TJK3

I have been playing for a solid year. I poractice 2-3 hours a day and I play blues guitar always. I am getting a little frustrated and thought i would seek the advice of UGF.

My question is as follows:

- Lets say i am using a blues backing track in any particular key lets say g for my questions sake. I know i can use the blues pentatonic to solo in G starting with my first finger on the 3 fret of the low e. I also know that i can move all the way up to the 15th fret and play the same scale. However, what do i need to know to play in between? I am looking for some tips, advice etc. Please let me know if you need me to clarify anything? Appreciated. -TK

mdc

Learn shapes 2, 3, 4, and 5. Cunts on here will tell you that shapes are useless. I will tell you that they are not.

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Sweet

TJK3

Minor Pent shapes 2, 3, 4, and 5?

mdc

Yes. Major pentatonic 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 won't hurt, either.

Every now and then throw a Db in there.

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Sweet

TheNameOfNoone

Shapes are useless.

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Mephaphil

Mother****ing +100000.

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Hail

shapes certainly have a use, or we'd have no frame of reference for geometric anomalies

for guitar, learn music as music rather than as dots and lines and numbers.

you don't need to think to connect boxes - you're just pushing your ability to BS over a wider surface area.

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Mephaphil

Of course, but don't make it seem so static. Those dots and lines really opened music up massively for me, and with a little theory, it's a great start.

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CryogenicHusk

I agree with this. To me, they were a good tool for aiding my attempt at understanding the instrument since I was feeling overwhelmed by jumping straight into more advanced stuff (plus my ear wasn't that great... it still isn't, but I'm working on it). Only mistake I ever made (and I'm sure lots of other guitarists also think like this) was that I once thought they were IT. That once you could play the scales (all of their shapes) all over the fretboard, that's all there was to playing solos, etc, and that's far from true.

Just know to move beyond scales and shapes once you get the hang of those, and you'll be fine.

Tempoe

Learn the scales up 1 string, also up 2 or 3 strings, use these to move to other patterns along the neck

food1010

Learn the notes vertically, rather than horizontally. Play the scale up one string and back down, then move up to the next string. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

Better yet, you need to just think in notes and music rather than in patterns. If you know the notes are G Bb C D and F, and you know where those notes occur all over the neck, then you have the skills you need to play the scale anywhere on the neck. You may not have it under your fingers, but you have the conscious understanding of it, not just a mindless series of fingerings.

Edit: I missed the post above mine, I see he covered the first part of my post.

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Only play what you hear. If you don’t hear anything, don’t play anything.
-Chick Corea