A lot of times my students will learn box 1 (and maybe box 2) of the pentatonic scale really well…
But then when it comes to boxes 4 and 5… not so much.
There’s nothing wrong with boxes 1 and 2, and they will be your bread and butter. But there are times when you might want to see the boxes in a different way.
And when you use interval patterns, you will see that box 4 is equivalent to box 1, while box 5 is equivalent to box 2!
37 replies to "Pentatonics With Interval Patterns"
That’s a great shorthand at the very end of the video: 3rdWWW=minor; W3rd3rdW=Major. Love it. Thanks, as always, Griff. ;>)
Hi Griff
Every now and again you come across something, and you wonder why, itwas’t taught that way, in the first place.
Well done!
78 years old, and been with BGU for ever.
RGDS Unvarnished.
interesting take…thanks…later.
cowboy
Awesome information and VERY useful.
Great way to look at this Griff!
Thanks.
I know all 5 boxes well and never looked at them from the interval perspective. THANK YOU, Griff. This is really helpful. BTW, 70 and loving every minute of learning and playing.
Grif, I’m a little confused. Why dont we have to shift up a fret when we get to the B string in box one but we do in other boxes? How come in some patterns we shift back one fret on the hight E string and some patterns we dont?
I’ve been a student of Griff’s for several years now, and I still think the most important message from him was: “if you think you know the boxes well enough, you don’t.” One more great lesson to learn the boxes inside and out! Thanks Griff!
I laid the 4 over the 1 scale and the “small” differences jump out at you. Same for the 2- 5. These little observations make building scales, much easier. Thanks Griff.
I’m 85. as of August. 25. and counting. hope everyone can enjoy. music as long as I have.
Great lesson Griff. The more I think about it and practice it the easier it is to play.
By the way, as far as older players that use your web sight I’ll bet that there are as many
older players (say 60 and up) as there are younger ones. As for myself I’m 75.
Why not take a count and see?
I am 67 and have been playing for about 12 years. I just love the fact, especially during this pandemic that we can continue to grow our skills. Thanks Griff
65 and learning. Griff is the Zen truth teller and a great encourager!
65
70 and have learned more from Griff than anywhere else
75, been playing since I was 14. Never stop learning!
At 69, I might point out that the (actual) “Summer of Love” was punctuated by players who thought more about a “harmonious world-view” than they did practicing scales. Griff’s school of reasoning is that we can do better at both!
It’s ALL box 1. The numbered box concept confuses me. Intervals is what it’s ALL about.
I agree. It’s easiest for me to think of every box as Box 1 with the root on a different string. Accounting for the B string, the same recurring pattern is seen in all the boxes.
Absolutely! It’s always box 1. Plus it’s always the same pattern. 1-4, 1-3, 1-3, 1-3, 1-4. The first string just mimics the 6th string. I think of it as a toilet paper tube around the neck with the notes on it and as you move to a different string you turn the tube. Voila! BTW I’m 77 yrs old and still loving it!
Hi Griff. I may be your oldest follower at a young 68! I’m an ex-classically trained note reader who decided to abandon the rigid training and get into blues. You have helped me tremendously.
I have a bit simpler approach that works for me. When I want to start in position 4, I simply forget the 6th string exists. I move up and start my #4 box on string 5 at the F note and go from there. Everything else then seems to fall in place….including the 6th string should I decide to incorporate. That way I’m just thinking Box 4 and trying not to think once I get going. Everything just seems to fall into place. Make sense?
Many, many thx for an insight I have been looking to find for a very ling time. Life changing. Wish I knew this when I was much younger.
Just what I needed to get to the next step. I needed this that Griff….YATB!!!
I like it!
Very kewl….
Griff:My name is Casey. You have been my mentor since I got on line. I had played in the past, just chords. I know I wanted to learn leads, but didn’t know where to start. I bought the blues gig in a box. I think I learned box 1.(pretty easy). It took me forever to get a d.v.d. player to play the discs. Are there supposed to be live guitar instructions? Because I mainly have backing tracks and songs mainly. I also have a booklet. You have taught me a lot with your daily lessons. Thank you very much. You are a genious!
Sincerely,
Casey Brose
p.s. Keep us posted when you will play again….
You should have a bunch of DVDs and those are what you need for the instruction. That course is songs, you REALLY should go through Blues Guitar Unleashed either first, or at the same time, or it may seem really hard.
you know….I’m not a blues player. BUT, you are tying together all the bits and pieces I have learned very nicely. I just may have to subscribe yet.
Another arrow in my quill.
Harry
Your comment makes me quiver……..
Larry
Thanks, Griff! Really good information, as usual. Gotta go to my jam space and try this one out!
these lessons are to advanced for me can you bring the lessons down a bit
Alright good one . Intervals important point. There are also key notes to hang on. Three to be more in line . I believe that in time I will find them and it is in the intervals . Poor box 3 isn`t getting any love . This is not a poo poo lesson at all .
I was at a jam. Lots of guitars. Mostly beginner intermediate players. Since most of the players were playing similar chords all the same position, I was experimenting with different voicing. The moderator will call out a name for soloing. Right before the first bar he hollers “Anthony “. I was so far up the neck I was stuck. I did what you suggest. I found the root note on string 4. I I“felt”the box 1 pattern and safely went through the scale. My ears allowed me to copy sounds and bends from box 1. In the group we generally are only allowed one 12 bar solo so as to give others a chance. I was able to pull it off sounding like me. No one except me realized that I had just had an out-of-the-box experience. I had just gone up a notch higher in my intermediate. I learning phase. I’m thinking, thanks Griff.
Thanks Griff, I stumbled into the pattern box 1/ box 4 a few months ago when I was working on knowing where my root notes were. I noticed going toward the body off the root the pattern you showed repeated anywhere the root was. If you go one string above the root it’s the same fret spread ( third?) as off the root then it goes into the whole step pattern. Then the pattern toward the headstock from the root is whole step, with a whole step on the strings above and below the root string followed by the third? For two strings, then repeats the whole steps again. Hope that makes sense, it did in my head😎😁
Nicely done Griff! Over the years I have heard this explained in quite a number of different ways but most of them never really made sense to me. This explanation is the epiphany that I have been looking for. My Ah Ha moment. Thanks for turning on the light. Keep up the good work.
I agree with Dave. This was an Ah Ha moment for me too.
Intervals. Now that is cool. NEVER thought of it that way. Great tip Griff. Thanks.