I have been playing guitar for over 40 years. Almost 45. Jeeze I’m old. But I just learned something the other day, that blew my mind and I wished I would have learned this 44 years ago.

It’s extended scales, diagonal scales, linear scales, 2 string patterns, 2 notes per string, whatever you want to call it, it’s changing my playing.

Let me explain. The theory is this, break your guitar up into 3 sets of 2 strings. E and A. D and G. B and E. Now you play a pattern on one set of strings and copy and paste it to the other sets of strings (up 2 frets). So no more learning, boxes, arpeggio patterns, scale patterns, etc. You just learn a pattern on 2 strings and copy and paste it to the other strings (up 2 frets). Keep in mind the shift at the b string.

If you think about things this way, and start looking at scales, patterns, boxes, etc. you will notice that these repeat on each set of strings. It really has freed me up and allowed me to really feel confident in my fretboard knowledge.

This is just the basic idea, I will go into further details in further lessons. But take a look at the patterns you already know and see how this applies.

If we look at the G Major Pentatonic scale. You’ll notice by the different colors that the 2 string pattern repeats on each string set. Cool right? This pattern is called a 3:2. Meaning you alternate between 3 notes per string and 2 notes per string. Try it. With this technique you can now cover 3 octaves and you are not trapped in a box. Look how much neck you just covered by memorizing just one 2 string pattern. This would also be the same for the E Minor Pentatonic scale, except the root would be E instead of G, but the pattern is the same.

This applies to much more than just the pentatonic scale. I will cover more in upcoming lessons. But mess around with this for a while, and tell me it’s not the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. 🙂