How To Switch Between Minor And Major Blues Sounds - No 3 Fret Rule! 

I guess I need to watch again. At the point of just understanding where you were going, you became as clear as mud for me. Ill get back after I watch it again.

I stumbled onto this by accident yesterday and wasn’t 100% sure if what I found was correct. Your explanation cleared it up and now it makes sense. I was never comfortable with dropping down 3 frets because it never sounded right. Using box 2 is the way to go. Thanks for the great lesson.

Most excellent. I wish you would've extended the video another 3.5 minutes and played lead over a standard A major blues backing track just to show how it's done. As an instructor, you are the exception.. too many "teachers" spend more time trying to impress rather than teach. Thanks again...

I like how you mentioned the scale you used over each chord position before

That was a great lesson Griff. I have been playing in F#m wondering why it didn't sound quite right over an Am7. The explanation was very clear, thank you.

This is good! I too find the 3 fret rule - even when starting with pinkie on your root note - does tend to make my brain still want to make reference to familiar patterns .. as you say, it is a mental thing. Thanks for a well presented lesson, I've subscribed. Keep up the good work.

Hi! Thanks a lot. A true eyeopener to me. You've made it simple and easy to remember. I could use more of your demos.

Great lesson! 🔝🎸🔝

I would highly recommend checking out Griff’s course on mixing major and minor pentatonics/blues scale shapes. Its an in depth study into this concept.

Great little tip. Thanks!

When playing the minor pentatonic 3 frets down for a major sound, just remember to finish licks on your index finger instead of ring finger. That's one way I learned. Or finish on pinky if on 1st and 6th string

EXCELLENT lesson! I kinda figured this out on my own, but your explanation has filled in a lot of blank spots in my head, lol

Wow very well explained - thank you for that. Going to look for more of your lessons online.

Really helpful. So glad I discovered your work.

This was a really well explained helpful lesson...thank you!

Great lesson this very thing has been bugging me for weeks and now it makes perfect sense cheers man

When you are in box one, you need to remember the a. Good lesson. I have been playing for a long time and only started the major stuff thanks to the Allman Brothers whom I only recently started to appreciate.

Excellent lesson! Yeah, I was taught the same way, which didn't make sense to me either. It's now really funny looking back on those days. I would always play the F#m but made sure I landed on A... but still was awkward. But, that's what I was taught, too.

Got it. Once explained like that . . . There's no going back.

Nicely explained, thanks !

Excellent as always...

Excellent lesson.

Great video thank you

👍 Great video griff keep up the good work thanks

I have been doing this lately and find it much easier than making a key change to the relative M or m. Basically, I chord (think box 2), IV chord (think box 1) with respect to the "tonal center."

Dude!!! That was freakin awesome,, you hit the nail on the head brother! I had the same thoughts you did,, this dropping down 3 fretz”kinda” is ok,, but box 2 seems to be the an, Ty!!!!!

This is way easier to play without screwing up the root notes! I seemed to have trouble hitting my root notes when using the first box Major scale but using the second box and making it a major scale seems natural. I started right out playing some old tune that just came out . My Girl. I think it was back in the 60's.

thank you. You've just fixed the exact problem I have. Hope we can interview you on our channel at some point. (Harp and Guitar - People and Music).

Thank you so much!

It took 11 minutes to get the the meat of this video but, once there, it was quite helpful. So thank you!

Very good

I never thought about using the 2nd position as the Major Pentatonic when in A. Works very nice BUT you can still go down three frets as long as to use A as your root, and don't keep using F# as your root (just like you said). I think of it as best of both worlds. Nice video. I learned something. If there is anything wrong with my opinion, please let me know. Maybe I missed something. Liked and subscribed.

Outstanding tutorial. I believe Billy Gibbons plays this style. Makes it easier to play and sing. Sounds great and simple to learn. 👍

Well explained Thanks!

“Starting from any given root note, if you start with box 1 on that note you’re gonna get a minor sound, if you start box 2 on that note you’re gonna get at Major sound” 13:25

Another way to target root notes when dropping down 3 frets to he major pentatonic is to use the CAGED forms. In this example, use the full G chord form to play an A chord. The root note (A) is on the 3rd string second fret, and on 1st & 6th strings fifth fret. Using CAGED forms will get you targeting the root, third, and fifth notes. They are in the chord and in the scale.

He does a pretty cool little lick at about 7:48

I've watched your DVD years go on this method and just recently. I think its still in the DVD player, I'm thinking its you because nobody has that fender copy of your Suter? Not sure when you made that and not sure were I got your DVD from. You looked way younger and your vocal tone has changed and I don't believe you had glasses. But you did teach this. Mixing major and minor. Now it seems a lot of people probably just copied you from back in the day. I'm seeing a lot of the same method of teaching on utube. You diffently are a blues guitar teacher and a really good one from the DVD that seemed like hours of information.

Excellent instruction!!! I was wondering about this down 3 fret trick but you have explained it very well. Now ..it is practice practice practice ....I want to get to the level of Peter Green and Danny Kirwan...and the slide work of Jeremy Spencer!!!!!

Thanks, finally I undestood !

that was great!

I thought this is a commonly taught aspect of playing in both keys? It does add that little nuance that's lost if played incorrectly. However, you did a fine job of getting into the playing it the best sounding way. BTW: That is the most beautiful color, for a 335, Gibson makes!! I have one, without the flame top. But is has block inlays. I was always a Les Paul guy, until I picked up a 335! You don't have to plug-in to practice. That's just one reason I have fallen hard for this semi hollow body! I also want to try the 339 and the Ibenaz version.

Excellent

Nice lesson :-)

I didn't know John Oliver gave guitar lessons!! Cool!

First that is a beautiful guitar! Wish you would have played A maj from pinky! Thanks again for your time and expertise!!

Thanks for the lightbulb moment.

Hi nice vid, as a bass player for 30 years I understand what you've explained, but I think it will still confuse less advanced players. Soz as I'm not sure who this lesson is intended for. I think it could be explained a little easier as to why u target the A, in regard to 2nd box F sharp box and not the F sharp as the need to resolve when playing A7 chord. Hope this makes sense which it might not as I've just finished working a 12 hr shift. Anyway I still have learnt or refreshed something from watching your video. Will check out more of your content as you can always learn, even if it's not your particular instrument. Time 4 sleep cheers.

Excellent lesson, but remember,we are targeting chord tones as well as the major or minor pentatonic notes. If you remember that, then there is less chance to hit that f# when playing major penta

Nice videos, Thanks for sharing. I’m always curious on different people’s thought processes and approaches in music. Thanks Again .... 😉👍

nice ---but perhaps fix A not Am at 7:02 - will probably confuse some peeps

That reminds me: Moon is a really good film.

I've been looking at past comments and it appears Questions don't seem to get answered......

fei chang gan xie.thank you very much.

I understand well this, but for me the big problem is to create good phrases with the position 1 of the A major pentatonic... We are so used of using the position 1 of minor pentatonic which allows to play bends and all these licks we know so well... For me the only way to sound major within our familiar minor penta postion 1 is to play the major third... If somebody can help ....

What size strings do you use on that guitar?

Griff I saw another video don’t remember who from Where the major Third was used as a pivot point in switching between major an minor pentatonic. Can you elaborate on that if u can ?

Griff- Great tip. A light bulb just went on!

If I move up three frets to make it A Major can't we just start on the A with our little finger ?

Sliding down three shouldn't be avoided - it's the most natural box for hammer on/pull offs, even if the licks used for the minor pentatonic don't always work for the major. A good example is Dickey Betts' solo in Statesboro Blues. He starts in first position major and goes to positions 2 and 3 and then basically does the same with minor all in the same solo.

beautiful guitar

Let me see if I got this right. Another RU-vid video I watched recently said that in a standard 1 4 5, a quick and easy, down and dirty way to think about it is that on the 1, play major, on the 4 and 5, go minor. So, assuming that much is true, (let's say we are in A) on the 1 I would use the a box 2 pattern starting on fret 5. Then, on the 4 and 5, I would stay at fret 5 for my base, but 'switch' to box 1?

I don't get it, but I'm not a really good blues guy so someone help me out. Now I did already know about the relative major/minor part. What I don't get is why you'd play A minor pentatonic and switch to ...F# minor pentatonic? I don't get how one can say they fit. Now, I do understand they have some same notes . But the implication is A major pentatonic, not minor. As in, I would understand in a second if you'd say "from a major pentatonic to f# minor pentatonic", to me that would make sense immediately.

Don't know about the others but this makes a world that of sense to me. The other day I saw a video om pentatonics and the guy played the 1st shape of Aminor and the shame shape on Cmajor and he stressed on the same Aminor pentatonic,the scale however beeing the same it was bother me and I was getting irritated to start soloing on Aminor pentanic box 1 over Cmajor Chord. I had to copy paste the same 5 notes startting on C on 8th fret and I was fine. This is what is explained beautifully on this video i.e. to focus on the tone Also I have a question that if I am playing on 1 6 4 5 chords progression i.e. C Am F G so when soloing over C major I play C pent. over Am Chords I play Am pent. but what do I play whem chord is F and G and then back to C? is Fmajor pent.over Fmajor chord and Gmajor pent. over Gmajor chord will be fine when the tonic is C major and scale is C major in the progression?

i use to index and pinky finger trick

I never quite understood why the resolve had to be the root note. Why can’t it be the 3rd? It’s logical just the same, and provides a harmony that the root note does not.

I always say use index finger to start a minor pent. and to switch to same key major put your pinkie on the root and do the pent 1 box

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I need to watch this several times to get everything right, but switching between shape 1 and 2 over the same root note to get major from minor is GOLDEN. Now, is it the same analogue for, say, minor shape 2 - switch to shape 3 to get the major (being mindful, of course, of differente root note positions?

Just switch between Ionian and blues/Pentatonic , much much more melodic variety. A great way to spice it up is (for example) do your usual blues phrasing then flurry it up with some Ionian / Major scale legato runs using the same Pentatonic skeletal framework . Coz you can't do three note per string on Pentatonics.

Handsome intelligent talented

Just start on second note of box 1 to get good intervals in your scales, no need 20 minutes vidéo to understand that

"Like"

The SIMPLEST FORM= learn to play with the CIRCLE of FIFTHS or Fourths...No errors will be obtained.

Rod Stewart

Why does a band say "We're gonna do a blues"-and then whispers "KEY OF A" to his bunch of jammers( who probably outnumber his audience) and never says "A MINOR"?

well some of it was help full all of it is true but your going through the scale too fast for beginners luckily im not a beginner so i know all the boxes and i know what your saying but without a diagram or a book a beginner wont know the blues scale has six note and the pent 5 they will become zombies

the more im into theory the less i want to play guitar.

Well ... you take a minor blues scale and a major scale and then ... youuuu-mix'um!!!!!

If I did not know already that box 2 is the caged E shape (which also sounds like my girl) I would have struggled to follow this. Hard to see which shapes you are playing without diagrams. It could’ve been made clear at the start of the video that you already need to know boxes 1 and 2 and that they are the same as the caged G and E shapes. TBH i’ve never liked calling them boxes 1 and 2 because there is nothing to help you memorise them. If you call them by the chord shapes that they look like (G and E) then it’s much easier to memorise. Also you are playing the A minor scale over an A7 chord and a dominant seven is a major chord….. I already knew that you can play both major and minor scales over major chords and get away with it. If somebody didn’t already know that I think they would be really confused. I teach guitar and it is probably the most difficult concept to teach and I still haven’t really found a way to do it well!!! At the end of the day though this video has obviously helped a lot of people so maybe it’s just me?

There is only one way to playa middle C on a guitarwhen in standard tuning. B string 1st fret 232 hz

Bla bla bla

Wish he would have shown how to play box 2. Makes this vid useless.

To much talk to a very simple matter.

Pushing your personal prejudice to undermine other's learning is disingenuous, boring and totally unhelpful. Utter crap from a teaching perspective.