How To Find New Fretboard Positions For Your Guitar Scales
It can be frustrating when you only know one or two positions of a scale. Maybe you don’t feel like you’re making the maximum use of the fretboard. Maybe you’re just bored with that position. Learning new positions for your scales is a very easy process. And one that will help you create tons of new licks even in familiar keys. We’ll look at two techniques here.
The first important thing here is that you need to know how to find specific notes on the fretboard. If you’ve just been learning finger patterns and such up til now, this will be one extra step, but a very easy. I’ve included a link at the end of this article to another article of mine that shows you how to read the fretboard with ease.
If you’re already familiar with the fretboard, congrats! That’s a big skill already taken care of.
For simplicity let’s start with a C major scale: C D E F G A B C
If you play C major in the open position (starting from G on the bottom and going to high G on top), it looks like this:
Bold notes are the root of the scale.
————————————————————0–1—3—
———————————————0—1—3—————–
———————————–0—2——————————–
———————0—2—3—————————————–
——0—2—3——————————————————–
–3———————————————————————–
If we want to play this scale in 2nd position (ie. your first finger is on the 2nd fret), then all we need to do is transfer all those open notes one string lower to a fretted position. Leave the rest of the notes right where they are. For instance, instead of playing the open A on the 5th string, we’ll play it at the 5th fret of the 6th string. In fact each of those open strings will be at the 5th fret of the next lower string. The only exception is the open B which you’ll place at the 4th fret of the 3rd string.
When we change all those open strings to fretted notes one string lower we get this pattern:
—————————————————————–1—3—
————————————————-1—3—-5————-
—————————————2—4—————————–
————————-2—3—5————————————–
———-2—3—-5—————————————————-
-3—5——————————————————————–
Since those top two strings are a large stretch, you could move one more note on each. Put the C on the 5th fret of the 3rd string. And put the F on the 6th fret of the 2nd string.
———————————————————————-3—
——————————————————3—-5—-6———
—————————————2—4—-5————————-
————————-2—3—5————————————–
———-2—3—-5—————————————————-
-3—5——————————————————————–
Now you’ve got an easy pattern in 2nd position. To get to the next position, we’ll again take the lowest notes on each string and put them one string lower on a higher fret. So we’d take the B on the 5th string and place it on the 7th fret of the 6th string. Do that with each of the 2nd and 3rd fret notes except the bottom string.
————————————————————————–5–7–8-
———————————————————–5—-6—8——-
——————————————–4—-5—7———————-
——————————3—5—7———————————–
—————3—-5—7————————————————-
-3—5—7—————————————————————–
After this one, you’ll probably want to start with a higher fret on the 6th string. You could start with the 8th fret C as your root and then work through similar patterns. Each new pattern takes the lowest notes and moves them to a higher fret on the next lower string.
The second idea is very similar to the last pattern above. 3 note per string patterns are a great way to cover a lot of fretboard area in a short time. With most of our basic major scale patterns we usually end up with a couple strings with only two notes on them. And certainly in our pentatonic patterns as well. But if you force those into 3 note per string patterns, you’ll find yourself covering a lot of ground fast.
For this example let’s use G minor pentatonic. G Bb C D F G Here’s the basic box we all know and love:
——————————————3—6–
———————————-3–6———–
—————————3–5——————
——————–3–5————————-
———–3–5———————————-
—3–6——————————————
Now, if we instead make sure to play 3 notes on each string (through the use of slides or long stretches – both are cool) then we get a pattern like this:
—————————————————————————–15–18–20———-
———————————————————–13–15–18—————————
—————————————–10–12–15———————————————
————————–8–10–12————————————————————–
————–5–8–10—————————————————————————
—3–6–8—————————————————————————————-
You can cover the entire fretboard with just that one scale pattern! Try doing that with your other scales (major pentatonic, regular major and minor scales) and you’ll have a whole new world of fretboard blazing patterns to play with.
Oh, and here’s the link to the article that tells you how to read a guitar fretboard: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Read-a-Guitar-Fretboard&id=3473082
Good luck!
Phil Johnson
http://www.GetHotOnElectricGuitar.com
Don’t forget to click that link and get your free special tip sheet with more great electric guitar tips!
Other Blogs On This Subject
- Advanced Guitar Lesson – Alternate Picking 3 Notes Per String Scales Pt.1 | Guitar Lessons 365 Days A Year
- Learning the Scales for Guitar Can Help Players Tremendously | zazasplayground.com
- 3 Notes Per String Pentatonic
- Claude Johnson's Guitar Blog » Blog Archive » 3 Note Per String Pentatonics with Repeated Notes
- Unlocking the Neck: part 5 | Share My Guitar
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