Week 1: A minor pentatonic box 1, and where the root lives
Week one of a 32-week guitar practice path: owning box 1 at the 5th fret, and finding the three roots inside it. Blues or rock.
- Week
- 1 of 32
- Days
- 7
- Played as
- blues or rock
Both tracks start in exactly the same place, because everything else is built on it. Box 1 of A minor pentatonic is five notes in one position at the 5th fret, two per string, and it is the single most useful shape on the guitar for lead playing in either idiom.
What differs is the discipline attached. The blues week hangs it on feel and on hearing where the root sits; the rock week hangs it on a strict alternate-picking hand. Same shape, same roots, different thing being trained — which is the pattern for most of the sixteen weeks.
Blues treatment
A minor pentatonic Box 1: clean, in time, and find the roots
Almost everyone starts here, and almost everyone rushes it. Box 1 of A minor pentatonic is five notes in one position at the 5th fret, two per string — the single most useful shape on the guitar for blues lead. The temptation in week one is to learn the pattern and immediately start running it up and down. That produces a player who can execute a shape and cannot say anything with it.
So this week has a second job that matters more than the first: finding the root. A turns up three times inside the shape — low E at the 5th, D string at the 7th, high e at the 5th — and those are the notes that sound resolved when the band is on the I chord. Knowing where they are is what turns a pattern into a key. Every day this week ends by landing phrases on one of them over a real 12-bar.
The daily session · ~24 min
- Warm upHands + ear echo4 min
- A minor pentatonic, Box 1Clean, one note per click4 min
- Find the rootsWhere A lives in the box5 min
- Roots over the formLand at home6 min
- Jam, 12-bar blues in APut it together5 min
Check yourself
- Play box 1 ascending and descending, one note per click, with no buzzed or muted notes. Twice through.
- Without looking at a diagram, point to all three A roots in the shape.
- Over the backing track, play four short phrases and land every one of them on an A.
Reference
Rock treatment
A minor pentatonic Box 1, straight and driving, with clean alternate picking
The shape is the same one every rock player uses, and the reason it works under distortion is that it contains no half-steps to turn into mud. Box 1 at the 5th fret, two notes per string. The blues track spends week one on feel; this one spends it on the pick hand, because rock lead lives or dies on right-hand accuracy.
Strict alternate picking, down-up, one note per click, no exceptions and no rushing. Speed later is entirely a product of evenness now — a player who practises sloppily at 100 will be sloppy at 160. The other half of the week is roots: A appears three times in the shape, and knowing where they are is what lets a phrase resolve instead of just stopping.
The daily session · ~24 min
- Warm upHands + fast picking4 min
- A minor pentatonic, Box 1Straight & driving4 min
- Find the rootsWhere A lives in the box5 min
- Drive over the vampStraight eighths6 min
- Jam, minor rock vampPut it together5 min
Check yourself
- Play box 1 with strict alternate picking, one note per click, no buzzes. Twice through.
- Without looking, find all three A roots in the shape.
- Over the vamp, land four phrases on an A.
Reference
How the week runs
Whichever accent you pick, the material stays the same for all 7 days and the tempo and intent move. Day one takes it slowly, day two chases clean notes, day three brings it to target tempo and into the jam, day four pushes past comfortable, and day five drops back to tempo to record and listen. Days six and seven are yours.
You can switch accent any day without losing your place — it is the same week either way, so week 1 means the same thing in both.