3 main positions for 3nps scales?

[Darkman]

I've been going up and down the major scale (or natural minor) in *all* positions. I'm doing it to familiarise myself with them and help me break out of the old penta box shapes. But am I wasting some time learning all positions? Are there 3 main positions, as with pentatonics, that I could concentrate on?

I just want to move fluently to 3nps from 2nps when I want to.

[bluesking]

Hi,
I find that, especially with 3nps, all 7 shapes are worth practicing. As for pentatonics, I deffinitely practice all 5 shapes.

I am probably a bit biased because I only really practice 3nps to help visualisation of the fretboard. I personally don't find those shapes that usefull for playing, more for learning, but I know plenty of people use 3nps in playing. But because of this, I am always especially keen to practice all 7 shapes to get full fretboard coverage.

I pressume you are comfortable working out the 3nps shapes? I might have a couple of old diagrams laying around if not...

[Malcolm]

I've been going up and down the major scale (or natural minor) in *all* positions. I'm doing it to familiarise myself with them and help me break out of the old penta box shapes. But am I wasting some time learning all positions? Are there 3 main positions, as with pentatonics, that I could concentrate on? I just want to move fluently to 3nps from 2nps when I want to.
Well, knowing the 7 mode patterns - and knowing how to use them in songs is important. Those 7 mode patterns are the same as 5 of the location patterns. So, they kinda go hand in glove. Yes you should know them all. It's a passage thing.

Will you use all 5 location patterns at the same time? Only if running up and down your fretboard at the speed of light is important to you. Very seldom will you ever use more than one, perhaps two, if you are playing melodies. Here is a video that speaks of breaking out of your box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_qw03-3gFg


Will you use all 7 mode patterns, probably more than you will use all 5 location patterns. The secret to modes is not just learning the patterns, it's how to use those patterns to make music. If you just run the pattern note by note it'll sound like a scale/mode exercise. When you use the pattern to gather notes - and play them as a melody, they become music. Of course just using the Major scale to gather melody notes has been used in thousands of songs, but that involves melody - another story altogether.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Major-Scale-Patterns-on-the-Guitar-Fretboard&id=868307


Good luck

Malcolm