Extended Major Scales

Unlike a lot of instruments, guitar offers you a number of choices as to how and where you can play a given musical passage. This may seem a little daunting at first, but with a little practice you can comfortably navigate the guitar neck in any key or scale. Here's a simple set of patterns to help you stretch a major scale (in this case, A Major) from the 1st to 17th frets starting from the 6th string root note and covering all six strings.

Start off moving down the neck from the root:

Next use the "standard" Major scale shape :

Followed by the 3-note-per-string pattern :

And finally a pattern that shifts laterally rather than remaining static :

 

And there you have it. Starting on the 5th fret of the 6th string and branching out, you have access to the A Major scale literally all over the guitar neck.

Have fun!