Bryan Fusilier

This lesson will introduce you to “The Five Boxes”. If you really want to follow along with my method of applying Music Theory to the guitar you will have to memorize these boxes thoroughly. Everything I have to say about learning scales and harmonizing involves learning how to move these boxes around the guitar.

Note: When learning these boxes it is important that you finger the patterns correctly. I have labeled the correct finger numbers on each of the notes of the boxes to help you get this down. Refer to this chart to see what finger numbers correspond to which fingers:

Let’s get started. Here are each of the Boxes listed in order with the proper fingerings indicated:

Here is a video that shows you how they look on a guitar:

Fast Tube by Casper

Remember, everything I will have to say about learning scales and harmonizing involves learning how to move these boxes around the guitar, so you will have to commit them to memory before you can really go any further.

So go slow, take them one at a time and get them under your fingers. What you’re shooting for here is to be able to play any of the boxes from any position on the guitar without having to really think about them. For example, if I say play me Box 3 starting from the 4th fret on the low E-string, you should be able to quickly put your 1st finger on the 4th fret of the low E-string and bang out Box 3 without hesitation. This applies to all of the boxes.

In the next lesson, we are going to learn how these boxes interlock to form a “Master Pattern”. Before we can do that, your fingers need to have these five patterns memorized.