How do I connect the five pentatonic boxes?

The short answer

The five boxes are not five separate scales. They are one scale cut into overlapping pieces, and neighboring boxes share the notes along the edge where they meet — in the standard fingerings used here, the top edge of one box is the bottom edge of the next. Learn two neighboring boxes, cross between them on the shared notes until it takes no thought, then add the next box.

In A minor pentatonic the joints, going up the neck, are at frets 2–3, fret 5, frets 7–8, frets 9–10 and frets 12–13.

Where the five boxes sit in A minor

A minor pentatonic is A C D E G. Here the boxes are numbered from the root — box 1 starts on A, box 2 on the next note, C, and so on — which is why box 1 is not the lowest on the neck. That is the usual convention, but not every teacher numbers them this way, so check which box a lesson means by its first note. Going up from the nut:

• Box 4 — frets 0–3, starting on E
• Box 5 — frets 2–5, starting on G
• Box 1 — frets 5–8, starting on A
• Box 2 — frets 7–10, starting on C
• Box 3 — frets 9–13, starting on D

After box 3 the pattern starts again an octave up: box 4 returns at frets 12–15. All five boxes of A minor pentatonic on one page.

The shared notes are the joints

Look at the border between box 1 and box 2. These 6 notes belong to both: C at fret 8 on the low E, E at fret 7 on the A, A at fret 7 on the D, D at fret 7 on the G, G at fret 8 on the B and C at fret 8 on the high E. Play box 1 up to its top edge and those notes are already under the fingers that start box 2. Every pair of neighbors works the same way.

Boxes 1 and 2 drawn as one shape. The ringed notes belong to both.

The roots are your landmarks. A sits at fret 5 on the low E, fret 7 on the D and fret 5 on the high E in box 1, and at fret 7 on the D and fret 10 on the B in box 2. Whichever box you are in, find an A first and the rest of the shape hangs off it.

A phrase that crosses the joint

Over an A minor chord, play: E at fret 5 on the B, G at fret 8 on the B, A at fret 5 on the high E, C at fret 8 on the high E and A at fret 10 on the B. The first three notes are box 1. The ringed G and C belong to both boxes — that is the joint. The last A is the same pitch as the A two notes before it, but now your hand is in box 2.

Play it until the move feels like part of the phrase, not a change of position. Then make up your own: start anywhere in box 1, cross on a ringed note, and end on an A in box 2.

A routine that joins them

1. Box 1 alone, to a click. Loop box 1 at 60 until every note lands on the beat, up and down.
2. Box 2 alone, the same way: loop box 2 at 60.
3. Cross the joint. Play up box 1, keep going into box 2 on the shared notes at frets 7–8, and come back down. Repeat until you stop noticing the border.
4. Add one box at a time, always joined to one you already know: box 3 above box 2, then box 5 below box 1, then box 4. Never all five at once.
5. Run one string the length of the neck. On the G string alone: A at 2, C at 5, D at 7, E at 9, G at 12 and A at 14. That single line crosses every box and shows how they stack.
6. Make music across a joint. Over an A minor chord, start a phrase in box 1 and end it on an A in box 2. Now the boxes are a place to move, not five places to sit.

The same five shapes in every key

Move the whole set and nothing changes but the fret numbers. In E minor pentatonic, box 1 starts at fret 0; in G minor, at fret 3. The shapes, their order and their joints stay the same. Every box of every pentatonic key.