“I’ve learned the 5 pentatonic boxes, now what?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Which, sadly, is an extremely<\/em> common question… so today I’m going to tackle the answer.<\/p>\n My guess is that someone, somewhere, told you that you needed them. And while that’s not totally untrue, it’s not totally correct either.<\/p>\n What you need is the pentatonic minor scale (which, with one additional note also is the minor blues scale) because it’s the quintessential sound of the blues. The “boxes<\/a>” are simply one way of compartmentalizing those notes into a way we can play them and find them easily.<\/p>\n So, let me be clear, the 5 boxes are a guitar<\/em> thing, not a music<\/em> thing. If you ask a piano player to play box 1 he’ll think you’re crazy.<\/p>\n Are there other ways to organize and remember the pentatonic and blues scales? You bet! But the boxes tend to be pretty common. In fact, my 4 note solo pattern is simply the top part of box 2.<\/p>\n Do you need all 5? Certainly not at first. In fact, of all the hundreds of solos I’ve transcribed from Albert King, SRV, Clapton, and others, box 1 and the extensions <\/a>(parts of boxes 2 and 5) seem to cover 80-90% of what gets used commonly.<\/p>\n In other words, if you aren’t making music with box 1, and maybe a little bit extra, the problem is not<\/em> that you need more notes!<\/p>\n In fact, what you need are the other 2 legs of the soloing tripod<\/a>, complete solos, and licks…<\/p>\n And a better understanding of how to use Rhythm Figures<\/a> in your blues lead playing (rhythm isn’t just for chords!)<\/p>\n So first, I’d suggest learning a complete solo<\/a> that uses nothing but box 1. And if you prefer it in a swing feel<\/a> I’ve got it that way too.<\/p>\n And then, maybe learn a few licks from great players like Peter Green<\/a>, or maybe learn one by Johnny Winter<\/a>, and maybe even some Clapton<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finally, make sure you take time to just try stuff over jam tracks. And if you need some tracks to play over, I have some great blues backing tracks<\/a> you can use to try stuff out.<\/p>\n Of course, if you want it all, all the time, the Blues Guitar Unleashed All Access Pass<\/a> is the most cost effective way to start and you can try it for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday I read a question on an online Facebook group about the 5 boxes which (basically) read… “I’ve learned the 5 pentatonic boxes, now what?” Which, sadly, is an extremely common question… so today I’m going to tackle the answer. First, let’s look at why you learned those 5 boxes, shall we? My guess is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7196"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8395,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7196\/revisions\/8395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Close-up-of-mans-fingers-playing-electric-guitar-471445888_5472x3648-300x200.png\")
First, let’s look at why you learned those 5 boxes, shall we?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/bluesguitarunleashed.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/iStock_000014640293XSmall-300x232.jpg\")
So what you have with the 5 boxes is 5 different ways to play the same 5 notes… no more, no less.<\/p>\n