Minor pentatonic and blues scale ~ everywhere! Part Four

We are beginning to pull it all together within part four of this series!

Once again, I include example licks so that you can immediately begin to solo and improvise in these positions.

We've only really learned two box positions; one from the 6th string and the other from the 5th string. However, by adding just a few notes and extending these boxes slightly you can now improvise and solo from the open position, gradually moving right up to your 15th fret.

Grab your guitar, tune up, and select play on this video:


If you are jumping straight into this tutorial without having worked through parts one, two and three, then the following diagram may seem confusing or overwhelming. If that is the case then I encourage you to begin this series at part one.

However, if you've worked your way through parts one to four then this diagram represents what we have covered:

Root notes are shown in grey and the blues note (flattened fifth) in blue.
Remember, the minor pentatonic contains only 5 notes, and the blues scale 6. This is therefore the same notes repeated across the neck.

Top Tips for remembering and knowing what we have covered
  1. Draw the above diagram yourself, ideally from memory - referring to the above only when you really need to. Click here to download some blank diagrams to use.
  2. Take a simple lick and learn it in each position across the neck. Here is an example, repeated in each position:
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--------0---2---3p2p0-----
---2--------------------------
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--------3---5---6p5p3-----
---5--------------------------
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-------------------------------



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--------5---7---8p7p5-----
---7--------------------------
-------------------------------



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--------8---10---11p10p8----
---9------------------------------
-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------



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----------10---12---13p12p10----
---12----------------------------------



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----------12---14---1514p12------
---14----------------------------------
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Two things every one of us needs to master are playing in time and playing in tune. The latter is simple nowadays, as electronic tuners are cheap and widely available. It's simply a case of tuning your guitar before you play it; every single time. I tune my guitar many times every day. It is a fallacy to think, "I tuned my guitar yesterday so it should be in tune" - which is the sort of thing I often hear students state.

With regard to playing in time, as with so many aspects of becoming a competant musician - it takes practice. You need to play along with something that is in time. Metronomes have there place and I encourage you to get one. They are very useful for being able to easily adjust the tempo. However, the sound they make is pretty uninspiring and often irritating. I use backing tracks as much as possible. 

Here is a simple backing track for you to use when practicing the above licks:




It's available for free download on my Backing Tracks page.
 Introduction to the major pentatonic scale 

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