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Actually memorizing? I don’t think there are any shortcuts for that; just play them over and over, find musical uses for them. Of course, as George mentioned, Brian’s blues course is a good source of patterns.
You may have already noticed this, so I’ll sound like a pedant, but the top notes of pattern 1 are the bottom notes of pattern 2, all the way up. The top notes of pattern 5 are the bottom notes of pattern 1.
Don D.
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I practice all 5 positions SUPER slow at least 15 min a day with a slow 12 bar blues jam track in A. I have done this for the last 5 days! I hope to keep it up as I have really seen improvement in my muscle memory.
I practice each pattern separate then connect them all in a giant scale. I go up and down the whole neck. I don’t think there is a short cut.
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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Just to be devil’s advocate. You certainly need to know Box 1, but for boxes 2, 3 and 4 you would rarely solo with other than the notes contained on the highest 3 strings. Hardly any soloing is done in box 4. It is very important to know the B.B. box variation for box 3 and if you include higher version of the box 1 major pentatonic, you’ve got everything you need. It is also neat to know how to connect the long minor pentatonic scale up to the high notes in Box 2 and the long major pentatonic scale into the B.B box variation of Box 3. With all the above you could pretty much cover the guitar neck and do all the licks you could ever need.
John -
Good morning. After reading all the advise I’ve been sent It’s finally starting to click. I just finished lesson LEG024 on the minor and major pattern 1 scales. I also have been working on EP130: Mixing the major and minor scales.
My first question is how many different scale patterns is it necessary to know? Charjo says that scale pattern 1 is what most people use. Where can I find a caged chart for how to finger the chords up the neck? What defines the five positions on the neck? What other lessons would you recommend for me next? Thanks a lot!
David P.
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@David P, I said that many licks come out of the minor pentaonic Box 1, but although we go to great lengths to memorize Boxes 2-5, in truth, we usually only use notes out of those boxes on the higher 3 strings. Sometimes I feel one might be better served to learn Box 1 and the partial boxes I described and really know what intervals you are playing in those boxes and where major pentatonic notes can be found in relation to Box 1 and the partial boxes.
I think when you are talking about a CAGED system you are referring to something else, related to the Major scale. The CAGED system refers to different voicings of a major chord within a key. It breaks the fretboard up into 5 box shapes for the major scale. Within each box there is a chord shape for the chord, ie. a C-shape, A-shape, G-shape, E-shape, D-shape. It can help you learn different voicings for a given major chord and help you locate root notes all around the fretboard. Each box is also the “Box 1” for each of the 7 modes (2 of the 5 boxes do double duty). You can google CAGED system or search on YouTube for many lessons. For theory, I like a site called fretjam.com
John -
Remember that the boxes themselves are only partials of the pentatonic scales in those positions. One of the reasons that people only tend to play certain positions on higher strings is because that’s where they do their practice. It’s worthwhile to try to extend the boxes, so that you are playing the full scale in each of the positions. The only one that doesn’t fall naturally under the fingers is the scale in the Box 3 position, that involves a stretch of the index finger, or a position switch.
Here’s one reason why learning the extended positions is a good idea. Suppose you are playing with a singer, and the song needs to be shifted to the key of Eb. If you only know the upper strings, and the bass on Box 1, you would not be able to do anything in the lower registers at all. That might work, but its not optimal.
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@Duffy P, I think we’re talking about the same thing, here. If you know box 1 and the higher registers of the other boxes PLUS utilize the extended major and minor pentatonic scales starting at the root note in box 1 on the sixth string you are covering the lower register notes. For completeness, there is another pair of major and minor extended scales starting at the root note in box 4 on the 5th string.
I’m just saying that we tend to learn all the full pentatonic boxes but in reality we don’t really use them that way.
John -
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