beyond box positions

7/30/2019 Beyond Box Positions

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problem is, onceyouve got a few of those trusty pen-tatonic positions under your fingers, itseems like you cant get away fromthem. Were going o look at some waysto get out of the box, that is, to exit the


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as a diagonal approach to the scale. In the 6rstfingering of Gminor pentatonic (Ex. 2a), theroots, or Gs, show up on the sixth, fourth, andsecond strings. In the second fingering (Ex. 2b),the roots show up on the fif th , third, and firststrings. In both fingerings, the root is played byeither your pinky or ring finger.

Ex. 2a

Ex. 1

There are several advantages to using the se

Exe 2b

fingerings. The firs t is that there are only twofingerings to remember, instead of the fi veboxes located along the neck. The second isthat these fingerings are designed to empha-size the roots o f the scale, helping you to stayoriented when you improvise and to see the fret-board in terms of octaves and thus under-stand it better. Finally, you are now usingalmost the same fingerings to play minor pen-tatonic in every register, which makes trans-posing licks and moving from register to reg-ister much easier.

-.Ex. 3

G7


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Ex. 6 G7

chordyoureplayingover cango a ongwaytowardselegraphingthechangeso the is-tenersear-even more so than playing heroot. Most peopleuseminor pentatonic oplay over he blues,whichmeanshat on theI chord oure layingminorpentatonic gainsta dominant-7thchord of the same oot. Inotherwords,on a Gblues, oureplayingBb,the ,3 n the key of G, aspart of the G-minorpentatonic cale, verG7,which ncludes B$,the43 in the key of G.Ex. 6 shows neway ofaddingB4 o a G-minor ick usingahammer-on.With the diagonalingeringshismove srelativelyeasy o work n throughout he ret-board,onceyour brain and ingers rasp hebasic dea.This approachcan alsobe appliedovertheV chord,by addingts tl3 o the onicminorpentatonicscale.For example,n a G bluesthe V is 07, and the k3 of 07 is F#. Ex. 7includes ammer-onso F#wlthina G-minorpentatonicscale t the 14th ret on the high-Estring n measure , andat the 1 th fret onthe Gstring n measure.Three at once


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a handful of triad-based moves from I to IVasyou ascend the neck By starting at measure 2,youcouldalsousetheseliclcstoget~mIvbackto I. Ex. 12 is aseries f moves rom I to V asyou descendn position,dressed p with afew slickchromaticmoves.Note the numer-oushalf-stepslidesnto either B4 over he Ichord)or F# over heV chord), he chromaticmoveof 3-4-#4-5 t the beginning fmeasure2, and he classic luesmoveof root-2+3-43at the beginning f measure .RunwithitLets eturn to the pentatonicscale owwiththisarpeggiatedpproachn hand o seewhatwe can urn up.Ex. 13 isa particularlyexcel-lent I-IV maneuver n whichyou begin n Gminor pentatonic for the I chord and thenslide p nto a C7arpeggio,pelling ut the V7chord.Thismove s hen epeatednoctave p.In measuresand4,beginwith aslidento E4,the q3 f C7,ollowed y G,C,anda, the5, oot,and j,7 of the chord. Measures1 and 3 arestrictly otesromyouroldpal heG-minor en-tatonicscale.

Ex. 14 is also Cmly rootedn Gminorpen-

Ex.8 Ex.9G c D

Ex.10 G7


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Ex. 12 G

D

anticipates the return to the I chord inmeasure 7; after hitting Gat the 8th fre t on theB string, theres a cool jump to the same noteat the 12th fret on the G string, which kicksof f a descending minor-pentatonic run thatcontinues through the end of measure 8.Measure 9 features a D-major triad with achromatic passing tone between the 2 and 3.Measure 10 begins with a C7 lick, similar to

G measure 5, before a G-major triad leads intomeasure 11, another descending G-minorpentatonic run. Theres more G-minor pen-tatonic in measure 12, but the addition ofF# lets you groove over the V chord in stylebefore the slide into B4 that marks the return

/7 0 L/-l ? < 1 to Gin the last measure. RT 7 n 7 ?l/A--,A I? ?A -IA ,c *c-caI I I I,

Ex. 13 G7 c7 llt


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D7 c7 G7 D7 G7

beyond box positions

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