Neck explorationA minor riffs that refuse to stay in one box
Eight riffs whose whole point is travel. Each one moves through several positions — sliding, shifting, or cutting diagonally — so the neck stops being five boxes and starts being one long road. Every riff has a map above its TAB showing exactly where it goes.
ACEGother scale tones
A / before a fret number means slide into it from the previous note on that string — one pick, the slide does the rest. Notes stacked in the TAB are played together.
Start at 70. These are about geography more than speed: on the first few passes, look at the map, not your hand, and say the fret numbers as you shift. Speed comes later and comes easily once the shifts are automatic.
Vertical routes — up and down one or two strings
N1
Two-string climb
D and G strings, 5 → 17
A minor pentatonic played entirely on the D and G strings, sliding up a position every three notes. Five positions, one shape, and by the end you're at the 17th fret without ever having "changed box".
CueThe slide is the shift — let it carry you, don't re-pick after it. Come back down the same way when you run out of neck.
N2
One-string blues
G string, 2 → 14 and back
The A blues scale on a single string. No boxes, no patterns, just the distances: tone, minor 3rd, tone, semitone, semitone, minor 3rd, tone. Learn this and you can find the scale on any string.
CueOne finger the whole way if you like — that's how Landau does it. Feel the frets get closer as you go up.
N7
Up the A string, down the D
A Dorian, horizontal
A Dorian played horizontally — all seven notes on one string going up, then all of them on the next string coming down. You cover an octave and a half using two strings and every fret from open to 14.
CueThis is the fastest way to learn what F# does to A minor — you'll hear it at fret 9 on the way up and fret 4 on the way down.
Box-to-box — the same shape in every position
N3
Octave shifter
E/D strings up, A/G strings back
The pentatonic in octaves, marching up on the low E and D strings, then swapping to A and G to come back. Fat, Wes-style, and the octave shape is the same everywhere so your eyes stay on the low note.
CueMute the string in between with the underside of your first finger. Thumb over the neck for the low E shape if that's comfortable — it is for most people.
N4
Same lick, five boxes
B and e strings, box 1 → 5
One four-note descending cell — high to low, two notes per string — moved through all five pentatonic positions. You already know the cell; the exercise is knowing where it lives everywhere else.
CueEach cell is A minor pentatonic, but each starts on a different note, so each has a different flavour. Say the top note out loud as you shift: C, D, E, G, A, C.
N5
Diagonal 3rds
G and B strings, 5 → 17
Diatonic 3rds walked up the G and B strings, broken (low note then high) so the interval is a melody rather than a chord. The frets don't line up neatly — that's the major/minor 3rd alternation you're hearing.
CueOnce the broken version is clean, play the last bar as double stops and let them ring. That's the Hendrix half of the vocabulary again.
Phrases that travel
N6
The long slide line
5 → 17 → back, G B e strings
A phrase, not an exercise: it starts low in position, slides its way to the top of the neck on the G and B strings, peaks on the high A, and slides back down. This is how a solo travels — a slide on every string change up, a slide on every string change down.
CueLet each slide take the full eighth note — the travelling is the sound. Try it against the Am7 vamp at 80.
N8
Diagonal sweep
E5 → e20, box 1 to box 5 in one run
Two notes per string, but shifting up a box on each string, so the run cuts diagonally across the neck from the 5th fret on the low E to the 20th on the high e, then comes back down the same diagonal.
CueTwo notes per string means the picking is a steady down-up, down-up with a string change every two. Start it as 16ths at 60 and it becomes a shred run around 90.