In this video, I’m going to show you how to have a ton of fun along the neck by doing something that covers a number of practice concepts while providing the added bonus of developing your scales and your keys to a much higher level.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

ONE FRET-POSITION LEARNING:
The effect of only sitting within one key, scale (or mode) won't address the quick thinking in your playing that will come from when we work at changing which key and scale is being played - and doing that, "on the fly."

This lesson's exercise will teach you how to strengthen areas that are weak for you when it comes to moving a scale or mode to another region of the fret-board.  With a step by step attack plan, you are going to be able to improve your ability to switch keys, scales and modes once and for all.

This lesson will help you with a very common problem that’s generally caused by doing too much in position playing on the guitar fingerboard. No matter if that’s from learning licks in one playing position, or studying scales and arpeggios within one, or if it’s from learning how to play a favorite song, we tend to learn ideas on the guitar in one position using one scale, one key or with one mode. 

By applying a key signature exercise along the fingerboard, we can train ourselves to shift ideas that we’re performing along and across the neck - changing key and changing scales all in one go. 

This exercise will not only help with getting better at scales and keys, but it will also help with thinking faster on your feet and when we shift along the neck while playing like this, it’s an incredibly satisfying and fun feeling when done perfectly in time. 

BACKING RIFF:
Let’s get things going today by learning a backing riff, then we’ll jump into learning a melodic idea and then we’ll move them both along the neck and have some fun with this... 

Example 1): Backing Riff Idea
Here's a a basic 3-chord riff. It’s a fairly typical sounding riff that you’ve probably heard before… Here it is…

SCALE and KEY PATTERN:
The above riff is in the key of “A Minor.” It’s easy to understand that because the first chord is “A Minor,” and the last chord is “A Minor.” So, this tells us that to understand how to play over the riff we need to become a little familiar with the notes inside of an “A Minor Scale.” 

Below is a pattern for “A Minor” that focuses on the region of the fret-board where we were playing our riff…

Example 2): “A Minor” scale in the central region of the neck… 

Coming up next, I’m going to teach you how to create a melodic statement using that “A Minor” Scale, and then we’ll move the scale along the neck. First into “G Minor” and then along through other keys as well. 

But before that – I have a short promotional message for you about my “Handouts Collection” eBook offer… 

GUITAR LICK - SPRINGBOARD LICK:
Once you become familiar with the general layout of the scale that matches the key of your guitar riff, all you’ll need to do is record the riff on a looper pedal (or you can just record it on your phone), and then play it back while building a melodic idea over it by using the correct scale. 

I’m going to help make all of this a little bit easier for you by giving you a melody to work on so that you can have something to perform right away and it’ll get you going with this idea a lil’ faster. 

SHIFTING IDEAS TO NEW POSITIONS:
Now that you have a backing riff and a melodic idea, you can start getting into the real fun part of this exercise. We’re going to practice playing the first melody in “A Minor,” down a whole step into the key of “G Minor.” 

Of course before we play down into “G Minor,” let’s quickly become familiar with how the riff will move, and how the melody will move as well… 

Example 4): Riff and Melodic example (Key of “G Minor”)

Scale region of the neck in “G Minor.” 

Melodic idea moved over to, “G Minor.” 

Perform the riff and lick (A and G Minor), back to back smoothly in time.

CONCLUSION:
This exercise can be moved all along and across the entire guitar fret-board through a number of different keys. 

You can start with this melody I’ve shown here to get you going, (it’ll make the whole experience of getting started with this easier in the beginning). But over time… (and as you get better with the exercise), move it through several keys. 

It’s an excellent exercise and it’s one that you’ll have fun with because you’ll very quickly discover how to build both a sense of scale association and you’ll develop more control over the guitar neck. 

At the same time you’ll learn how to manage all the changes to keys and scales that happen as you move this exercise across the fingerboard.