Maybe you've heard about them, maybe not. But if you want to play jazz guitar with the best of them, sooner or later you'll need to spend some serious time learning your scales and modes. So you might as well get started, it can only help! Not only that, but after you spend enough time playing jazz guitar scales you'll realize why they're so important. 

What are Jazz Guitar Scales?

The keyword here is "Scale" which comes from the Latin word meaning ladder. So in this case, we're talking about a musical landscape which has notes that ascend up and down.

The basic scale that we are all familiar with in Western music is what we often call the "major scale", which is also called the "Ionian mode". Generally speaking, a "mode" refers to a type of scale. Specifically, modes are different types of scales which can have different roots and tone.