I’m not sure how else to put it… but most of us learn the “boxes” of the pentatonic/blues scale in a way that… isn’t actually all that useful to us in the heat of battle (during an actual solo.)
It’s not our fault, it’s how we have to learn them at first. But the problem lies in the fact that, once we get past the first box/pattern, most of us don’t focus on root notes and learn how to use the boxes as scales.
In most cases, they are little more than finger exercises at that point!
Of course, there is a better way. It’ll seem really confusing at first because I’m asking you to look at things differently.
You’re not learning anything new, the 5 boxes never change, the only thing that will EVER have to change is how you look at them…
… think about that for a minute, because it’s very powerful.
Grab your guitar, and follow along with me and you’ll (hopefully) see what I mean fairly quickly.
Filmed Live, pardon the few seconds in the beginning… skip ahead 20 seconds or so to get to the meat of it.
Here’s the Blues Scale Trainer Tool
43 replies to "You Might Be Practicing Your Boxes Wrong"
Thanks Griff! A real game changer. I had previously learned (minor pent) that the 5th string was Pattern #4; 4th string was #2, 3rd string # 5, 2nd string #3….more importantly, now I realize that string 5 can also pattern 3 going to the left…and that each root can movie either right or left of the tonic. Thanks again!
HOW TOTALLY FREAKIN COSMIC I was definitely meant to get this email/lesson today as what’s being taught in it is exactly what I’ve been knocking on the door of lately just thru playing every day and improvising where the configurations seem to be coming thru and registering in my brain on their own quite organically but now along comes this lesson to put it all together THANKS yet again Griff!
Nice lesson! Knowing where in the pentatonic pattern the minor root or major root is so important. If you know those ten you also know where the sixth degree is in major pentatonic and flat third in minor pentatonic. That leaves only three other notes to get down in this way. When I first started learning the boxes I thought this is going to be confusing for me. I stated analyzing the pattern and between on my own and the internet gravitated to more of a string fragment approach where it’s really seen as one pattern. The left and right facing ideas are a natural part of that as are root locations and it then extends nicely to incorporating intervals. When I stated looking at CAGED with a main emphasis on root locations.
Hi Griff,
Fab lesson, being left handed , my left facing and right facing are the other way around!!!, is there a left hand trainer tool available please?
Regards,
Len.
I have finally gotten around to using the FlashCards and was having a difficult time remembering what scale was right or left on which string (64-year-old brain). Then I wrote it out on a piece of paper and had an ah-ha moment. After practicing it after my discovery I was spot on and it’s easy to remember. Here it is for Minor Pentatonic/Blues Scale Only:
Start on string #1 down to string #6, working left box to the right box and the root note falls on that particular string, the box #’s are as follows;
String #1 5 – 1
String #2 2 – 3
String #3 4 – 5
String #4 1 – 2
String #5 3 – 4
String #6 5 – 1
Ray, I’m confused. Assuming String 1 is the high E, what is the 5 referring to and what is the 1? I assume Left box is the position 1 box?
I think Ray means that, if your root falls on the 1st string, your left-facing box is #5 and your right-facing box is #1. For root note on 2nd string, left-facing box is #2, right-facing box is #3, etc. He’s just addressing the interlocking nature of the boxes that enables you to go ‘left’ or ‘right’ from a root note on any string.
Totally confused. Can you give some simpler explanations of what you are telling us_
You are 100% correct never thought about looking at it that way. Great tool to learn from also.
Griff, just as you said, start on the high notes to lower notes when soloing in blues. Starting to the right or left of root
when using pentatonic soloing makes sense. Great explanation of how to use the boxes. Your solo at the beginning of the video sounds like youre playing a touch of gris gris and voo doo, New Orleans sounds. Great Stuff.
“keep the music playing”
Great lesson AND tool! Very helpful. One suggestion I’ll just toss out there… hitting the “hint” button not only reveals the correct box, but also the NAME of the correct box ( “box 1”, etc.). Just adds a little more clarity for those of us still learning to identify them. THANKS!!
Seems like a simple explanation of this is just know where the root notes are in each box. I wasn’t stumped by the example because I knew this, but my problem is once I’m beyond the notes on the sixth (and first) strings, I don’t know many of the note names. So when you say left facing scale starting on fourth string, I knew it was box 1, but if you say play a C minor pentatonic starting on the fourth string, I have to count the notes up from D to find a C… So I know what I need to learn.
I have never been able to memorize all the boxes. I tried and tried but, as you say Griff, it just became a finger exercise and it confuses me.
I can remember the visual patterns of #1 only but the other 4 are not in my visual memory bank at all. I still use them, however.
I just visualize the same patterns of intervals (either 2 frets or 3 frets) beginning on the root notes of of the root(s).
I’ve concluded that there is really only 1 set of interval patterns to memorize which is much easier for my brain to get around than 5 boxes. I just had to learn where the root notes are on each string. I still couldn’t tell you which box # I’m in, except for #1 or maybe #5 if I stopped to think about it. I just think of them all as box-1 starting on the root of the different strings.
Great lesson! After playing for 60 + years,I’ve learned more from your videos and courses I’ve purchased from you. Keep bring them! Thank you very much!
I get the right facing and left facing concept however I need a lot more work on my scales to use it well. More practice. I have been avoiding it due to a nagging elbow injury…I am more motivated now and starting to work on lessons. I have my BGU CD’s on my desk waiting to be used. On my way!
Chris G again – it’s a slow, rainy day… Griff laments that too few students actually USE the Blues Scale Trainer Tool – guilty! I’ve seen it and tried it once or twice and I agree it’s a great tool. From today I promise I will use it LOTS (shortcut has been added to PC desktop).
But many people will think there are too many different patterns to learn.
That’s not true – try these tricks. First, select Minor and leave it there until you know all your Minors; that cuts the possibilities in half.
Then you need to understand that there are ONLY TWO correct answers for the Root note on each string. One is Left-facing and the other is Right-facing; For the Root on the 1st string, Box 5 faces Left and Box 1 faces Right.
For the Root on the 2nd string, Box 2 faces Left and Box 3 faces Right.
For the Root on the 3rd string, Box 4 faces Left and Box 5 faces Right.
For the Root on the 4th string, Box 1 faces Left and Box 2 faces Right.
For the Root on the 5th string, Box 3 faces Left and Box 4 faces Right.
6th string, same as the 1st.
All of the above is MINOR only. Major is different but just as simple.
If you need to LEARN WHERE to find the notes on the guitar, search “blues guitar unleashed finding notes” to find Griff’s lesson from the Soloing Without Scales course – it’s on YouTube.
Cheers. Finally, it’s Beer O’Clock.
Chris, this was really helpful, thanks tons!
Hi Griff. That solo at the beginning sure sounds a lot like “Ain’t No Sunshine” – cool tune.
I’m seeing you do something that I’ve seen you do elsewhere and want to ask about it. At about the 36 second mark you do a little slide up-and-back from the 9th fret on the third string up to the 10th fret and back to the 9th; 9-10-9, then a bar or two later you do the same move on the second string at the 5th fret 5-6-5; then a bit later you do it again on the fourth string at the second fret 2-3-2. Each time that’s E-F-E. It looks and sounds to me like you are playing in B (so, B Minor pentatonic), which means E-F-E is 4-b5-4 or 4 up to Blue note and back.
It sounds really good – have I got it right? And regardless of whether I got it right, I reckon it’s a great little move that you should do a video for because it would make a very nice lesson.
Cheers from Sunny Oz, where it’s been raining lately.
Chris G.
How is it A minor all over the neck?
Because it is the same notes all over the neck!
Rod
I had to go back and re-learn the pentatonic boxes after watching a Griff video a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t used the online trainer but about a year ago I bought a training wheel for the same purpose that another Griff student had developed from the on line trainer. Perhaps the link to that could be posted again. I know that I have a difficult time keeping the online thing going and the “training wheel” sits in front of me and works great.
Well, I kinda got it and I kinda got lost with it. I NEED TO WORK ON THIS! I need to work on so many things that if I spend 15 minutes every day on each one I would be practicing for 12 hours every day. Just ain’t gonna happen. But I do place a high priority on being able to solo over just about any jam track, improvising as I go, off the cuff. And the stuff in this video is smack in the middle of that, so it is going to get a HIGH priority in my routine!
Justin at JustinGuitar really promotes the idea of practicing the boxes by always starting and ending on root notes for each respective box. I think that, combined with what Griff is promoting is a good combo. Key being that you want to be able to find those root notes quickly, and then pivot off them.
Also I’m reminded of a table in your Slow Blue Supplement course that showed the left and right combos for both major and minor on each of the six strings. This is pushing me back to that table as I clearly need to know that a lot better.
Thanks again Griff for another solid little lesson.
Hi Griff, thank you as always, really dumb question here- you showed 5 boxes e.g. in key of Am, are each and every one of those boxes in key of Am? I am confused about what key a box is, is that fixed, or could there be several keys in each box depending on your root note, does the root note determine the key? I have always failed to understand how to apply boxes, it is like a piano scale right? so could there be a key for A through to G in every box, or only the Am key? I have a learning disability so no one laugh at me ok….
Kimberly,
My first response is the cliche, there really is no such thing as a dumb question, but it took me 60 years to realize it is a bit dumb to not ask any question related to what you are studying to your teacher. The best way to learn the boxes, as Griff said, is to practice them for 10 -15 minutes, and no more, every day. It may be hard at first, but after a week or so you will get the hang of it. I abuse boxes so badly that my live teacher finally had to show me it is possible to solo without using box 1, 2, or 5, and my initial response to him was, no, that can’t be possible. He was right.
A box is a shape or pattern of notes and can be anywhere on the fingerboard until you decide what key you want and whether its major or minor. That fixes where the box has to lie.
Using the five boxes one after the other starting near the nut and working up towards the bridge allows you to keep playing the same five notes all the way up the fingerboard, and thus you are staying in the same key.
Yes, the root note does relate to the scale. In the scale of Amin for example, the root note is “A”. The root note of a scale is the note that a tune played using notes from that scale “hovers around” or “wants to return to”.
Using the five boxes to play a minor pentatonic scale, the root notes are always in the same position for each shape. Using the five boxes to play a major pentatonic scale, again the root notes are always in the same position for each shape (but it is not the position used for the root note when playing the minor scale!).
I do hope that helps Kimberley. Just keep plugging away at it. Persistence pays off!
Grid WOW
Always great stuff question
I’m trying to get the “minor blues scales” and the correct boxes? But each site has a different or incomplete boxes.
How do I get these.
I’m a beginner student of yours I currently have the Beginner Blues Unleashed.
What do you suggest?
Robert
Search YouTube for: Live Blues Guitar Lesson – The 5 Minor Pentatonic Boxes
thank you I really needed to here this. I memorized all the notes on the first 12 frets but I could not do a thing with the scale except with the sixth string root. It was like I all of a sudden knew nothing
Griff, thanks for this! I’m right at the point of learning the boxes but feeling lost and having to “calculate” where I am. Such an eye-opening lesson!
Can anyone refer me to the basic box lesson that Griff mentions?
Search YouTube for: Live Blues Guitar Lesson – The 5 Minor Pentatonic Boxes
Possibly the reason it is not used is the sheer amount of info you share…???
Many times I get overloaded with info, and coupled with *life*, simply can’t spend the time it takes to absorb all your lesson materials.
So I pick and choose the material I feel that I can *get* at any given time.
Not to be disrespectful but yes, your newest type of videos are to wordy. Get to the point already.
22 minute video and the subject was covered in about 3 to 4 minutes of it.
I think you should ask for your money back…
Cheers Griff
For the lesson the fourth box turned a light on for me looking forward to the CD
Great lesson Griff! Hoping to become a better navigator with your help.
Always amazed at how well you are able to break these crucial concepts down to an understandable level for those of us who quickly become lost beyond Box 1 at the 5th fret! Thanks, Griff!
Great tool for right handed players!
As a lefty using right/left to describe up/down the neck make it harder to use the tool – at least for this novice . . .
Maybe try thinking of it as bridge or head facing.
Nice!!!! As always – you do good work! You make the complex understandable!
Great lesson.
Love the playing at the beginning Griff, do you have the tab for it?
Very very helpful. Thank you so much.
Think about Instagram. You are that cool.