Hi Graham,
I’m pretty new here, too, but it seems like your question is really the sweet spot for a lot of Brian’s lessons. I’m getting a lot out of his “jam by yourself” lessons or whatever they’re called. They consist of a chord progression, where you’ll play the caged chord in various places on the neck, and then there will be some room for a lick in between the chords. That will force you to really understand what you can play from where you are on the neck. You can create licks that cut across the positions, and then you’ll need to come back to the nearest caged chord after the lick.

Check out EP467 for an example. You can learn what Brian plays, but more importantly, you can use it as a framework to create your own fills.

Hey guys, and welcome to the forum. I’m a longtime member (7 years) and the “I need a plan” issue has been raised thousands of times here on the forum. The consensus has always been: Just pick some lessons you like, watch Brian’s video tutorials, and learn them. I knew nothing about playing guitar when I joined – no scales, no CAGED chords, and certainly no improv skills. One of the first things I did was to learn several acoustic blues lessons, then begin to cut and paste licks from one to another to create my own hybrid blues songs. Then little by little, I took the licks I had learned and just modified them slightly, maybe by just changing a note or two. Very early on I realized the importance of becoming familiar with all the pentatonic scale positions, and learning which notes in those positions would work for bends. That knowledge (for me) came with just continuing to learn more and more lessons. Of the nearly 500 lessons Brian has produced, I have probably memorized around 60% of them at some time in the past. How many can I recall now? Maybe 10 – 20. But that doesn’t matter, because what I have retained is a detailed knowledge of the fretboard, knowledge of how phrasing works, and most of all, the ability to put on a jamtrack and just grab my guitar and play whatever comes into my head. So my advice is to just dive in and start learning some lessons. You will learn what you need to learn just by osmosis, and have fun doing it.

Hi guys, I’ll second what Sunjamr says here. Just jump in an start learning as many lessons as you can, and the knowledge you seek will come in time. There’s no quick path to it, it’s just repetition over time. The only thing I’ll add is that putting on a backing track and noodling with pentatonic or major scales will teach you a lot too. At first it will be awful and either sound like scales or like random wandering. But as you learn more of Brian’s lessons and become familiar with some licks and get the sound of phrases into your head, you’ll find places they fit in other backing track. “Hey, that lick from lesson EPXXX works great here in this backing track”, or “Oh, here’s a nice phrase… now leave a little space and repeat it when the chord changes”, etc. Listen a lot to other players you like and become familiar with their phrasing. It’s not so much something you learn in a lesson, but discover and improve as you DO IT again and again. We’re all at various points in the same journey, so welcome to AM and have fun discovering!

– EP-130

Hi Graham,
What others have said above is correct: “knowing” a scale in every possible neck position is useless until you start to make music with them!
However, I suspect you will find the “just do it and it will come eventually” advise a little unsatisfactory 😉
So here are my suggestions to organize the learning process a little:

1. Learn the “octave pattern”. When you pick a note (any note) on the fingerboard, all the occurrences of that very same note (possibly at different octaves) form a pattern which is at the heart of the so-called CAGED system. Everything you do on the guitar depends on this.
You have to know this pattern and you have to be able to instantly visualize it whenever you play a note and whenever you change notes. It has to become second nature.

2. Connect the notes of the octave pattern
When you are able to visualize all the occurrences of a given note on the fingerboard, try to go from one of these occurrences to another occurrence using a major scale.
For example: start with the note E (5th string 7th fret) and target the note E (1st string 12th fret) using only notes from the F Major scale (or any other scale you choose). Then do it again using the A Major scale. Etc.
Obviously, the notes have to be part of the scale you pick.
Don’t rush; on the contrary: this needs to be a slow and totally conscious process.

3. Use the major scale(s)
Spend a lot of time inventing and playing musical phrases consisting of few notes (3 to 6); be critical and ask yourself whether you like what you just played or not. If not, modify that phrase until you are happy. You can also take a riff you have heard or you have found in Brian’s lessons and try to play it as such in different positions on the neck.

4. When you are sufficiently competent at the exercises above, start all over with the harmonic minor scale (not the natural minor scale!).

…be prepared to spend A LOT of time on these exercises!
Good luck and, above all, have fun!
JM

Hi Graham,
Some great advice above, especially learning roots all over the neck. I would add this. See your major and minor chord (and 7th versions) within their major or minor pentatonic boxes. You might actually notice that the major chords of the CAGED system connect root to root. Learn what interval each note of the chord represents. Break those chords into triad pieces, especially on the higher string sets. See how licks are formed around the chord shapes and the pentatonic box they are contained within (Brian’s lessons are great for this).
John

My advice is somewhat different form the above, although I don’t disagree with what’s been said. From what you have said, I would start with Brian’s lessons on limiting yourself to only a few notes. I think there are at least a couple of them where there are solos with only four or five notes.

At the same time, I would try the Barney Kessel approach. Put on a backing track you like, and for a few isolated measures, sing something that comes to your mind. Just a short phrase over those measures. I would start with two measures, or at most four. Then go back and try to play what you sang.

These two things will do a couple of things for you which are essential but often overlooked by guitar players. The limiting to four notes will force you to think about phrases and phrasing. The singing will do the same, and it will also start to connect your ear (and your inner voice) to the guitar itself. It will simplify what you are doing, give natural breathing space to what you play, and help you to develop your own voice.

Another thing I recommend is to learn melodies. When you hear a song you like and want to play, figure out how to play the melody on the guitar. Learn it everywhere. Since melodies of songs tend to be so connected to voice, its much more likely that you will try to imitate vocal timing and inflection, which will make whatever you play sound more musical and less mechanical.