In this exercise will we take a short sequence or ”lick” if you may in the A blues scale and pay that in varied fingerings all over the neck. The scale parts we will use are… the whole thing:
The line we will use is a five note idea, starting on the fifth, ending on the root, descending the A blues scale. Only thing here is that we will use 3 different fingerings (there are more, but we will stick with these), and starting on every single E on the fretboard from which we can play the fingerings. On my 22 fret guitar, that would result in 23 different positions for one idea, all over the neck. Sounds a little bit more out of the box than playing the lick in the same ‘ol 1st position all the time? Ready? Try it on for size!
Well! Got that down in ALL keys? Great!!! Then let’s see just what we can do with all of this? In the next section I will give you an example of an improvised sequence. I have transcribed this one for you to show you how I might connect all these positions, incorporate open string, and even used tapping in several positions to get from “inside the box” to “outside the box”. It would serve you well, not to treat this example as “licks”, but rather, try to analyze just how I just the concepts we have been discussing up till now, in actual improvisation.
Good luck, and see you in my other tutorials! Turn the page!