switching patterns/scales on the fly.....

[curiousgeorge]

It's hard enough to memorize the patterns for me as it is, but how do you go about switching scales and patterns as you improvise? Do some of you just think in terms of intervals, or do you see the pattern over the fretboard or what? Memorizing scales is giving me a rough go. It's quite overwhelming..... :confused: If there are any books you guys could recommend me, I would appreciate that input as well. Thanks!

[Poparad]

It's all about conditioning your mind to be able to recall all those scales and patterns quickly on the spot.

An exercise you could try to get better at this is to pick two chords that aren't of the same key (so they use different scales) and improvise over them. Have the chords change only every 2 bars or so so that you have time to get settled in each tonality. When you get better at this, try increasing the frequency of the chord changes, or try including more than just two chords.

Here's an example you could start out with:

| C major | C major | C minor | C minor |

With that, just play the C major and C natural minor scales. Either play unaccompanied, or record yourself strumming the chords, or use a program like Band-in-a-Box to generate an accompaniment for you.

[UKRuss]

George, I tend to relate it all to the major scale.

I try to think about which note I'm gong to change to accomodate the mode I want to play. focusing on the sharp4 for the Lydian or the b7th for the mixo.

But it ain't easy and in the end I guess I do blend that with just playing the patterns.

But for me the key is that all the modes are just a major scale of something else.

So actually you really only need to learn the major scale and you're off...

add in the harmonic/melodic minors afterwards.

[Dommy]

Patterns within a key? Just slide up one or two frets on any string and you'll be in the next pattern. Very handy for getting around.

[silent-storm]

Having to switch patterns is the main reason why I dropped patterns all together.

I'm not saying you should do this...but there are deffinatly other methods out there then just patterns.

If you know the notes of the fretboard and your scales well enough, you can build scales around the notes. Kind of like knowing patterns so well that you always know what scale degree you're playing in relation to the chord. (ah, I'm on the #5th right now) I just think in notes faster then degrees so I decided to go with that.

One drill that really helped me was to take each scale around the circle of 5ths up and down one string. So say you're doing major scales, starting on the E string with CMajor. If you were playing one scale per bar and 4 notes per bar you would play E, F, G and A for C Major then Bb, C, D and E for F Major then G, A, Bb and C for Bb Major. Always moving to the closest note of the next scale. This way if you continue up and down one string eventually you will get every possible combination of ways to switch from one major scale to the next.

You can then change to a different string and also do the drill so you start on the lowest 6th string note of the scale then go all the way up changing scales every bar till you reach the highest note of the 1st string, then turn around and come back down. Then don't play the scales around the circle of 5ths, but in a completely random order. Then switch modes every bar as well as keys. I'm getting a little carried away here, but as you can see the sky is the limit.

This may seem very challenging but you can start at a very easy place...say just switching between C major and G major. The only note you have to worry about is the F#. Do that till you're comfortable then add F major.

This is probably the best drill I've ever come across to break yourself out of position playing.

[Bizarro]

I try playing through chord forms if I'm having troubles visualizing things. For example, you're playing over a Cm chord. Now think of every Cm chord you know. Tab it out. Next, pick some scales you want to use, for example minor pentatonic, Dorian, Harmonic minor :), etc... Learn the scales in the position of each chord you wrote out earlier.

Start out with one or two, then expand as you go. This can help a person break out of a mental rut or maybe see things in a new way. YMMV, but it works for me! :)