: The 5 Shapes of a key I have been guitar for a while now and I wanted to start getting into soloing. I have looked up everything online and never found a conclusion. Is there an easy way to memorize all the scales. I have

Fingering Systems

It sounds like you're speaking of the CAGED system. That's one fingering method and it's certainly fine. There are other systems like 3 notes-per-string method (3NPS) where there are 7 patterns.

There are pros and cons to each–and if you Google them you'll encounter all kinds of infighting about them–but for now just pick one and get started. They're all fine. Don't let anybody scare you into thinking that you're making a disastrous choice by going with one system over another. You can always learn other systems later and decide which works best for you.

Other Scales

Now if you've learned those patterns then you've learned your major scales and modes. But you've also got Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor, Pentatonic, Diminished, Whole Tone, and so on—it depends on how far you want to take it and what's useful to you and the music that you play.

Don't Forget Linear Patterns

Then you probably want to learn not just those scales in those 5 or 7 positions, but also the 3-octave or so versions that link those patterns linearly up the fretboard. You can't always stay in one position; you have to learn to move between them.

So, you're right, that's a lot to memorize. One way is you could just memorize all the patterns just like you did for the first 5 patterns. And I would recommend that.

Learn new scales relative to ones you already know

But you can also try to learn each new scale as it relates to the parallel major scale. That is, when you start learning C Melodic Minor, compare it to the C Major scale that you already know. While it helps muscle memory to learn the patterns through rote memorization, it helps mentally if you learn how the new scale differs from the scales that you already know. Take notice of which notes are different from the major scale. Learn the interval pattern of each and how to spell the notes of a given scale out on paper. Then try playing up C Major and back down C Melodic Minor or vice-versa. Do the same for Melodic vs Harmonic Minor, etc.

Sid Jacobs' Linear Patterns

Lastly, there's a fingering system that jazz educator Sid Jacobs teaches that I think is kind of neat in how it simplifies a lot of this stuff. I don't use it myself because I had already learned other systems way too well by the time I'd heard about it. But it makes a certain amount of sense to me especially for people just getting started that are finding it all overwhelming.

It uses 3 octave scales where each octave is broken into a string set with a position shift as you start the new octave. One thing I find pretty cool about it is that the fingerings stay the same for each octave which enables a beginner to quickly get a handle on what scale degree they are playing no matter what octave they are in:

So if you want to take an extreme shortcut, maybe try jumping directly into these 3 octave linear scales and see how far it gets you. There will be much less to learn and you can always come back and learn in-position patterns later.

Remember these are all just tools to get you where you want to go. There's no right or wrong tool just the one that fits the job at hand. So try them out and see what works for what you want to do.

Exercises

No matter what route you choose, keep in mind that simply playing up and down the scales is not that fun and only minimally helpful. The name of the game is variation. Mix it up.

Do all of the following in all keys; don't stay in C the whole time
Play descending instead of ascending
Play scales in varying sequences: (scale degrees) 1,2,3; 2,3,4; 3,4,5, etc and then maybe 1,2,3,4; 2,3,4,5, etc.
Play scales in intervals: (thirds) 1,3,2,4,3,5, etc (fourths) 1,4,2,5,3,6, etc
Start from different notes. For instance try playing from the 3rd to the 9th instead of root to root.
Figure out the diatonic chords contained within scale by harmonizing it 3rds and play those arpeggios.
Start improvising with the scale immediately after getting a basic handle on it. Don't wait.
Pick a few notes from the scale and try to improvise a very simple phrase. Now learn that same phrase in all the other positions.
Take that same phrase and start shifting it up or down a note or two relatively but sticking within the scale. So if you played (scale degrees) 5,7,8,7,5,3 now play 6,8,9,8,6,4, etc. Just get used to moving relative patterns around while sticking within the scale.
Play scales through changes. That is, as you begin to learn what scales and arpeggios fit over different chords, play through the changes using those scales. So play through one scale and when a chord change comes that requires a scale change, switch to the nearest note in the new scale and continue on.
Combine exercises by playing up one and down another. Play up a scale and play the arpeggio back down. Play up one arpeggio and down another. Play one sequence up and another sequence down, etc.

The point is to find as many ways as possible to mix it up to keep things interesting and more importantly to keep your playing flexible rather than than tailored to a single exercise pattern that you won't use in real music.

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