Hi Lee,
thanks a lot for the very inspirational little book on pentatonic scale fluency. I really dig your writing style.
I am trying to break out of box 1, and have a question on what Fingers to use when „changing box“. Take, for instance exercise 1 on page 16, moving from Box 1 to 5 and back again. I would play 1st string 5th fret with the index finger, slide down to fret 3, where however I would usually use the middle finger for fret 3 in box 5. Of course I can now trivially use the pinky for fret 5 2nd string and then have adjusted to a „normal“ fingering for box 5. is that the right thing to do and strive for and the right way to think about it, or is this entirely case dependent?
another example for the same question is exercise 6 page 18, which to me seems more difficult: using normal fingering for box 2 i would use the middle finger on 2nd string 8th fret, then slide down to 5th fret. Then I would use the pinky to reach 3rd string 7th fret, then change from middle to index to play again 2nd string 5th fret.
So I guess my question in the various exercises is: after sliding up or down, should I more or less adjust unusual fingering to standard fingering for the box I am in now, or should I free myself from thinking box fingering and adjust case by case?
Maybe you could explain given the examples?
Thanks a lot, greetings from Munich, Germany
Thomas
Or maybe even change finger while sliding? Exercise 8 page 18 makes me wonder even more what the best fingering would be.
Hi Thomas.
There really is no right answer, at least not for this style of guitar playing. I’ve seen many great guitarists use very different fingering. I think you have to practice enough until you find the fingering method that works best for you. First find what works best for each position. Once you have that down then you could then spend weeks or months experimenting with transitioning between positions to find what works best.
I still come across things that I really struggle with, even with practice. When this happens I either just keep trying or sometimes I might give up and find a different way around it. What some people find really easy, others might find really difficult and vice-versa. It’s the main reason why I don’t include fingering in the TABS.
The exercises that you mention, I might use different fingering from one day to the next, although it would probably be quite similar to what I’m used to.
How I do it personally? If I have a particular fingering method for each scale pattern then I will probably stick with that same fingering most, if not all of the time. When I switch between positions I will adapt. This will usually mean sliding down using the finger I’m on at the time and then try to revert to my usual fingering as soon as practically possible. In the process my fingers might get a little awkward for a note or two until I’m back where I want to be. Obviously tempo will play a part here.
If it’s something fast then I would probably spend some time working with it until I find what works best. If I’m playing live, especially improvising, then things might go wrong for a bit and I fluff, or I might play it slightly differently, hang on a note for an extra beat to give my fingers some time to adapt.
Some people stick with the rule of “one finger per fret”. I do that as much as possible but I don’t make it a rule, it doesn’t always work for me, for others it works great. You should spend time trying them all and then decide what’s best for you. For most of us that play blues, rock etc., there’s no right or wrong.
If it helps, I’ve just run through those exercises to see how I would typically play them. I’ve uploaded the TABs below, hopefully you can view them OK (I don’t often include images here so not sure if they’ll resize), let me know if not.
Fingers: 1=Forefinger, 2=middle, 3=ring, 4=pinky
Hi Lee,
thank you very much indeed for the comprehensive answer and the TABs. Very interesting. What I have done so far is use the pinky more to stick to the one finger per fret approach. This is a great pointer to not only think outside of boxes but to also be more flexible in fingering. I feel like I (my brain) already made quite some progress after only a few days with that little book. Thanks again!
Thanks Thomas, glad you are getting something out of it.
Keep at it and just figure out what works best for you, the more you try the more flexible you get anyway.
Any more questions feel free to ask.
