Play In Any Minor Key Across the Neck

How to Play in Any Minor Key Across the Entire Neck

Discover ↓

• How to use the exact same “master roadmap” you already created to play in any minor key. This way, no matter if you’re at home alone, playing along to a song you love, jamming with friends, or up on stage, you can play in ANY major or minor key – which covers 99.9% of songs out there today.

(video)

Do This → Action Steps ↓

1. Watch the entire video above to get a clear idea of exactly what to do in order to play in a minor key.
2. Here’s how to “place” the major scale patterns on the fretboard for minor keys. For any MINOR key, for example the key of “A Minor”, you need to know 2 things in order to know where to “place” your major scale patterns on the fretboard. 1) You need to know the “keynote”. In this case (in the Key of A Minor), the keynote is “A”. 2) The second thing we need to know is which “major scale pattern” to start with on the Keynote. Since we’re in a MINOR key, this tells us to start with “major scale pattern 6”. (Remember, in MAJOR keys, we start with “major scale pattern 1”). So now that we have our 2 things we need to know, find the keynote, then start major scale pattern 6 from the keynote. That means find your “A” note on the Low E string (5th fret) with your FIRST FINGER, then start major scale pattern 6 from that note.
3. Practice Improvising. Use the key of A Minor. Go to YouTube and search for an “A Minor Backing Track” in the style of your choosing (I’d suggest something “slow”). When the track is playing, begin improvising using Major scale pattern 6, starting on your “A” note on the low E string. When you get reasonably comfortable playing with major scale pattern 6, move “up” the fretboard (toward your body) using the one string scale (on the low E string) as a guide to locate where the other major scale patterns start, then practice improvising using the other major scale patterns, one at a time. For example, if you were improvising with major scale pattern 6, you could move “up” (toward your body) and improvise in major scale pattern 7 for a couple of minutes. Then you could move up again (using the one string scale on the low E string as a guide) and improvise using major scale pattern 1…. or 2… or 3… or 4… etc. As long as you connect each major scale pattern according to where each one starts along the one string scale on the low E string, every major scale pattern you play will be “in the key” of A Minor. (In other words, each pattern will sound GOOD with the backing track). If you’re on the “A” note on your low E string, you should also try moving “down” the fretboard (away from your body) to improvise using the major scale patterns in that area of the fretboard as well. For example, if you’re on “A” on the low E string – and playing pattern 6, you could move “down” (away from your body) two frets and practice improvising using major scale pattern 5 (in this case, it would start on the 3rd fret on the low E string). You can keep moving “down” the fretboard (away from your body) to improvising with the other major scale patterns as well (patterns 4…3…2… etc.). In this step, I want you to aim at being able to play ALL ACROSS THE FRETBOARD. This means you’ll be playing in all 7 major scale patterns as you move “up” and “down” the fretboard. Your playing will feel “mechanical” right now, and THAT’S OK. We just want to get used to playing everywhere, all across the fretboard. You do want that… right? ?
4. Repeat step 3 for each of the following keys: G MINOR, B MINOR, C MINOR