Blues you can use!

WideAwake,
I don't have the book, but does it tell you what the scale is? If it's an intro to blues book, I'm guessing that it's either the minor pentatonic scale or the blues scale. What you want to do is to break up the diagram into smaller patterns that you can easily practice and memorize. Then, you can work on shifting between patterns. There's no right or wrong way to do this, but with the more commonly used scales there are some "standard" ways to go about it. If it's the minor pentatonic scale, try this website:

http://www.cyberfret.com/scales/minor-pentatonic/index.php

It shows each of the little patterns alone, and then at the bottom it shows how they all fit together to make the larger diagram that covers the entire fretboard.

If it turns out to be the blues scales, well, it's exactly the same as the minor pentatonic scale except that you add one note. Here are the patterns for that one:

Hope this helps!

WideAwake wrote: im realising i don't have 12 fingers on one hand, so can someone enlighten me how to play those diagrams
:lol: I'm not able to consult my BYCU book at the moment, but I think you're probably looking at one of the scale patterns.

Play it starting on the low E string, with the lowest note (lowest # fret) first, then the second note on the low E string with the appropriate finger, then the lowest note on the A string, then the higher note on the A string, and so on, moving up the scale.

When you get to the highest note on the high E string, go backward down the scale.

Does that answer your question?

BYCU is a great book with quite a few of us using it around here.

Margaret

Yeah what you are looking at is a scale, not a chord, so basically just play the notes one by one starting with the lowest (don't try to play all the notes at the same time as you would a chord). The numbers in the circles tell you which finger to use (0 means you play an open note, 1, 2, 3, and 4 refer to index, major, ring, and little finger, respectively).

Ok this is the image in my book that i got (not this exact image but it look similiar to this :P)

Difference is all the numbers are one less i.e all the 1's are 0's and aren't on the diagram itself, but slightly off to the side. It's called Em Pentatonic scale or summit and tells me to practice it : / so do i just pluck E on open then E on the 3rd fret then A, D and G on the second and so on? Or summit else :P

Ok this is the image in my book that i got (not this exact image but it look similiar to this :P)

Difference is all the numbers are one less i.e all the 1's are 0's and aren't on the diagram itself, but slightly off to the side. It's called Em Pentatonic scale or summit and tells me to practice it : / so do i just pluck E on open then E on the 3rd fret then A, D and G on the second and so on? Or summit else :P

You got it. That is the Em pent scale at the open position. Where there is a "0" just play the open string and where there is a number, play that note with the corresponding finger. Start on the root note (open E in this case) and try to keep an nice even tempo (metronome isn't a bad idea). Also, you might as well get used to alternate picking (addressed later in the book).

It's a great book by the way.

Sounds like you've got the idea now WideAwake.

You probably spotted this (and others did mention it in passing) but make sure you use the right fingers. So the index finger (1 in that diagram) is used for all the notes on that same fret and doesn't jump around to other frets.

When I first started playing I just used any old finger in any old spot (which meant overusing the strongest fingers) and it took me a while to unlearn the bad habits and start giving each finger its proper position in the patterns. Works much better in the long run. :wink:

Cheers,

Chris

I haven't got the book yet but going by the reviews it receives around here I may put it on my list to Santa.

As has already been said above the scale is the minor pentatonic. The pattern you see in this thread is position 1 of 5 which make up the pentatonic. Once you have learnt this pattern in one key (the key being determined by the root note) you can play it in any key simply by moving the shape up and down the neck - the pattern does not change.

If I was to learn this pattern from scratch I would start it around the 3rd or 5th fret so that all the notes can be fretted including the notes marked with a 1. Once you are happy with it then move to the Em position using the open strings (indicated by 0s) as in the book. To my way of thinking learning it at frets 3 or 5 you are getting all fingers trained to the full pattern. Of course YMMV.

Once you have this pattern weighed off just another four to learn. :wink:

As a side note I usually use the scales as a warm up at the start of a practice session. It's a good way of getting the fingers warmed up and improving the scales at the same time.

HTH

8)