5 Essential Blues Boxes
About The Series
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Quick Description
- 8 total lessons
- 10 minute previews for each
- Teaches the 5 main positions and shapes that are use most often in blues playing, specifically that I learned from watching Stevie Ray Vaughan.
About The Series
What do you see when you look at the fretboard? Some people see scales laid out across the frets. Some people see chords. But when it comes to soloing in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan, there’s a very distinct way to look at the fretboard that’s not really scales, and not really traditional blues shapes.
I call this set of positions "The 5 Essential Blues Boxes For Guitar" and when I introduced it, I had no idea if it would make sense to anyone but me. Since that time, I have received hundreds of emails thanking me for explaining this simple concept.
About the boxes
I’m an engineer by degree, and my mind thinks very geometrically, in terms of shapes. My music theory that I had been taught as a child didn’t translate so well to blues guitar. So as I learned more and more about his playing, I began to see these shapes appear on the fretboard. Used over and over and over, I realized that much of what he was playing, in all it’s glory, could be divided into 5 distinct positions on the fretboard.
This might not be how you see the guitar fretboard. You might prefer scales, or traditional blues pattern methodologies. I humbly respect your opinion. But if you’re like me and scales and traditional patterns seemed more confusing than helpful, I think this series of lessons might help you.
Watching The Lessons
Each lesson has a 10 minute free preview. If you learn all you need from those previews, than that’s great. However, the more in-depth lessons really cover a lot of ground that I think will take your playing to another level. If you like what you see in the free previews, consider buying the series as downloads, or on DVD. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Free 10 minute previews
Lesson 1: Introduction to the 5 Boxes
This lesson introduces the concept of the 5 boxes and provides a brief overview of each box and it’s sound.
This is the lesson that started off the series. When I released this lesson, it was the first lesson I did that had a free preview with a full length version available. The response was so good that it prompted me to complete the series detailing all the boxes I outline here.
This lesson was recorded right before I upgraded my camcorder to an HD model, so the video quality is not as good as the other videos
Free
- Introduces the 5 boxes and each box’s shape
- Demonstrates the sound of each box as used when soloing
Full Lesson
- More in depth detail about the concept
- Additional details about each box
- More information about moving the boxes around the fretboard.
Lesson 2: Answering Common Questions
While some people picked right up on the first lesson, I got questions from people from both ends of the music theory spectrum.
Some people with no music theory training had some basic questions about the major scale, playing in a certain key, and how these 5 positions related to that.
Yet others who had extensive music theory training wanted clarification about the differences between what I was teaching and what has traditionally been taught as blues scales and patterns.
This lesson was created to address and answer those questions.
Free
- What does it mean to play in a certain key?
- How is this different than "Blues Scales"?
- How to extend the boxes at the top of the neck
- How to move the boxes to a new key.
Full Lesson
- More detail on each of the above topics.
Lesson 3: Box 1 - The Root Box
After introducing the concept, and answering questions about it, I moved onto teaching details about each of the boxes. This was the first lesson of this type. I covered the first box, which I called "The Root Box."
Free
- I cover the structure of the box in detail,
- Show the most important notes in this box and their uses.
- A few "in-between" notes.
Full Lesson
- Transitioning from Box 1 (the Root Box ) to Box 2 (the Albert King box )
- The secret double life of Box 1. How you can play happy sounding riffs, right out of box 1 by using some "hidden" notes.
- Transitioning from Box 1, down to Box 5 (the Major Root box )
(I had some lighting issues in this lesson. I was still learning…. 
)
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Lesson 4: Box 2 - The Albert King Box
In this lesson I focused on the box that I call "The Albert King Box", or Box 2.
Free
- Structure of box 2.
- Common uses for each note in this box.
Full Lesson
- Hidden notes in this box
- Pickup switching techniques
- Picking techniques
- Call and Response Bends
- 3 String Bends -Walkup Bends
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Lesson 5: Box 3 - The B.B. King Box
This lesson covers Box 3, the B.B. King Box. It shows you how to add some major scale soloing into the normal bluesy sounding riffs from Box 1 and Box 2. A must-know for playing a well-rounded blues style. Stevie used this box when soloing in songs like "Life Without You", and "Tightrope".
Free
- Review of the Box 3 structure
- Purpose and use of each note in the box
Full Lesson
- Uses of hidden and auxiliary notes to Box 3
- Transitioning into / out of Box 3
- Pickup switching technique when using Box 3
- Special trick: When Box 1 comes to town (how and when you can overlay Box 1 onto Box 3).
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Lesson 6: Box 4 - The Clapton Box
This lesson covers Box 4, which I have named "The Clapton Box". Don’t read into the name too much, I only call it that because there’s a riff in this box that I heard Clapton play a couple times.
Stevie didn’t play in this box much, but I wanted to teach it anyway because it’s useful to know something you can do at this position on the fretboard.
Free
- Introduces the structure of Box 4
- Highlights the most important notes.
Full Lesson
- More detail on Box 4 as well as introducing a few licks that can be played here.
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Lesson 7: Box 5 - The Major Root Box
For those of you that love the song "Life without you", or songs like "While We Cry" by KWS, or "Yellow Ledbetter" by Pearl Jam, this is a box you must become intimately familiar with.
Free
- Review of Box 5 structure
- Explanation of each main note in this box and it’s purpose.
Full Lesson
- Hidden notes in Box 5
- Auxiliary notes in Box 5
- Slide-in technique
- Transitions in/out of Box 5
- And last but certainly not least: Hendrix style hammer on chords. I cover the basics of how this chording technique is used in Box 5.
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Lesson 8: The Backdoor Pattern
People have often asked why I teach some of these boxes on only 3 strings, and this lesson is the answer. Quite simply, I don’t like to teach things that aren’t used, and as useful as boxes 2, 3, and 4 are on the top 3 strings, the traditional blues shapes have been equally useless to me on the lower 3 strings.
So here is how I utilize the bottom 3 strings in the big empty area of my box diagrams. I call it the backdoor pattern, and it comes in handy for songs like Voodoo Chile’. Not nearly as useful as the boxes themselves, but it’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle for the way I see the fretboard.
Like all my lessons on the boxes, please don’t confuse this with something you read in a book, because it’s probably way different. This is just the way I look at the fretboard. If it works for you, run with it. If it’s not your thing, and you prefer more traditional theories, I ain’t mad at you. To each his own 
Free
- Introduces the backdoor pattern and shows 2 places in the 5 boxes that it can be used.
Full Lesson
- Introduces the other 2 positions that the backdoor pattern can be used.
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