Hi mr Friedman, I am a keyboardist so the way I look at scales is a bit different than guitarists (I guess). I've learned to play guitar from a Young Guitar Video you did several years ago. The one you said "Hang your guitar low otherwise you won't score any chicks!" (or something like that, it was funny as hell! , anyway). That 3 years of guitar in 1hr video, was my initiation in Gtr. I decided to find more of your videos and I remember that on one on exotic scales you said "You can even build your own scale"! And that was the day everything just clicked into place. I know that music nowadays has no stict rules, unlike in the days of Bach, where a sequence of 9th chords would be considered wrong. Most pop and rock bands are self taught (plus we now have autotune and melodyne, if the sound is really of scale, dont we?) So I have one question why do new guitarists try to master ready made licks? Most licks come from playing certain scales. (and usually as you said in that video I mentioned before we only use the minor, the rock and the blues ones) Is there a mystery behind rock guitar? (Don't get me wrong I will be buying your secret licks video, just to hear you teach and discover more about guitar) but why didn't they teach us licks and certain phrases in piano school and in rock guitar this is something really important? Aren't things simple? Try to find a scale that matches the idea in your head (the better you are at your instument the better you can play what's in your head) and then play it? Warm regards, A fan from Greece

Two schools of thought on this- 1-The better you know the rules that exist, the better you can break them. 2-Know some information, but just enough to be dangerous. Actually each musician has his own way of interpreting music and there is no right or wrong way.