How should you learn guitar scales – and why should you bother?

Musician playing acoustic guitar on dark background

Using scales to make music is more than just choosing the right one. But how does one go about practicing scales, and should you bother?

Using my favourite analogy, if music is a language then scales are alphabets. With our English alphabet we can make words from many languages, though each will have quirks particular to its dialect. Other languages are narrower in use, the Mkhedruli language of Georgia for instance, which can be understood in much more limited areas.