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Hereare the five interconnecteffi.

Play up and down each pattern,shiftingfrom one to
the next until you can play it from memory.To help
keepthingsstraight,use the minorpentatonic shapes
thatyou alreadyknowas a "skeletal" framework,upon
The minor blues is an eight-tonescale createdby
whichthe extranotesof the minorbluescan be seen
combiningthe tones of a straightblues scale with
to "hang."
thoseof naturalminor (see page 26). Here are the
notes,tones,and intervallicstructureof the resulting Box 1 Box3 Box 5

hybridscalebeginningon A.
Boxes A

Notes: A B C D Eb E F G ;-'i 1-5

H':.
T'
5 7 9 1 2 15 l7

Box 2 Box 4
=Tones:
| 2 bS 4 b5 5 b6 ht I ;
\--l \"/ \--l \,/ \r/ \,/ \-/ \-/ i
I n t e r v a l s : W H W H H H W W Now,try the futl neck.Becauseof how the patternslay
together,one note appears doubled in bracketed
boxes4 and 1. Following the directionsin parentheses
A minor blues, "boxes" 1 - 5 (
will yieldthe sameshapesas on the previouspage.
The patternsof the minorbluesscale are not strictly
"boxes"(theyare more than two notes per string)but
A minor blues
we will referto them this way becausethis scalecan Box4 (omitB, str.3) Box 1 (omitEb, str.2) Box 3 Box 5 Box 2

be viewedas a minorpentatonic(or blues)withadded

colortones.Below,the A minorpentatonicboxesare A

shownin soliddots,with the addedtonesof A minor

blues(2nd,bsth,b6th)shownin greydots. J ) l2 l5 l9

Box 5 Box 2 Box4 (no B, str.3) Box 1 (no Eb,str.2)

Box 1
(primary)

l5 l'7 l5 l7 t9

Other tonalities
Box 2
Below,the minorbluesscaleis alsoshownin E and C.
t5 I7
To playthe scalein tonalitiesnot shownhere,simply
shift the entire sequenceof boxes up or down the
fretboard.(Seepage63 for notenameson the neck.)
v

Box 3 E minor blues

Box 1 (omitB, str.3) BoxS Box5
15 t7

Box 4 J ) t2 l5 r7 19 2l
(secondary)
Box 2 Box4 (omitFil, str.3) Box 1 (omitBb, str.2) Box 3
l5 t7

A
l2 l5 t7
Box 5
U

t2 l5 17 C minor blues
Box 3 Box 5 Box 2 Box 4 (omitD, str. 3)

Fingering: Box 1 is in fifthposition(stretch'back

a fret
on string 3 then slide up immediatelyto play the
remainingnotes in fifth position).Box 2, in seventh ' l
9 1 2 15 17 l9 2l
position,utilizesa similarprocedure(slidethe fourth
Box4 (omitD, str.3) Box 1 (omitGb, str.2) Box3 Box 5
fingerup a fret on strings1 and 6).Whereboxes3, 4,
and 5 callfor fournoteson a string,playthe firstthree
as positionalfingering, thenslideyourfourthfingerup
to catchthe lastnote.Reversethis for descending. l5 t7 l9 2l

22 23