Interstitial Patterns, or, Why Some People Say I Think Too Much

Without a doubt, one of the lifelong quests of the guitarist, particularly the guitarist that pursues improvisational leads, is seeing the neck as one pattern, or looked at another way, eventually dispensing with the need to see any patterns at all; or, looked at even another (and more exaggerated) way, seeing the neck as having every mode and pentatonic position on every fret, it's just that they're all interconnected into one big pattern.

That's a lofty ambition for even the experienced pro. With the exception of people like Alan Holdsworth, who have a superhuman view of the guitar, I'd be willing to bet that almost every guitar player sees the neck as, at the advanced level, a series of intertwined patterns, and at intermediate and beginner levels, as a series of boxes (you've heard the term often lauded by many training courses as helping you "break out of the box").

I'm no different than anybody this way; while my view of the neck is evolving all the time, when I'm in a jam or run into a key or chord progression I'm not accustomed too, even if I see it coming a mile away, there I go into the safety of a known box. It's not a bad thing; I'm in key, I know where the roots are so I can hit at least the root chord tone, so I won't get thrown out of the bar for abusive wanking. And of course, most structured music leverages these vertical patterns on the guitar because they are readily accessible, both to the finger and the ear.

Not a bad thing, no; but it's safe, and feels "student-ish", and I like to experiment. Sure I can throw artificial harmonics, squeals and pops, some finger tapping, whatever, into the mix, but in the end I'm adrift in a river of music, floating in a safe cardboard box with the flag "A minor pentatonic postion 1" flying in the breeze. Not much of a differentiator there.

To that end, I started trying to figure out some useful exercises to join together the keystone positions of the neck; the seven modes, and the five pentatonic shapes. If you've read some of my previous articles, you might know of the CAGED PMAID 45123 framework. This exercise idea takes that to the next level by filling in the spaces between.

The crux of the biscuit; find patterns that aren't typically documented, between the patterns that are. I call these the "interstitial patterns". It's a little different than extended patterns, because it doesn't attempt to join two patterns, it attempts to create new ones, sorta.

Here's one example that I already use; it has an interesting sound, and joins together the Aeolian and Ionian positions without shifting between the two. Aeolian and Ionian are consecutive positions as far as most guitarists are concerned; Ionian is the relative mode of Aeolian, for instance, A Aeolian is the relative mode of C Ionian (or, A is the relative minor of C major); very seldom do I see a guitarist say, "that's when I moved from Aeolian, to Locrian, to Ionian".

Note that, as I've mentioned before, the Locrian mode is an important one, particular when playing over your half diminished chords and such. I should actually work on it more.

So... (starting at indicated number fret, you play the X and R symbols, the "R" symbols are the roots).

Here's A minor, or A Aeolian:

5
-R-XX
-XX-X
XX-X-
-X-R-
-X-XX
-R-XX

Here's the relative major, C Ionian:

7
XR-X-
-X-X-
X-XX-
X-XR-
XX-X-
XR-X-

Now, take the notes from the two patterns that make a single pattern that overlaps both. I came up with this:

6
-X--X
X---R
-X--X
-R--X
-X--X
-X--X

Very simple pattern, and contains notes not typically played as a sequential scale from either C major or A minor. But they're all in there, it's not random. It does have almost a Lydian quality to it though, notice that the "F" (or the sixth of the Aeolian / fourth of the Ionian) is doubled (no doubt what gives it the spacey, floating quality of the Lydian mode, I should probably analyze that a bit more).

Remember though, that the point of this pattern is to make the "bridge" from one typical pattern to another more seamless; although you can experiment with it in your improv, be careful, because it does sound kinda wonky if you just blow through it.

Complicate it a bit: add the blues note from related modes. In this case, A minor / C Major would be the D# (I indicate the blues note with a "B")

6
-X--XB
X---R-
-XB-X-
-X--X-
BX--X-
-X--X-

Now that's spacey.

Anyways, this is one of the things I experiment with; sometimes I take it out and it works, sometimes people say, "wtf was that can't you play anything straight". Either way, it's helping build my voice, whatever that may be, and if nothing else, has me staring at the neck and getting used to where notes and intervals are, which is always a good thing.

Have fun with this, remember, always listen to the band, mind your chord tones, show up on time, wear clean underwear (unless you're on a string of really great gigs then superstition rules the roost), and all that.

Fretboard Framework, the name, and all related articles, are the creations and property of Tim Consolazio.

Copyright 2009 By Tim Consolazio. All rights reserved.