Playing notes in one pattern box?

Next step would be to pick any pattern box and play the notes within it working your way from the low string to the high (thin) string.

At first this will sound rather robotic as you literally play one note at a time starting from the first note you choose all the way down to the last dotted note in the particular pattern.

That’s ok.

Just do it a few times to get familiar with the pattern. This will get you familiar with the notes that are at the high end and the low end of the scale pattern. It’s an up and down motion to begin with but you can break free of that in a moment.

Take a quick look at this video clip to see how a guitar player works a single pattern for a few bars and gets the most out of it before sliding up to the next area of the fretboard to build or soften the melody.

And while you are watching this video, take a second to download the free guitar tabilture for the solo itself. You can practise this simple solo on your own time. You don't have to buy the guitar map or backing tracks. Its totally free and just a good way to learn a simple scale pattern to give you a feel for the world of guitar improvisation. Have fun!

In time you will find, if you haven’t noticed already that there is a distinct advantage to learning the note positions in the higher end of each scale patterns. In other words, learning the notes on the highest four strings and then simply sliding up and down the neck to the next adjacent pattern box rather than attempting to much finger gymnastics by going back down to the low E string every time.

Guitarists are notorious for finding economy of finger movement. You should as well.

As you play in this one box. Try starting from one red dot to the next. This is the entire scale.

Just get a feel for where it is and how it sounds and you will start to get an idea of the relationship of one octave point to the next.