[lamar9112001]

I've been playing guitar for 2 years. About 8 months ago a friend passed on a pantatonic book to me. I know the 5 box patterns for ever note/key whatever the correct way to say it is but I'm betting you know what I mean. Anyway, I'm struggling for advancement.Now what I mean is I'll try and solo little wing in Em pentatonic and it just doesn't sound right. I guess i'm just looking for some advice.

[dadfad]

Take soloing down to its simplest application first to work on it. Make yourself, on a cassette or CD, a very basic 12-bar shuffle five or ten minutes long (or longer). A slow one first, and you can add a little faster one if you like. Just use it as a learning-tool to practice phrasing and stuff like that. Choose a common key, like E or A. Use the minor-pent mostly, but also practice switching into and out of the major pent of the same key while playing. Things like bending and walk-thru notes, double-stops (two strings played at once), nice phrases..... these are the things that make a lead-break sound good. Simple scale-like sequences of notes sound very "sterile" and boring. So practice phrasing (listening to others a lot at first) and the little extra techniques that give it that "ooomph" when a lead is being played. And start with a very simple structure, like a 12-bar blues shuffle, to start with.

CODE

This is the major pentatonic scale in the key of C. It is also the basic
blues scale in the key of A.

E |0|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|
B | |--X--|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|
G |0|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|
D |0|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|
A |0|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|
E |0|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|
   ^                  ^           ^           ^           ^           ^
  nut                3rd         5th         7th         9th        11th


There are basically three shapes, or "boxes" that can be played in (and of
course there is a pattern or box that is also formed between those three
boxes.) These three boxes are:

  |---------Box 1---------| |-------Box 2----------||----Box 3------->  

E |0|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|
B | |--X--|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|
G |0|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|
D |0|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|
A |0|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|
E |0|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|
   ^                  ^           ^           ^           ^           ^
  nut                3rd         5th         7th         9th        11th


Box 3 includes the 12th fret, which is the same as the notes shown on the
nut (just an octave higher of course).


Let's take just the notes in Box 2.....


                            |-------Box 2----------|  

E | |-----|-----|-----|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|-----|-----|
B | |-----|-----|-----|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|-----|-----|
G | |-----|-----|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|-----|-----|
D | |-----|-----|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|-----|-----|
A | |-----|-----|-----|-----|--X--|-----|--X--|-----|-----|-----|-----|
E | |-----|-----|-----|-----|--X--|-----|-----|--X--|-----|-----|-----|
   ^                  ^           ^           ^           ^           ^
  nut                3rd         5th         7th         9th        11th


If you play that scale where it's shown off the 5th fret, it'll sound
like a bluesy scale for the key of A. Move that same "box" down to the
nut and it'll be a blues scale for the key of E. Move it down to the
third fret and it'll be a blues scale for the key of G, etc. The same
thing can be done with any of those three boxes (or parts of a box, or
all three strung together, etc. The patterns stay the same, only the
frets you start it off on changes. Think of the pattern as the "constant"
and the fret-board beneath it as moveable, like....a tread-mill or some-
thing. The pattern is constant, the frets change. Just like playing a
single note on the first string....playing that single note is always
done the same way, but as the fret-board beneath that fingered single
note changes, so does the tone of the note....from G to A or B or what-
ever. The same thing with the patterns...they never change, just the
fret-board below it.