This exercise is from the Core Skills section on developing Speed Techniques. As usual, check out the normal speed audio first.

Here we play 2 pentatonic 'box' licks. The overall scale used here is the D pentatonic minor scale. The 'box' simply refers to the fact that all the dots (fingers) used form a square or rectangular box shape on the fretboard. The pentatonic minor scale is famous for having many box shapes within it. Because boxes use adjacent frets, we can barre the 1st finger across 2 strings nicely throughout. In a lick like this, it is more comfortable and fast to play this way.

Notice that for either box, the exact same picking pattern is used. So once you've learned the first box shape, just apply the exact same thing to the second.

1st Box shape - 2nd Box shape (repeat)

Make sure you play both box shapes using exactly the same pickstrokes and pull offs as shown here. It's very repetitive and not very long, so well worth a few minutes each day to work at. This one will take practice, but once you have the lick nailed it is actually quite easy to build speed with.

Quickly switching between box shapes cleanly will take nearly as much practice as the actual lick. Just keep at it, and you will get the hang of it! This is a great little lick and it can be easily adapted to use in much longer solos. Because it's pentatonic it also works with a LOT of backing music, so it's very versatile. A great little lick for your overall back of tricks. Next we'll take a look at some examples of further uses.