Scale Box Switching Options

[steve25]

Hi, i've just watched Kris' scale box switching for improvising in the one-on-one lessons, very good lesson by the way. i understood all of it but i have a question, well so or recommendation request if you like. At the moment all i know is 5 boxes out of the A-minor pentatonic scale. i know the rest are the same just on different fret but that would take a lot of thinking. Do you think it'd be better for me to be able to know where each of the boxes are for each keys before i start doing this or doesn't it matter? So for example able to know where each of the boxes are for say C minor and G minor as well as i do for A minor?

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[Resurrection]

Hi, i've just watched Kris' scale box switching for improvising in the one-on-one lessons, very good lesson by the way. i understood all of it but i have a question, well so or recommendation request if you like. At the moment all i know is 5 boxes out of the A-minor pentatonic scale. i know the rest are the same just on different fret but that would take a lot of thinking. Do you think it'd be better for me to be able to know where each of the boxes are for each keys before i start doing this or doesn't it matter? So for example able to know where each of the boxes are for say C minor and G minor as well as i do for A minor?

If I remember correctly, in those lessons Kris recommends practicing the scale box switching in A minor pentatonic until that feels natural, then switch the exercises to other pentatonic scales. That sounds a fairly good plan to me. So, I don't think you need to pre-learn all the possible scale boxes in all keys before practicing the pentatonic exercises. However, once you're comfortable racing around the fretboard in A minor pentatonic, start transposing to other keys. Even though it's just a shifting of the boxes, I generally pick a different key each time I practice pentatonic scales, as I find it reinforces note positions and other scale pattern positions in my brain more effectively. Other players may take a different approach.

Hope this helps

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[Andrew Cockburn]

And to add this - make sure you are learning the patterns, not the actual fret numbers. That way you just need to know where the root notes are and you can easily move the boxes around.

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