help with the five boxes

[RGOU812]

I'm just an average guitar player, been playing for years but always tend to stick to the same one or two scales when it comes to playing lead. Recently someone suggested learning the 'five boxes' which just about covers everything you need when playing blues and classic rock. I've learned the five patterns and was just wondering if any jemsite experts could throw a few tips my way about combining the five scales quickly or is it just a case of playing the things relentlessly until it becomes easy.

Cheers

[Andelusion]

Work on creating some exercises and licks which traverse all adjacent scale shape, first 2 shapes, then 3, then 4 etc, this should help you visualise the shapes all over the neck, creating one giant neck-shape if you like.

[ShellyOFG]

Do you mean the pentatonic scales? if so then yeah great you can pretty much improvise in any key mixing the major minor as well as the flat 5 for the blues sound.

I recommend learning the major and minor scales too. Improv is all in practice, the more you do it the better you get at it!

[Oscar Ortega]

As you've stated, you learned the 5 positions *assuming its the pentatonic scales*

To combine them, use two strings to start and play two of the five shapes....

For example, using the first and second shape in Amin:


|--------3-5-s-8-5------------------
|--3--5------------8-5--------------

Start making riffs combining the shapes, expand the idea of two strings with 3, 4, 5, 6 even 7 and 8 string (if available)

Once you have a few licks memorized, practice them with a backing track...so you can start playing them in real situations and not just "bedroom riffs"

Good luck!

[AE185]

One thing that has worked wonders for me is to really learn your fretboard thoroughly. Know what notes are in the scale and what notes you're actually hitting. That way you can accent chord tones while improvising and move around scale positions easily because you know what notes you're leaping from and which notes you're going to.
Steve