My love of the guitar began in 1965 at the age of 12 when a friend's younger brother, Joe, taught me “Tom Dooley”. I went home & played it for my Dad. (I have no memory of trying to play anything on Dad's guitar before this. Just saying.) The next day, my friend, Dexter, taught me “Wild Wood Flower”. I went home & played that for Dad as well. This inspired him to go out on the third day & buy me a Gibson Melody Maker & an amp from a pawn shop. Not too far down the road, the first song I taught myself mostly by ear was “Purple Haze”. Dad asked, "What happened to the Country music?". The rest is history.
There are plenty of books & theses on how to play guitar from the traditional approach. What I share here is not meant to completely circumvent or replace them. These are my own observations & insights into some routes I use to traverse the guitar neck. Plus some nuggets I have gleaned from decades of teaching guitar. Most of what I know is self taught. But I did confirm what I surmised via traditional resources.
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Using all the fingers of your fingering hand is important in developing speed and fluidity. "Exercise 1" will help.
As a teacher, I evolved after I saw a new route emerge on the guitar's neck. It became a system I refer to as "2s & 3s". It started out as an alternative to the pentatonic boxes or positions. Now it encompasses so much more.
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More dramatic scales can easily be created by altering the primary "2s & 3s" template. "advanced 2s & 3s" has several variations to experiment with.
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As "2s & 3s" evolved, "6 followed by 6" emerged. This concept enables you to see 10 frets of available notes at a glance.
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