I am not a beginner and understand music theory to a reasonable extent but your method has me lost ! You say that the 5 pentatonic box patterns are not the way to learn the scales and instead ask us to learn scale fragments around the root ! OK so far but then you go on about joining box 1 to box 5 etc ! So what is it? Do we ignore the 5 box shapes or what. ? YOU HAVE ME TOTALLY LOST ! Also how does showing us minor chord forms on page 22 fit into your method as this just involves moving chords up and down the neck ?
Ken
c
The common patterns are still worth learning but what I’m getting at in the book is it’s not how we really use them. They are generally taught as five scale patterns using all six strings – this can cause problems. If we learn them all starting from the sixth string (the common method) it means that each box pattern will start on a different root note. This might not be so difficult if we only ever play in one key. If however we want to be more fluent in all twelve keys then it becomes messy, instead of just concentrating on the root note we would need to which box pattern starts on which note in every key.
For example, let’s say I ask you to play box 3 in the key of Eb – how quickly could you find it? What about box 5 in C? And so on. Some you might find quickly if you’ve practised them a lot, others will make you pause and think, maybe get flustered and mess up if you’re playing live.
The ideas in the book are all about being able to play the scale anywhere on the neck and join up various scale positions in a less chaotic way, i.e., learn the notes on the fretboard and learn how the scales are situated around the root note.
The minor chords on page 22 are related to box 1 and 4. It shows how the six string minor chord and five string minor chord overlay box 1 and 4 of the minor pentatonic. The point here is that a lot of guitarists can usually find these chord shapes quickly in the common keys, probably up to the seventh fret, mostly because they get used a lot in many songs. This just gives us more guides. In other words I could ask a bunch of intermediate guitarists to play E minor pentatonic box 4. I could also ask the same lot to play the E minor bar chord at the 7th fret, fifth string. More of them would be able to find the chord quicker than the scale. This is simply because they don’t think of the chord and scale being very closely related. In other words, use what you might already know to help you find things more quickly.
When I’m playing the minor pentatonic scale, I know the box patterns but don’t really use them, as such. If I focused solely on the common patterns then my ideas would become very limited and it would take me longer to find my way around the neck. Learning to join them up and see them as a whole will make everything much easier and should make your solos sound better.
The ideas in the book really just show you how to think differently. Thinking in terms of the five box patterns alone will inevitably lead to a limited style of playing. We don’t, let’s just say, play around in box 1 for a bit, move up to box 2 or 3 and then back again etc just to add some variety to our solo – it would be pointless, may as well just stay in one position – the majority of the notes would be in the same octave anyway.
So what do you learn? I say learn as much as you can. Learn the five positions, it can’t hurt, learn the fragments, learn the notes, practice playing around the root, try to find how and where the minor chords overlap – the more you know the better simply because you will come up with more interesting ideas but most of all, be able to find your way around the fretboard quickly in any key.
Hope that helps a bit? Feel free to keep coming back and asking questions if not.
Thank you for your extensive reply but I am having trouble understanding what you are saying ! Maybe it’s me being thick I will look at your reply again tomorrow , clearly you really do know your stuff but bearing Iin mind what you are teaching you may need to revisit your explanation and simplify your explanations ! Perhaps version 2 of your book could make things clearer ! Its one thing to know but another to be a good teacher! Again thank you for at least trying to give an understandable explanation please however look at things again from the aspect of the student , best wishes Ken
It’s difficult to know how far to go with explanations. If I put too much info then it will please some and not others – too little and it’s the same problem. Check out the reviews on most of the books on Amazon and you’ll see that problem.
I try to solve that in two ways. First I make it clear in the description that the book is for intermediate guitarists – secondly I offer these question and answers for anybody to ask something if they’re not following. It’s really the best I can do. The problem I guess is what does intermediate mean? There are varying levels of opinions on that so it’s a bit difficult. What I think you should already know is just a guess, we all learn differently.
I have another book in the pipeline which kind of follows on from this one with workouts and exercises, a bit more advanced, and maybe next year I’ll write a beginner one.
There will always be things that cause confusion, I had the same problem for a good few years with my playing. A teacher friend of mine always used to say “you have to learn the notes on the fretboard” – I just couldn’t see how that could have possibly helped with my problem so didn’t try hard bothering. When I finally did do it, everything changed – it’s one of those things that you just can’t fully appreciate until you do it.
Learning all of the notes takes a lot of time, that’s why I say stick to one key only until you start to get light bulb moments, it’s difficult to learn all of the notes but quite easy to learn just one … the note “A” for example.
I know you are still not getting it and that’s OK, not everyone will, but don’t give up asking until you get it. Give me some idea of where you’re at or even send me a recording or video if you can. If I can pinpoint the main area that you are struggling with then I’ll hopefully be able to answer. If it’s something that needs a long explanation then it might not warrant a new book – I can just write a new article here on the website, it all helps.
