Blues scales - jumping positions


Published on 26 January 2016
Blues scales. Blues scale positions. Fretboard mastery. Guitar neck positions. Blues scale fingering positions. Moving around the fretboard. A guitar lesson from the secret guitar teacher: http://secretguitarteacher.com/youtube/intermediate/electric/9YkbFXTnYVs/83670533-blues-scale-jumping-positions.php This is a sample video from the Intermediate section of the Secret Guitar Teacher website (see link above). It is not for beginners, but assumes you have already learned the Blues scales in five positions and are now looking to be able to jump around easily from one position to another without getting lost! Here's the abridged transcript: In this lesson we are going to look at how we can orientate ourselves by focusing in on just two out of the five positions. The first and fourth. To make sense of this system you will need to be able to name the natural notes at least on the sixth string. (Natural is a name we use for notes that correspond to the white notes on the piano) so we are talking about the notes E F G A B C and D. You can use three solid points of reference on the fretboard starting with the open string which I hope you have down as E. Next there's the 12th fret where you always find the same note (an octave higher than the open string) Then there's the fifth fret where, apart from on the third string you will always find the note that has the same name as the next open string. Remember at fret 12 we are back to E and the whole process starts again -- the higher frets above 12 generally have corresponding markings to the frets 1-12 If we have learnt these notes we can find the First position in any natural key. We're going to use a special backing track that I call a 60 bar blues. The 60 bars blues is really 5 verses of a 12-bar blues, each in a different key. You'll see the Key flash up on the screen as we go along All we are going to do is find the first position in each key, play through it and then use it to improvise a bit. Okay, now let's look at how we orientate the Fourth Position. If we look at the first octave in the first position highlighted in the diagram on the left you can see that the same pattern exactly appears in the fourth position shifted over one string. So just as the lower key note in the first position relates to names of notes on the 6th string so the fourth position relates to names of notes on the fifth string. Let's show you what I mean... Naming notes on the fifth string is not too difficult once we have thoroughly learned the 6th string note names. Take a note on the sixth string and you will find the same note five frets further down on the A string: OK so now we are going to use the 60 bar blues backing track to practice finding fourth positions in each key. Same as before, practice a bit of the scale pattern then if you can improvise a little with it: Now, once again that may take a fair amount of practice and note-learning. OK, the third part of this drill is to practice jumping from first position in a key to fourth and back again. Pick keys at random: Play a bit of first position Jump to fourth and back again Pick another key... Once you can do that easily then you are ready for the final part of this lesson. Back to the 60 Bar blues and this time we are going to play a few bars in the first position of each key before jumping to the fourth. If you managed that --then give yourself a big pat on the back because you have taken a big step towards whole fretboard mastery! Once you are happy playing over that 60 bar blues, there are a couple more similar tracks with more awkward keys. Try those out when you're ready! See you in the next lesson!