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Posted by: Rodnator Dec 8 2007, 10:52 PM

Hello all, Ive been pretty active with my scale practice, primarily the pentatonic minor scale. I have become quite fluid moving through all 5 boxes all over the fretboard. although at a faily slow speed my accuracy has been priorty and although I must pay close attention and really concentrate to be consistant, I feel like I am getting results. My question revolves around increasing speed and keeping the accuracy I have been working hard at. I have a metronome and am ready to move on to start thinking more about speeding up gradually than the actual notes which are becoming more familiar everyday. Because the pentatonic scale is 2 notes per string, would you suggest practicing 2 notes per beat, 4 notes per beat, both or something entirely different? My progress of playing "outside the boxes" has me very excited. Need input.
Thanks all
Rod

Posted by: David.C.Bond Dec 8 2007, 11:01 PM

Hi Rob!
Well how many notes you play per beat depends entirely on what tempo you are at, but I would recommend starting with two notes per beat, at a slow tempo, making sure your notes are clear andd consistent. Then gradually start moving the tempo up in 5-10bpm increments, until you feel strained, then work on that area.
Hope that helps!
DB

Posted by: Rodnator Dec 8 2007, 11:20 PM

Thanks for your help, Will I be better increasing speed within a particular box only and then moving on to the next box or do I gain an advantage by consistantly changing boxes within a paticular key.

Posted by: Bogdan Dec 9 2007, 12:24 AM

You should change boxes , that way you'll get used to moving up and down the fretboard (at faster tempos) and at the same time practice connecting boxes which is very important..

Posted by: David.C.Bond Dec 9 2007, 12:39 AM

Hear, hear.
Listen to Bogdan, he's a man of much wisdom!

Posted by: Milenkovic Ivan Dec 9 2007, 01:57 AM

Practise all the boxes evenly in one keywith a metronome. There are a lot of different pentatonic exercieses to practise. I suggest you make some of your own fingerings for this and make a system for couple of weeks in advance. This way your practising will become much more organized. Hope this helps/

Posted by: Ctodd Dec 11 2007, 05:00 AM

When I was practicing pentatonics, I played two notes to one beat until i was fast enough to play that at 120 BPM ( played each box ascending and descending and then moved to the next box)

then i bumped down to 60 BPM and played 4 notes per beat. then i gradually increased speed from there

Im still New at this stuff too and can only play at about 80 BPM with 4 notes per beat

but i found it really hard to play 2 notes per beat at any faster than 120 BPM, it got hard to hear the metronome. ( i have a quiet metronome)


hope that helped

Posted by: Gerald Dec 11 2007, 02:18 PM

I'm doing something very similar as well. I'd also suggest taking a look at Kris's 101 pentatonic and practicing those licks to the metronome as well. It helps spice it up a bit so you are not just ascending/descending through the boxes.

Posted by: Rodnator Dec 11 2007, 04:14 PM

Thanks Ivan, I have been told told by a friend to learn the the fingerings by the rule that includes all of the fingers eg.. A min box 1-index, pinky, move up index, pinky, move up index, ring move up, index ring etc no short cuts. and I have gotten quite a bit of pinky control when I stay in a simple box shape.. what do you mean by my own fingerings, and make a system? are scale fingerings more like what ever works best for me? should I be disciplined and practice them with the same fingerings each time or should I use a variety of fingerings.