Hi Stephen,

Say you want to play in A (minor).
The very first thing to do is to locate all the occurrences of the note A on the finger board. Please observe the characteristic zig-zag pattern formed by all these A’s.
One of those A’s is located at the 5th fret of the 6th string. Visualize and play the lower 5 notes of the A minor pentatonic starting from that A (what Brian calls “pattern 1”).

The second thing to realize is that you can play those exact same notes (the exact same pattern) starting from any of the A’s you located in step 1. (Please do this!). However, you will have to adapt the pattern to accommodate the tuning anomaly of the 2nd string (iow if a note of the pattern lands on the 2nd string you need to shift it up one fret).

Now take the upper half of “pattern 1”, and do the same: play it starting from any A on the fingerboard (always be aware of the changes introduced by that B string).
In fact, when you play the two parts of “pattern 1”, you actually play the same set of notes twice, in two different octaves.

You should now begin to see that all these patterns are connected. This is how you move around the finger board.

If you do the same exercise for, let’s say, the note D, you’ll find all the occurrences of the D minor pentatonic all over the fingerboard.

I strongly recommend getting familiar with the zig-zag pattern (also called octave pattern) first, before anything else. The reason is that it is at the heart of CAGED. Everything else (major scales, minor scales, pentatonic scales, arpeggios, triads, …) depend on your ability to visualize all the occurrences of the note you are currently playing while you are playing it.
In the attachment, I have mapped the A’s and the D’s. See how the pattern is the same, but shifted?

I hope this helps.

Stephen,
Jean-Michel is very wise in telling you that much of the key to guitar is locating root notes all over the fretboard. Keep one thing in mind, though. The pentatonic scale only has 5 notes. Those 5 notes are just repeated in all the 5 box patterns for a given key of the minor pentatonic. Although each pattern offers some different opportunities for hammer-ons, bends and slides much of the music can be made within box 1 and box 2. Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others spent the majority of their careers there.
My suggestion is to slow down. Concentrate on learning where the roots are in box 1 and 2. Learn where the minor 3rds and flat 7’s are, they give the character of the minor pentatonic. Learn how to make musical phrases in those boxes that make sense with the chord changes over a 12 bar blues. Maybe even start to see how a little major pentatonic can be included in the phrases in box 1. Once you are really comfortable with this you could expand into box 4 and even learn the extended box 1 and box 4 patterns.
As you become more familiar with note location on the fretboard, CAGED shapes and triads, things will start to integrate but this all takes time and effort. It may take some years but, eventually, it is possible to see all these boxes and move from one to another on any string. Just don’t try to learn it all at once.
John

Oh, trust me, I feel it too!
John

No, there are only 5 pentatonic patterns on the neck, which fret/string you start on defines which key/scale you are playing in.
All the notes in the 5 patterns are as John said are the same and rise by a half step as you play through the patterns till you reach the 12th fret where it goes up an octave.

Stephen J wrote:

I understand the first position in any key gives you the minor scale and if you move up 3 frets it gives you the major scale

I think you meant to say “if you move down 3 frets it gives you the major scale”. Moving the same pattern toward the peg head is moving down.

Mark H wrote:

Stephen J wrote:

I understand the first position in any key gives you the minor scale and if you move up 3 frets it gives you the major scale

I think you meant to say “if you move down 3 frets it gives you the major scale”. Moving the same pattern toward the peg head is moving down.

Isn’t that what he meant, moving three frets to the neck (up or down however you see it) will give the major to the relative minor..

To move the same pattern from the root to three frets down takes you from the minor pentatonic to the major pentatonic scale.

The only reason I mentioned it was the original post was incorrect in saying it was major to minor. The opposite is true.

I’m pretty late to this party but I don’t hang out online much. Who has time for friends? Haha. Ok that wasn’t funny. Here’s what I find Stephen. If you just google major scale patterns and natural minor scale patters and print out a sheet of each, you will notice that they use the same patterns, just not in the same position. For example, a major scale pattern 5 is the same as minor scale pattern 1 (on the sheets I downloaded anyway). What I like to do is play the scale patterns and count to myself the note numbers, not the note names. That teaches me easily the steps between notes, which actually makes it easy to move from pattern to pattern without just going from box to box. After a while you remember where the tonic notes are in each pattern, so you can always slide on up from pattern two to 4 for example and get right to where you need to be. Now in the major scale, just leave out the 4th and 7th and there you have your pentatonic. For minor you leave out the 2nd and 6th for the pentatonic. If you are practicing a major scale and want to turn it into a minor scale, just leave out the 2nd and 6th and flatten the 3rd and 7th. The problem with learning music is there is no end. For example, the relative minor to a major is a natural minor (I think) and there are melodic minor and harmonic minor scales as well as exotic scales. Then there’s different tunings, and on and on. It can drive a person crazy. I think this website was a great find. Justinguitar is another. I’ve probably learned more in the last 3-4 years of Brian’s lessons than I had in all the live instructors I’ve tried locally here. Not all good players are good teachers. Brian is an exception.

Anonymous wrote:

Not all good players are good teachers. Brian is an exception.

There reverse is also true…