Pentatonic across the neck: joining the boxes
A line that climbs the A minor pentatonic through four of its five shapes, from box 1 at the 5th fret to the high A at the 17th, one bar in each shape, every bar starting a little higher on the neck than the last. It joins the boxes up, which is what turns five separate shapes into one scale that covers the whole fretboard, and it trains the shift between shapes in time.
Opens in the player looped and counted in, with drums playing along, and speeds up 5 % every 2 loops to 110 bpm. No account or microphone needed.
- Goal tempo
- 110 bpm
- Starts at
- 66 bpm
- Length
- 4 bars, looped
- Tuning
- E standard
- Time
- 4/4
- Level
- Advanced
- Plays with
- Drums
How to play it
Shift on the first note of each bar, with the finger that starts the new shape; the rest of the bar stays in it.
Each bar is eight eighths in one box. Bar 1 is box 1 at the 5th fret, from the A string to the B string. Bar 2 moves into box 2 at the 7th, from the D string to the high E; bar 3 into box 3 at the 10th; bar 4 into box 4 at the 12th, ending with a held high A at the 17th fret of the high E.
Every bar starts back on a lower string than the last one finished, a step higher on the neck. That shift, on the first note of each bar, is what the exercise trains: lead with the finger that starts the new shape, and keep the rest of the bar inside it.
Once it's comfortable, try it down the neck: start in box 4 and come back to box 1.
Mistakes to watch for
- Looking at the neck for every shift. Look before the shift, not during it.
- Shifting early, so the last note of a bar is cut short.
- Learning the run as a list of frets instead of as boxes you already know; play each box on its own first.
A speed plan
The player starts at 60 % of the goal and plays each tempo twice before stepping up:
- 66
- 72
- 77
- 83
- 88
- 94
- 99
- 105
- 110
That's 16 loops and about 3 minutes before you're playing at 110 bpm. If it stops being clean on the way, stop the ramp there and loop that tempo until it is. With a microphone or an audio interface you can record while you play instead: Demiurg checks every loop and steps up only after two clean ones in a row, and back down after a poor one.
Questions
How fast should I play Pentatonic across the neck?
The goal is 110 bpm in eighth notes, which is 3.7 notes a second. Start wherever every note is clean: the player begins at 66 bpm. Signed in, you can set a goal of your own, slower or faster, on the Exercises page.
Do I need to know all five boxes first?
Knowing boxes 1 and 2 helps; the exercise uses only parts of 3 and 4 and is a good way to meet them. The scales page draws each box on its own if you want to look first.
Why the 17th fret?
It's the A two octaves above the A string's open note, the top of box 1 an octave up, which is where the boxes start to repeat.
More fundamentals exercises
All 22 fundamentals exercises · Fretboard notes trainer · Scales on the neck · All 107 exercises