A different approach to remembering scales

Long time no post! Had been busy for a while. Anyways after a gap of two months, here comes an approach that will definitely help you extract more from scales..

Few days back, I decided that I had to sit and work on the concept of circle of fifths. Now circle of fifths is all about keeping in mind that while playing in so and so key, so and so notes are played sharp/flat. This should work fine on the keyboards where sharps and naturals are visually distinguishable. But on a guitar fretboard, comparatively it becomes a difficult task.
This is where this approach struck me..

Here it goes.. to keep it simple I will be talking about just the A major scale.. but it can similarly be applied to any other scale

Point #1: We have to play 7 notes of the scale and the root note again..so total 8 notes
Point #2: As we end on the root note, it also becomes the starting point to play the scale again
Point#3: So by remembering the starting points and end points on different strings we come up with patterns

Start on 6th string & End on 6th string:
This is a single string scale pattern which can easily be arrived at using the scale formula.
And it can be played on all strings alike.

Start on the 6th string & End on 5th string
Take root A on the 5th fret of 6th string. This is our start point. The end point on the 5th string is on the 12th fret. In between notes can be played any how!

A---------------------7---9----11---12----|-----
E---5---7---9---10------------------------|-----

Start on the 6th string & End on 4th string
Again start point as A on 5th fret and the end point on the 4 string is on the 7th fret. In between notes can be played any how!

D-----------------------------6----7--|----
A----------------5----7---9-----------|-----
E---5---7---9-------------------------|-----

Applying the similar concepts through out, following patterns can be developed

G--------------------------------1---2--|----
D-----------------------2----4----------|----
A-------------4---5---------------------|-----
E---5---7-------------------------------|-----

With starting point on the 5th string ie 12th fret

G-------------------------------13--14--|----
D-------------------12--14--16----------|-----
A---12---14---16------------------------|-----

B--------------------------------9--10-|---
G-----------------------9---11---------|----
D-------------11---12------------------|-----
A---12---14----------------------------|-----

With starting point on the 4th string ie 7 fret

B----------------------------7---9---10-|---
G----------------6---7---9--------------|----
D-----7----9-----------------------------|----

E--------------------------------4--5-|---
B-----------------------5---7---------|----
G-------------6---7------------------|-----
D---7---9----------------------------|-----

With starting point on the 3rd string ie 2 fret

E----------------------------2---4---5-|---
B----------------2---3--5--------------|----
G-----2----4---------------------------|----


Starting on the second string and first string is very easy..So I am leaving that part for you to work

One more thing, this is about going up... best part is that while coming down we find ourselves running over notes in other patterns of the same scale. And this is how everything connects on the fretboard!

Similar approach can be applied to other scales to develop patterns.

So this was about scale patterns Hope you found it useful!