BEST Shape for Solos! - The Double Box
That said, if you've never tried playing a solo with a box shape before then the pattern I’m going show you in this lesson could help you tremendously because the larger more complex scales can leave a lot of potential on the table.
In this Guitar Soloing, "Box Shape" video, I'm going to show you the number one way to start using the power of the, "box-shape" to perform great solos.
Of course, thinking that you can ignore your notes and your knowledge of the major and minor keys and have all of this work like some form of a magic trick is a big mistake.
Remember, that guitar solos are made in the practice room and revealed on stage.
THE BOX SHAPE:
What I have for you is probably the fastest and easiest path to playing solos that you could ever learn about. You’ve probably already heard of the guitar’s “Box” shape for soloing.
You may not fully understand what it is, or how it works, and that’s fine. Sometimes this topic can get a little confusing because there’s more than one “box shape” out there to study and understand on the neck.
Let me help you become familiar with how one of the most common box shapes for guitar operates. We'll also learn how you can study this shape. Most importantly you'll learn how easy it is to apply this box shape and how to start soloing with it VERY quickly!
Grab your guitar and I’ll begin by showing you how to get into learning the way that the box shape sits on the guitar fret-board. The first step will be to learn it and start using it. After that, you'll be able to integrate it for use in your guitar solos.
BASIC BOX:
The box (shown below), is very easy to understand because it is literally a rectangular box pattern on the fingerboard.
The root note is highlighted in red and is positioned at the 5th string’s 7th-fret. That note is an “E” so this means that our shape is rooted on the “E”
Here’s how the "Box" shape sits on the neck off of the “E” root.
The named tones are outlined below:
Notice the additional "A" tone indicated on the 6th-string
BACK-DROP /JAM-TRACK:
To apply this shape we need to have a back-drop practice harmony for it. Our back-drop is going to be based upon the color of how our root note sits on the neck and how the other tones are situated around the root.
The two circled notes that you see below are the critical tones related to the root. Because those tones are a whole step away from the root they end up establishing the color of Minor.
The cool thing about the "Box" is that you can also use this shape over the Blues Dominant sound as well. Practice creating melodies with the jam example (shown above). It will begin to start helping you with applying the shape and its sound.
Coming up, I’ve got more to show you on this box shape. Plus, I can help you learn how to start integrating it into your playing. But first, I want to tell you about a special promotional offer so that you can find out how to get yourself a copy of my popular Guitar Handouts Collection eBook.
I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.
With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from my Tee-Spring store, I’ll send you free copies of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.
One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).
Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.
Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.
As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.
As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.
Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.
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SHIFTING THE BOX:
The Fourth and Third String Box Pattern
One of the coolest things about the box pattern is how versatile it can make our guitar playing.
As we move the shape elsewhere on the neck we gain more ground for soloing with it. In our next example, we’ll place this “E” box-shape between 4th and 3rd strings.
Learn the note names:
Take notice of the new arrangement of the notes within the box and how we gain a new note of "B" under our new location of the "E" root.
Second and First String Box Pattern
We can take the box shape even further along the neck yet by placing it up into the top two guitar strings like this.
Learn the note names:
Take notice of the arrangement of the notes within the box and how we maintain the note of
"B" under our new location of the "E" root.
CONCLUSION:
If you don’t know very many scales and you want to start soloing as quickly as possible, you just can’t beat these box shape patterns.
They’re super easy to apply, and they make playing solos really fast and really easy to understand on the guitar.
Even if you do know a few scales, there’s still some pretty cool ideas that can come from what we’d just refer to as “shape based” soloing.
So, spend some time on these box layouts, I can pretty much guarantee you that you’re going to get into playing solos with them, no matter what level of guitar player that you are.
