Scales in music is a huge area. There are lots of good resources around. Here are my tips for other areas you should look at. (You never know, I might even get around to adding some of these resources to this site!)
It’s worth taking the time to learn healthy techniques for both your left and right hands.
There are lots of ideas around. One exercise that I give my students is the “mini scale”. They start with notes 1-3, and when they have mastered those notes, they add one note at a time until they can play the scale:
1 E |--------------------------|
2 B |--------------------------|
3 G |--------------------------|
4 D |----0--2--0---------------|
5 A |-3-----------3------------|
6 E |--------------------------|
1 E |--------------------------|
2 B |--------------------------|
3 G |--------------------------|
4 D |----0--2--3--2--0---------|
5 A |-3-----------------3------|
6 E |--------------------------|
1 E |---------------------------|
2 B |---------------------------|
3 G |-------------0-------------|
4 D |----0--2--3-----3--2--0----|
5 A |-3-----------------------3-|
6 E |---------------------------|
and so on.
There are many ways you can take the basic scale notes and weave them together in different combinations. Here is one example. It is based on pattern 1 with the “third” notes added (a musical third is 2 notes up in the scale from the previous note. In the scale of C major, C to E is a third; so are D to F, E to G and so on.)
1 E |---------------------------------------------|
2 B |----------------------------0-----1--0--3--1-|
3 G |----------------0-----2--0-----2-------------|
4 D |----2--0--3--2-----3-------------------------|
5 A |-3-------------------------------------------|
6 E |---------------------------------------------|
notes C D E F G A B C
E F G A B C D
We have only looked at the major scale here. The arpeggio, pentatonic and minor scales are other patterns that you should try out when ready.
By combining your scales you can play music that covers more than one octave. Here is one example to give you the idea. It combines pattern 2 and pattern 5. If you can already play these two patterns, the only detail of technique you need to consider is the fingering when you move from the first octave to the second and back. The shift is between 2nd position and 5th position, and it happens on string 3, so I have given the fingering for each note on that string.
(ascending)
1 E |-------------------------------------5--6--8--|
2 B |----------------------------5--6--8-----------|
3 G |----------------2--4--5--7--------------------|
4 D |-------2--3--5--------------------------------|
5 A |-3--5-----------------------------------------|
6 E |----------------------------------------------|
| 2nd position... | 5th position...
fingering: 1 3 1 3
(descending)
1 E |-8--7--5--------------------------------------|
2 B |----------8--6--5-----------------------------|
3 G |-------------------7--5--4--2-----------------|
4 D |-------------------------------5--3--2--------|
5 A |----------------------------------------5--3--|
6 E |----------------------------------------------|
| 5th position... | 2nd position...
fingering: 3 1 3 1
There are of course thousands of ways to do this. One simple idea is to play the melody line of any song using one specific scale pattern. An interesting example is the song “Doe, a deer” from the Sound of Music. (I have a basic version of this song on the Ultimate Guitar website, and plan to add a more detailed version to my own site soon.) Its thematic purpose in the musical is to teach the children what a major scale is. And so it uses exactly the same 8 notes of a major scale that we have been learning. To play it smoothly you will need to know your scale well. You could take a song like this and learn to play it with each of our 6 scale patterns.
All the best as you continue to work on your guitar skills.