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Lesson 4

Filling-in the gaps

We’re almost there, folks. Let’s get to it right away.

This is what we have so far.

If you’ve been following along and doing your part, you feel quite confident with these
red dots.

You can use this pattern higher up the neck as well (the fretboard repeats after the
12th fret), but there’s a gap of 4 frets you need to jump to get there. No biggie, but
heck, we need those notes! So let’s go get them.

This method is all about visual shapes. Remember the minor pentatonic shape that
looked like two bars with a chunk being pushed to the left?
You can find that shape again on the fretboard.

It’s the same shape, but in terms of notes it’s not the same as the A minor pentatonic
we saw before.

Adding that to the mix, this is what we have now.

But wait, there’s more! Let’s go a bit further. Remember that I said the scale is
cyclical? As you may have noticed, you now know notes on the 13th fret, which is the
same as the 1st fret.

Let’s move those 3 dots to where they belong!

That’s more like it. This is what we have, which is 100% of the fretboard. Well, not
quite, but I trust you’ll be able to add those 4 notes by ear.

NOW you know the entire fretboard. What’s left is to know your way around.
Practice is something you’ll always have to do - that’s the way you get better. But we
can squeeze out a bit more juice out of this.

As you look at the fretboard, take notice of patterns.

They’re all over the place. Those are a few. There’s probably 2 or 3 more. As you
practice, look for these patterns. They will be your anchor points and will be your
home base when you feel lost. Believe me, even the most experienced improvisers get
lost from time to time and hit the wrong note. But finding areas that you can
recognize will give you the opportunity to rest, play a phrase in a comfortable area
while you get yourself back on track and keep going with your improvising.

Octaves have also very recognizable visual patterns you can use to navigate, or to
make interesting jumps. Paul Gilbert uses this a lot.
Congratulations for making it this far. You’ve learned the entire fretboard in 4
lessons. I still have two more lessons to add a bit of spice to the mix and make you
better.

The key here is putting the time required to get this knowledge into your brain and
into your muscle memory. If you do your part, you will get there.
Practice Exercise

Use any of the provided backing track, or search for a new one. Just go to YouTube
and type something like “a minor guitar backing track”, or any key you’d like to
experiment on.

Take your time. You need to do this for many hours in order to wake up your musical
brain. You want to get to a point where you listen to the chord progression, come up
with a short phrase in your head, and then go find how to play it. It’s super fun!

Some exercise ideas:

‣ Start slow
‣ Go up the scale, and then down the scale
‣ Mix it up. Stop in the middle and then go back in the opposite direction
‣ Create your own exercises

The ultimate goal of this lesson is to get your brain and your muscle memory used to
this shape. Do it until you fell comfortable.

Need help?

Fe e l i n g l o s t ? Fe e l f r e e t o r e a c h o u t ! Send me an email to
hello@hackingleadguitar.com. I offer Skype lessons and I may have some dates
available.
Measure your progress

Help me spread the word. Would you consider recording yourself and posting your
video on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, using the hashtags: #hackingleadguitar
and #lesson4.

You can't improve what you can't measure. You will not only see progress in your
accuracy, but you'll see how quick you gain confidence and start getting creative.

End of Lesson 4