Practising the box
A free guitar lesson · 4 steps · about 8 minutes
Alternate picking
Up to now you have probably been picking every note with a down-stroke. Scales go much more smoothly with alternate picking: down, up, down, up, strictly in turn, whatever string you are on.
It feels clumsy for a while, then it becomes automatic. Play the box up and down with strict alternate picking. In tab, a down-stroke is often marked ⊓ and an up-stroke V.
Groups of three
Playing a scale straight up and down gets boring, and it trains only one path through the box. Sequences train your fingers to find any note. The classic is groups of three: play three notes up, go back two, play three more.
e|-----------------------------------------------------5---5-8-| B|-----------------------------------------5---5-8-5-8---8-----| G|-----------------------------5---5-7-5-7---7-----------------| D|-----------------5---5-7-5-7---7-----------------------------| A|-----5---5-7-5-7---7-----------------------------------------| E|-5-8---8-----------------------------------------------------|
This one is a finger-twister at first. Take it very slowly, a note at a time, and it soon settles into a pattern your hands recognise.
With a click
Scales improve fastest against a steady beat. Start slowly, around 60 beats a minute, with one note per click. When you can play the box up and down with no mistakes three times in a row, go up by five and do it again.
In the app, this step opens the timing drill, which plays a click and shows where each note you play lands against it. Sign up free to use it with the lesson.
The timing drill shows where each of your notes lands against the click, so you can see whether you rush the easy strings and drag the hard ones.
The box in other keys
The box is a shape, so it moves. Wherever you put it, the note under your first finger on the low E string is the root, and names the scale.
At the nut, using open strings, the same shape is E minor pentatonic, one of the most useful scales on the guitar, because so much rock is in E.
At the third fret, it is G minor pentatonic. Use the notes on the low E string from the neck lesson and you can put the box in any key you want.