Stop 6 of 6
The five pentatonic boxes
Connecting the pentatonic across the whole neck.
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Stop 6 of 6
Connecting the pentatonic across the whole neck.
Since The Lead Hills you have been playing the in its first box, and you probably know every corner of that four-fret square by now. But the scale doesn’t end there: its five notes repeat across the whole neck. At this last stop before the summit you leave box 1, meet the other four and join them into a single path, from the nut to the 17th fret.
Listen to and look at the box you already know:
String 6, Fret 5: A2 · 1 · Root
It is a great shape, but if it is the only one you use, all your solos end up in the same register, with the same outer notes and the same phrases. It is like living in a huge city and never leaving your own block.
Now look at the five scale notes across the whole neck, with no boxes:
String 6, Open: E2 · 5 · Fifth
There are not five different scales: there is just one, a necklace of notes running along the neck. The boxes are simply comfortable slices of that necklace, each about the size of your hand (roughly four frets). Each box starts where the previous one ends: the highest notes of one box, on each string, are the lowest notes of the next.
Play each box up and down. The roots (degree 1) are your landmarks: find them before you play.
It starts with the top notes of box 1. Roots on string 4 (fret 7) and string 2 (fret 10).
String 6, Fret 8: C3 · ♭3 · Third
The most stretched one: on string 2 it reaches fret 13 (the 3–2 string shift again). Roots on string 2 (fret 10) and string 5 (fret 12).
String 6, Fret 10: D3 · 4 · Scale tone
From fret 12 everything repeats an octave higher. Roots on string 5 (fret 12) and string 3 (fret 14).
String 6, Fret 12: E3 · 5 · Fifth
The last box links up with box 1 an octave higher (fret 17). You also have it down low, at frets 2–5, just before box 1. Roots on string 3 and on strings 6 and 1.
String 6, Fret 3: G2 · ♭7 · Seventh
| Box | Frets (in A) | Roots |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5–8 | strings 6, 4 and 1 |
| 2 | 7–10 | strings 4 and 2 |
| 3 | 9–13 | strings 2 and 5 |
| 4 | 12–15 | strings 5 and 3 |
| 5 | 14–17 (2–5) | strings 3, 6 and 1 |
Because the scale has five notes. Look at string 6: each box starts on a different scale note. Box 1 on A (fret 5), box 2 on C (8), box 3 on D (10), box 4 on E (12) and box 5 on G (15). When you reach the next A (fret 17) the cycle starts again, an octave higher. By the same reasoning, a seven-note major scale can be split into seven positions.
Knowing five separate boxes is not yet playing all over the neck. What sets you free is moving from one to another without thinking. The most natural tool is the : you glide a finger two or three frets along a string and you are already in the next box.
Listen to this original phrase. It starts in box 1, slides into box 2 on string 3, climbs to box 3 on string 1 and comes back:
There are other ways to connect:
The of A minor is C major, and the C major pentatonic (C, D, E, G, A) uses exactly the same notes. In other words, you already know the five boxes of the . Only the home note changes.
String 6, Fret 8: C3 · 1 · Root
Hear the difference: same notes, different centre.
What decides whether it sounds major or minor is the chord underneath and the note you end your phrases on. Over Am, aim for A; over C, for C.
Each box surrounds a chord shape you already know. Box 1 hides the barred Am at fret 5 (E shape); box 4, the A-shape Am at fret 12:
The other three boxes surround the D shape (box 2), the C shape (box 3) and the G shape (box 5). Read backwards, the order E-D-C-A-G becomes C-A-G-E-D: the system, which you will explore in depth in The Fretboard Labyrinth.
You have the map. Now here is a musical reason to travel it: each box lives in a different register. The low box 5 (frets 2–5) sounds dark and calm; box 1, warm and central; boxes 3 and 4, above fret 10, are bright and sit on top of the band. A solo that changes boxes changes register, and the listener hears that as a road with climbs and descents.
A very common way to build a solo makes use of exactly this: start low and relaxed, climb gradually and save the highest note for near the end, like the summit of a hike, before heading back down. Listen to this original eight-bar solo. Every two bars it goes up one floor:
| Bars | Box | Frets | Role in the solo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | 5 (low) | 2–5 | state the idea, unhurried |
| 3–4 | 1 | 5–8 | talk in the middle register |
| 5–6 | 2 and 3 | 7–13 | climb with slides and build energy |
| 7–8 | 4 | 12–15 | the summit and the way down |
Notice three details. Every box change happens through a slide or a shared note, never a blind jump. Every bar ends on a note of the chord underneath: A over Am, C over F, E over C, D over G. And the highest note, G on string 1, fret 15, appears only once, in bar 7. Play it in every bar and it stops being the summit.
Goal: Improvise two eight-bar passes following the box plan in the table, with your highest note only in bar 7 and every bar ending on a chord tone, at 80 BPM without stopping.
Play box 2 with the pattern below (up and down). Then apply the same pattern to boxes 3, 4 and 5. Start slowly and use .
Goal: Play all five boxes in eighth notes, up and down, with no mistakes at 80 BPM.
Goal: Improvise eight bars using at least three boxes, connecting them with slides and ending each phrase on a chord tone.
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