Week 10: the shapes are movable
Week ten of a 32-week guitar practice path: sliding the box and the chord shapes into new keys — E and G, or E and D.
- Week
- 10 of 32
- Days
- 7
- Played as
- blues or rock
Nine weeks in one key is enough to make the shapes automatic, and this is the week you discover that automatic is portable. The box is one shape you slide; the chords are one shape you slide. Move the root and the entire vocabulary moves with it.
What has to travel with them is your sense of where home is. The shape does not care what key it is in; you do. This is also why week one spent so long on roots — if you know a shape by its root rather than by its fret number, a key change is a slide rather than a re-count.
Blues treatment
Take the blues to new keys: the movable shapes in E and G
Nine weeks in A is enough to make the shapes automatic. This is the week you discover that automatic is transferable: the whole apparatus — box, licks, target tones — moves with the root. Slide box 1 down to the 3rd fret and you are playing in G. Move it to the 12th, or use the open position, and you are in E.
What has to move with it is your sense of where home is. The shape does not care what key it is in; you do. This is also why week one spent so long on roots — if you know the shape by its root rather than by its fret number, a key change is a slide rather than a re-count.
The daily session · ~25 min
- Warm upHands + rotate the whole neck4 min
- The movable Box 1 shapeSame shape, new fret4 min
- The chords in E and GI, IV, V in two keys6 min
- Play the changes in EThe form, moved6 min
- Jam, blues in E then GPut it together5 min
Check yourself
- Play box 1 in E and in G without counting frets up from A.
- Name the I, IV and V in both keys without pausing.
- Play a chorus in E, then the same phrases in G. Did anything break?
Reference
Rock treatment
Take the riffs and leads to new keys: movable power chords and boxes in E and D
Everything you have is portable, and this is the week that becomes obvious. Power chords are one shape you slide; the pentatonic box is one shape you slide. Move both to a new root and the entire vocabulary moves with them.
E is worth knowing specifically because the open low string gives riffs a weight no other key has on a guitar in standard tuning — which is why so much rock lives there. D at the 10th fret gives you the same shapes in a different register. What has to travel with the shapes is your sense of where home is.
The daily session · ~23 min
- Warm upHands + rotate the whole neck4 min
- Movable power chordsSlide the shape4 min
- The movable box in E and DSame shape, new fret4 min
- Play the vamp in EThe riff, moved6 min
- Jam, Em then Dm vampPut it together5 min
Check yourself
- Play the power-chord shape in E and D without counting up from A.
- Play box 1 in both keys and find the roots immediately.
- Play a vamp in Em, then the same phrases in Dm. Did anything break?
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 10 means the same thing in both.