Extending Box 1 Pentatonic
Okay… so I can hear it now, “why on earth do we need ANOTHER way to look at the pentatonic scale?”
It’s my simple mantra that you’ll hear me say over and over and over again, “The more ways you have to look at the same group of notes, the better off you’ll be.”
For some people, one way just clicks better than the others. For some people, a different way just clicks. So as your teacher it’s my job to put as many possibilities in front of you so that you can grab bits and pieces of what works for you and put it to use.
This particular pattern is very common when I look at solos by Clapton, SRV, and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. In fact, I’d say that with box 1 and these extensions, you probably cover about 85-90% of what those guys play. So it’s worth your time 
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If you need it, here’s the TAB for it.
thanks griff, another great lesson! joe
I USE TO GET YELLED AT BY ARE BASS PLAYER FOR DOING MY LEADS FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE NECK AND WORK IT YP THE FREAT BOARD. THIS LESSON IS MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT I USE TO PLAY. SOUND MORE PROFFESIONAL. THANK’S GRIFF.
Hey Griff got the BGU 2 course I’m on a Army veteran affairs pensioner here in Australia. It is fantastic going from the start and watching each lesson 2-3 times then play with you and use the cd on iPad when having a bad day I can sit in bed with a Practice blues Jrn fender. I never thought I’d buy a course but with the free vids and I got the digital blues masters. Bought the BGU 2 hard copy as like to have the feel of the book and don’t have to be online. You have changed my idea of courses and been telling others. It is giving me a broader range of Blues playing and timings. Even thought can play few songs I normally would play open chords with some Barr. But recommend it to anyone. Also to give each lesson a good go over. Guitar like golf the better you get the more of a challenge it is. So learning anything can only help. Your course cost more in Aust as our $$ sucks. But it helps my PTSD and when pain is getting me down I grab a guitar and practice. I can feel it getting easier putting in the new attack at different chords. Thanks I hope to grow and use your programs as I can afford them and of course as I finish each. Can always go back to review parts later. To expensive to do that with a hr lesson with teacher. Hr lesson time you say high tell how you been practicing and tuning you waste 15 min or more not cheap either. Thank you and hope to have more of your courses. Hope other soldiers look at it as some therapy. From one to another it can’t hurt. Cheers ps any competions for courses please add me I’m a member of your site. Cheers Matt
I USE TO GET GREEF WHEN I WOULD START MY SOLO AT THE BOTTOM OF THE NECK AND MOVE UP THE NECK WITH MY SOLOS. GOT KIND OF REPUTIOUS. I LIKE THIS LESSON. WITH A WHOLE FRET BOARD TO WORK WITH USING BOX 1 AND SOME OF YOUR TRWERLS. THANKS, TK!
prety straight foward. i like it! thanks Griff. funny. i did a scale simaler to that when in a band. my buddie hated it. i kind of wore it out. this is before i hooked up with you on BGU. I’m a bad boy Griff. i still have not finished the BGU course. i keep getting theses cool video lesson and then i have no time for the course. keep sending them. even if it’s something i already know. Just learning from you is a god send. thanks Griff. take care.
Keep ’em coming Griff. Great!
Great lesson! This is really going to open up the fret board for me! Thanks!
Thanks for the lesson Griff, your BGU course has opened up the fretboard for me, with just enough theory to make me feel like I know what I’m doing! Excellent material, please keep them coming!
Great little lesson, Griff. Really clear and well-done. thanks.
love the piano’esque run, really gives some class to the whole thing, thanks Grif
Hi Griff these mini lessons are really informative. Been studying
BGU since January and,apart from the odd brick wall,having a ball.
Many thanks,Teach!
Thanks Griff, keeps us thinking. I believe that pattern is in the back of the BGU Course lessons. We just need to apply it.
This is something I work on almost every single day, either stretching out the box that I started in, or going from box to another, and in fact I noticed the other night that my leads are beginning to have character and emotion as to the way they sound. Another thing I work on continually is the three note pull off and hammer on, and this I have gotten to the point of stretching my hand five frets and doing it, but that needs more months of working on before it feels as natural as the three fret three note hammer on pull off. I am pretty excited as to how the lead playing is coming along so all this stuff you show us sure has value and it’s worth learning.
Paul
Awesome great stuff as always Griff. Thanks for all you do.
J.
I think this is one of the most important things I have seen in your videos. I have been teaching myself to slide from box to box for a while now. But I have seen little instruction on it…and it seems to me, any solo that is gonna sound great, is gonna do that…thanks…this is a keeper…
Thank you Griff,
You are a great teacher. I have gotten so much from your lessons.
Ruben
Griff,
If only you would have been around when I first started riffin’ in 1960!
In this lesson I hear just a touch of Memphis Train. You of course at one point tabbed that out for us. As you know it’s a good ole Buddy Miles tune and I also like the Big Yu Yu band’s studio version.
Thanks Griff for everything you do to help those of us who play guitar – play better.
Old School and Still Rockin’…Gary
Thanks Griff.
Lots of notes to chose from.
Could you give a video lesson
demonstrating the use of these connected patterns to get the blues grove without sounding too
“scaley”? Thanks.
I like it, I love it, I want some more of it.
Really like learning & practicing licks, notes… that move all over the fret board.
Thanks Man
Way cool lesson Griff like the way you explain how it all connects together as well as the blue notes very helpful super thanks !!!
Hey Griff. Perfect timing!. A teacher showed me this years ago, but I didn’t use it enough and forgot it. Have had it in the back of my mind lately as a must do, and blow me down !, here it is !. Shame I’m on the other side of the planet in Australia, otherwise I would do your camp. Thanks again. Les
Awesome. This helps so much to understand both the pentatonic with blues notes on the scale.
I like the lesson. It’s not easy teaching an old dog new tricks, but with tips like this one it opens up so many more possibilities for solos it’s amazing.
Thank you ever so much,
Richard
So the low notes are from the bottom of box 5, sliding over to the middle notes of box 1, the on to the top notes of box 2. The added treat is the knowledge that you can do the same thing on the 5th string, which then guides you over to box 1 one octave higher. 3rd fret all the way to the 15th. Then box 2 again. Woo Hoo.
Griff,
This is terrific! Following your advice from an earlier video, the first thing I do everyday is the “Find that note on every string” exercise followed by Box 1 pentatonic in eighths, then swing eighths, then triplets, then sixteen notes followed by Box 1 Blues scale with the different rhythms then up to Box 2 and repeat the process. It occurred to me that by learning all the boxes you should get a natural feel of how to connect the various boxes and you just showed how to connect the bottom of box 5 to the bottom of box 1 and of course the connection between the middle of box 1 to the middle and top of box 2. I will incorporate that into my routine and I think the time has come to delve into playing along with the jam tracks. Thanks again for lighting the way!
Another neat way to combine shapes. I like where you include blue notes. You even throw in micro bends and very quick hammer on pull off combos with the blue note. I know how to do that but I just never think of it. I will now. Makes your playing sound much better. Thanks Griff–RW
Thanks again griff. The other night u left. Some kind of Riff. or. some. Notes. That was cool. U didn,t. leave. Tab u were showing son
Me kind of. example
I’ve learned more about lead licks in these videos then in the last 10 years!
I really enjoyed this lesson! Simple and informative. Great ammo to add to one’s arsenal and easy to memorize. Thank you sooo much, Griff!
St. Griff, the patron saint of short instruction videos…
I almost always use this approach. Suggest putting the flat5 (blue note) into the run and tab and well. That appears in many licks as chromatic (eg 5 / b5 / 4) not just a hammer-on.
Great, thanks heaps for this look at the scales. It opens up the span of the neck in so many ways as you said. Thanks again.
Simple, but quite impressive. Thanks
Shows why we need ton know scales( I have heard that scales are not that big of a deal)for me scales does put the notes in perspective and how to make them sound good. Very good lesson and thanks.
Something I do with this that someone else might try is when you start with the scale at the 6th string root and you land on the D (1st string, 10th fret) then you can work down box two (think the speedy pentatonic lesson only in box 2) until you get to the G (5th string 11th fret) and then pick up the 5th string root of the scale. You can effectively move across the entire neck until your in box one of the upper octave without stopping anywhere to start the scale over again. Thanks Griff! Always always always good usable lessons from you!
Great stuff as always Griff. Thx.
Now THAT’S Why we keep comin’ back to your lessons.
You just tripled my soloing options in a few minutes. Magic!
Excellent lesson, as usual. I can slide up and down the neck using all the 5 boxes but this seems to be a different approach to box 1 which is nice. Gets ya out of the rut of just the normal box 1 pattern.
yep, griff you showed or taught this a good time back. I remeber it being one of the most helpful lessons for me you ever put out.Thanks
Essentially you are incorporating the bottom of box 5 (string 6 & 5) the middle of box 1 (stings 4 & 3) and the top of box 2 (strings 1 & 2). Your second example is box 4.
Very nice !
Thanks Griff
Thanks again for the new tool from your magic tool box!
Great lesson! I’m beginning to finally understand that the pentatonic IS the holy grail of soloing on the guitar! I’m still working on the “boxes,” so my brain did a little twisting and turning on this one as you moved up the fretboard! Thanks, I think!
Great lesson.i would like to see a course of the extended scales, with riffs shown in every key.also I would like to see a course of chords that could be used instead of barre chords, as a lot of people just give up as they cannot play the barre chord no matter how they try.best wishes.
Thanks Griff,You are a super teacher,Len.
Hey good stuff to learn . I have already taken a favorite lic from the heart sisters and have learned how to use it alll over the fret board . I will learn this very quickly because its box one and everyone knows that well maybe, but, adding the blue notes is a bonus . I guess I am approaching session guitarist status and find some of the previous lessons here are just dead on. What I have been doing and checking on are also perfect , right down to the theroy.
Hey Griff,
I think I saw this back in March 2015 and it seems to be in the back of BGU V2 but always a great refresher when I am focused on your courses such as BGUv2 and Pentatonic Scales and others. But always great to save these video lessons for later. Keep them coming.
Thanks
Michael-Sydney Australia
Thank you Griff – been working on this recently and have been feeling a little stuck doing the same things.
This helps a lot, as usual.
Just a little complaint . nothing to do with what you are on now. I bought 5 Easy Blues solos and enjoyed them so much that i bought 5 more only to find that the tab book is unreadable as it is so small. Can you put this right please
Is there a jam track on BGU that you would recommend trying with this, Griff?
Thanks again for the extra help!
Mike
I can’t download the mac (MP4) version for this video (or the previous one). When I try it just goes to a black MP3 screen. Please could you sort this. Thanks! Great lessons by the way.
I sorta think that this answers my question from yesterday about 25%. . I guess that what Yoi are doing here is a penatonic pattern shift. With tonal changes.
Thanks for this Griff…! As usual, these tips do help.
Hi Griff, I love your instructions -Because your method easily shows the way. Thirst for music is increasing. Happy more of Griff
yes, every time this lesson comes through I recall how great a lesson it is and how fast it will get you playing.Thanks again I use this everytime i play daily.