BB Box confusion

PapaBear

PapaBear

Guit Fiddlier
paleoblues said:
Nor did I say BB called it his own. But he "mastered" it (i.e. made it "his own") to the point that we attribute it to him and call it the "BB Box".:)

(And I was just rhetorically pondering how guitarists referred to concepts like boxes before there were concepts like boxes. We refer to Griff's house pattern and BB's Box. How did "old timers" communicate these ideas? That's a subject I would be interested in researching.)



It's actually the 12456 of the Major scale. It lacks the all important Major 3rd (which would complete the Major Pentatonic), which we get by bending the 2 up a whole step. If we also bent the 6 up a whole step up to 7 we would have the complete Major scale.

If we bent the 6 up a half-step rather than a whole step (b7) we would have the complete Mixolydian.

But "unaltered" it lacks the 3 & 7 of the Major and the 3 &b7 of the Mixolydian.

And I just remembered that BB himself put out an instructional video years ago. Perhaps we should track it down and get the skinny from the man himself.:sneaky:
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As I stated "it was a"piece of a mixolydian scale" if playing in the mixolydian mode (not saying BB did, I just heard him refer to it as a piece of a mixolydian scale in an interview) the 5 of the scale would be the most important note
 
Paleo

Paleo

Life Long Learner
PapaBear said:
As I stated "it was a"piece of a mixolydian scale" if playing in the mixolydian mode (not saying BB did, I just heard him refer to it as a piece of a mixolydian scale in an interview)
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Got it. Since the chords are all Dominant 7 chords you would consider the mode and "major scales" over them as Mixolydian (Major w/b7) rather than "pure" Major.

In that case you would consider the 12456 "box" as a "piece of the mixolydian scale". Actually, all of it but the b7.

Since the box doesn't have the b7, I just considered it Major and wondered why you considered it Mixolydian. (You didn't originally say that he said it was. You said that's what it was considered "pre BB".)

Regardless, it was a momentary lapse on my part, not realizing we're talking about Dominant 7 chords and therefore the Mixolydian mode/scale.

I stand corrected.

You'd think I'd never heard of the 12 Bar Blues Progression before.:)
 
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david moon

david moon

Attempting the Blues
Maybe I'm missing something.

If you look at the "house" as built around a Dm7 shape, the root is on the B string toward the bridge.

so a Em house would be
root 2nd string 5th fret
b3 1st string 3rd fret
4 1st string 5th fret
5 1st string 7th fret or 5th fret whole step bend
b7 2nd string 3rd fret
5 3rd string 4th fret

that same house could be a major G house (E shape)

Root on 1st string fret 3
2 on 1st string Fret 5
Bend 1st string fret 5 1/2 step to b3 or whole step to 3
6 on 2nd string fret 5
5 on 2nd string fret 3
3 (major) on 3rd string fret 4

Which is just another way of saying that every major chord has a relative minor
 
Paleo

Paleo

Life Long Learner
david moon said:
Maybe I'm missing something.

Which is just another way of saying that every major chord has a relative minor
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You are most definitely correct that each Major house is also it's relative minor house, but..........

We are discussing Parallel Major and Minor, in this case switching between the A Major and A minor sounds.

In your example it would be like starting in Em and going to E Major, rather than staying in the same house and changing the root to G (Major).

(Summary of the discussion so far)

1) Move the same Box up or down 3 frets. (Ex: Am Box 1 down 3 frets = A Major).

2) Or staying in position and combining two consecutive boxes.
(Ex: Am Box1 and A Major Box 2 = Composite, as in the "Stitch" video which combines minor Box 3 and Major Box 4, which he calls the BB Box. This is equivalent to taking the Major house, bending the 2 up to b3 and 3 and adding the b5 = 1 2 b3 3 4 b5 5 6. He doesn't mention the b7, but you could add that in as well. You then have all notes except b2,b6,7.)

3) But we also have the unique case where minor box 2 has the same shape (house) as Major Box 4 (on the 3 top strings), with one exception, the Major 3rd which is 1 fret lower on the 1st string. However, we can get this note by bending the 2. So in this case we can move the minor house up 2 frets to Major and have the exact same note as the root in each. Played with 2nd finger in the minor and the 1st finger in the Major. These 2 "houses" actually overlap.

This is also addressed in "Soloing Without Scales" by moving the "4 Note Solo Pattern" 2 frets, retaining the same root. It's just the house without the "roof".

It's worth it to compare the "Killer Blues" Solo, the BB bonus in BGU and the BB solo from "Solos From The Masters." Griff uses a different one of the 3 approaches in each of these 3 solos.

If for some reason you wanted to go from A Major to it's relative minor, F#m or from A minor to its'
relative Major, C your approach would be correct; play the same box from different roots.

As opposed to playing the same root in different boxes = Parallel.
 
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david moon

david moon

Attempting the Blues
Well that's going to take some time to absorb.

I know I have "solos from the Masters", not sure about BB bonus but I have BGU, don't know about "Killer Blues".
 
Paleo

Paleo

Life Long Learner
david moon said:
I know I have "solos from the Masters", not sure about BB bonus but I have BGU, don't know about "Killer Blues".
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Just to clarify.

The BB "bonus" is one of the "Lessons From The Masters" that came with BGU. Griff combines Methods 1 & 2 above.
"Solos From The Masters" is a subscription, BB is month 5. Griff stays in 1 position, ala Method 2 above.
"Killer Blues Solos Made Easy" is a course where Griff discusses the minor "house" and moves it up to the Major "house" for one of his "all-time favorite BB licks", Method 3 above. (Which I demonstrated in a video somewhere earlier in this thread.)

I also just started the Clapton "Lesson From The Masters". The first thing Griff discusses is moving Major Box 1 up 3 frets to minor Box 1, Method 1 above.
 
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