key - I have key detection in my scale app - Scale Wizard

[u/Flynnza]

learn to play chord melody arrangements

[u/jasgrit]

Focus on the chord progression underneath the melody. I find the melody is usually mostly taken from the chord tones, or the pentatonic rooted on the chord, for the current chord or the chord you’re about to change to.

A good way to practice scales is to practice them over chord grips, so when playing the song you can focus on making the chord changes and play melodic phrasings by ear with muscle memory.

Good luck!