Practicing Scales/Boxes

glynnd

glynnd

Blues Newbie
Here's a seemingly simple question. When practicing scales /boxes which is the best method:-

1. Play from the lowest note of the box to the highest and back; or
2. Play from the lowest ROOT note of the box to the highest note then to the lowest note of the box and then back up to the lowest root.

Maybe it depends on whether you view the practice as a finger training exercise or an ear training exercise. Plus the roots would vary depending on whether you are positioning the box in its major or minor position.

Maybe I'm overthinking this.
 
Paleo

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
glynnd said:
Maybe it depends on whether you view the practice as a finger training exercise or an ear training exercise.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

For example, if you are doing Griff's "Pentatonic Mastery" course, you will always be playing Boxes from the lowest note on the 6th string to the highest note on the 1st string and back. This has nothing to do with the roots of any scale. This is "finger training".

If you do "Major Minor Blues Shapes" or "Slow Blues Supplement" you will also practice playing Major and minor pentatonic scales within each box from each root in the box, up to the top of the Box, back to the bottom of the Box and back up to the root you started on, going both left and right of that root. This is both "ear training" and learning where the Major and minor roots are in each box.

I think your thinking is right on point.

Both of these approaches are equally important and have their place in your daily practice.:)

(Since Box 1 minor and Box 2 Major have their lowest roots as the lowest note in their respective Boxes, playing up the scale and box are the same thing.:sneaky:)
 
ervjohns

ervjohns

Blues Junior
When I learned the boxes I just looked at the neck diagrams amd made a decision to start learning from the highest root to the lowest. I was always glad I did that because most of the time when you solo you spend most of the time on the top 3 strings. Of course you have to learn both ways but I still always start high when I practice and think about patterns
 
PapaRaptor

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
mountain man said:
This is the method. You start at the root note wherever it is on which ever string. After Griff discussed this on his Facebook live yesterday I tried it and found that this is clearly a weak point for me. I'll be practicing this..........
Click to expand...
I've been doing it with the right facing pattern for quite some time. Until yesterday's live session with Griff, it never crossed my mind about using the reference for the left facing pattern.
 
steve w

steve w

Nottinghamshire, UK
glynnd said:
Here's a seemingly simple question. When practicing scales /boxes which is the best method:-

1. Play from the lowest note of the box to the highest and back; or
2. Play from the lowest ROOT note of the box to the highest note then to the lowest note of the box and then back up to the lowest root.

Maybe it depends on whether you view the practice as a finger training exercise or an ear training exercise. Plus the roots would vary depending on whether you are positioning the box in its major or minor position.

Maybe I'm overthinking this.
Click to expand...

Not watched this yet but the answer is probably here...

https://bluesguitarunleashed.com/bl...019-03-15_practicing-boxes-wrong&utm_term=all
 
Paleo

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
I stopped thinking "Boxes" once I realized there is only one right-facing and one left-facing pattern (with "adjustments" for the 2nd string).

Griff included a Bonus lesson on this in the original BGU 1.0, but I haven't seen it anywhere else.
 
jmin

jmin

Student Of The Blues
I just keep going back to one of Griff's earlier comments about knowing the boxes when he said, "if you think you know the boxes well enough, you don't." After watching Griff's video yesterday about the boxes and failing badly at the Trainer, I decided to start PS&TM last night!
 
Paleo

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
PS&TM will help you learn the Box patterns from the 6th string, but won't help with figuring out how to play Major and minor from any root on any string.

That's where MMBS & SBS will be helpful.
 
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jmin

jmin

Student Of The Blues
Paleo said:
PS&TM will help you learn the Box patterns from the 6th string, but won't help with figuring out how to play Major and minor from any root on any string.

That's where MMBS & SBS will be helpful.
Click to expand...
...that's the embarrassing part, Paleo, I did the MMBS course. But, I knew as soon as I finished it that I hadn't paid enough attention to learning the boxes better, because I concentrated too much on just getting the solos done. I'll have to revisit!
 
Mr.Scary

Mr.Scary

A Blues Legend in My Own Mind
I have this as an app on my phone. Go to the right top corner of the screen and press it to bring down the box that says "add to home page". It will put an app like icon on one of your phone screens so I can access it at anytime.
 
Dr. Ron

Dr. Ron

Nuthin’ But The Blues!
Paleo said:
PS&TM will help you learn the Box patterns from the 6th string, but won't help with figuring out how to play Major and minor from any root on any string.

That's where MMBS & SBS will be helpful.
Click to expand...

Agree with Paleo. I persevered through PS&TM. Great course everybody should do; but didn't do much for major and minor
from roots.
 
Mr.Scary

Mr.Scary

A Blues Legend in My Own Mind
mountain man said:
This is the method. You start at the root note wherever it is on whichever string. After Griff discussed this on his Facebook live yesterday I tried it and found that this is clearly a weak point for me. I'll be practicing this..........
Click to expand...
Just got done with a little practice of this myself. Clearly it is one of my weak spots as well.
 
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