Guitar Exercises - More Scale Position Shifts

Here’s a follow up to last week’s post of exercises to build skill moving horizontally along the guitar neck between pentatonic scale box positions. The previous post contained exercises to shift between minor pentatonic positions, this set of exercises will add some major pentatonic scales for you to work on.

 

The major pentatonic scale uses the 1st, 2nd, major 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees of the major scale and is frequently used in blues and rock styles. Let’s get started with a C major pentatonic scale on the 1st and 2nd strings.

 

C Major Pentatonic on 1st and 2nd Strings

Use alternate picking for this one and watch out for the change of strings to begin the descent of the scale. Play each series of four eighth notes in the same position. Shift your hand up to play the first note of the next series with the index finger on the 2nd string.

A Major Pentatonic on 2nd and 3rd Strings

For this exercise on the 2nd and 3rd strings we’ll work through A major pentatonic. The pattern on this pair of strings is different from the others so pay attention.

Remember to practise each lesson slowly and focus on clean and precise shifts from one position to the next. If you are familiar with your pentatonic scales then you can try taking these patterns and applying them on other pairs of strings and in other keys.

 

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