Breaking out of the box.

[Outlaw]

I'm sure this has happened to some of you in some form or another but I've gotten stuck playing the same shitty blues-y box scale:

E---------------------------------------------------12--15--
B-----------------------------------------12--15------------
G-------------------------------12--14----------------------
D---------------------12--14--------------------------------
A------------12--14-----------------------------------------
E--12--15---------------------------------------------------

for all my soloing "needs" and I can't seem to shake it. It was my first introduction to soloing that a guitar teacher showed me many years ago and I spend many years afterwards just getting by with it and with little variations of added notes for "spice".

This last year though I've gotten back playing guitar after a fairly long break and wanted to break this nasty habit (along with a few others) and push my playing much further but I haven't had much luck. Not to mention this "scale" doesn't exactly suit the style of music I'm playing very well. The last "jam session" I was at I defaulted any soloing to this box and just shifted position on the neck to match the key of whatever the other guitarist was playing.

I've try learning another scales, and manage to memorize and play the shit out of it for one practice session but the next day they seem to vanish and it's back to the same old default boxy scale above.
Any tips?

[VitaminG]

a lot of the other scales actually fit pretty nicely within your old faithful. Remembering which notes have been added to the pentatonic box you know so well can be a way to get used to expanding into other scales.

eg. E aeolian (or the good ol' minor scale). You can see all the notes of the pentatonic that you would use to wail over a blues in E, but added notes make it a full diatonic minor scale

E----------------------------------------------12-14-15-----
B-----------------------------------12-13-15----------------
G-----------------------------12-14-------------------------
D--------------------12-14-16-------------------------------
A-----------12-14-15----------------------------------------
E--12-14-15-------------------------------------------------

Try throwing a few of those into your usual licks for some flavour. You can also use the same scale over a major progression in G.

You can move your pentatonic box up the 7th position for more of the same scale. The additional notes within the pentatonic box will change though:

E-------------------------------------7-8-10----------------
B-----------------------------7-8-10------------------------
G------------------------7-9--------------------------------
D----------------7-9-10-------------------------------------
A---------7-9-10--------------------------------------------
E--7-8-10---------------------------------------------------

These is just two examples within one scale, and you can apply the same principle to the minor scale in the 5th position, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with examples. Sometimes part of the problem with internalising these things is trying to take in too much new info at once. This approach leverages off info you already know and adds 2 notes to a scale you're already familiar with.

[Outlaw]

Thanks VitaminG! I noticed in the first one there's a few notes that I add to my tried and true box that I use as "spice" (the 14 on the high E and 13 on the B string), I'll have to work on throwing in the extras on the other strings as well and see what licks come of them.

*Which leads to another problem but an entirely different discussion; in which I also default to the same licks over and over, so each solo sounds similar no matter the song being played*

Sometimes part of the problem with internalising these things is trying to take in too much new info at once.

I'm almost positive this was the major problem I was having. I was trying to learn all 5 positions of the minor pentatonic scale in one go so I could solo up and down the fretboard instead of being stuck within the one box on one small section of the fretboard.

[Endrik]

Breaking out of the box is very easy... just play the notes which aren't in the box.

Every note is useable. Some sound good alone, some work as a passing tone some work for creating a dissonance. Just jam endlessly over backing tracks and try putting the notes in the box and the notes out of the box together. It all comes through trial and error.
It also helps if you sing along to your playing to get your ear really sensitive for detecting intervals. At the end what you want to do is not to look the fretboard as just a combination of box shapes and scales but a playground with a lot of options where you can improvise by using your inner ear and instinct. At first the easiest is trying to play linear lines and melodies going step by step, figuring out wether the next fitting note is half or full step away. Usually if you make an "error" then its only half step off and the next half step is right. Theoretically it's very simple. Just play your ass off.

[Mr Sandman]

Drop the ole` faithful down 3 frets and you got ummm, errrrrrr, E Major Blues?

Just remember to start and finish on the E when playing the scale (or I`ll get flamed ) then hit an E chord so you get an idea of what the scale does.

You can bend the shit outta all them notes... Bend them strings!!!

[Grandturk]

Don't forget your "blue note" or passing tone - the flatted fifth. Add that in for authentic blooze power

[micha]

It helped me quite a lot to paint the scales I want to memorize on paper.
I did some painting of an empty fretboard in MS-Word which I use as print-forms and just mark the notes I want to play.
Shoot me a pm if you'e interested in the file.

Usually I do one painting with the scale over the whole fretboard, just as a visual help to noodle around a bit, and others with three notes per string stuff starting from the first tone of the scale, anothetr one from the second and so on.

Further it might help to train playing between g and b string seperately, since this couple is the only one with a different interval between them.
Some players even avoid these strings and prefer a bigger skip between frets instead.
Watch this from minute 4 to get an idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES1RypBww_g

Now I'm sure Paul knows how to play between g and b, but it might be easier to keep in mind this way.
This figure actually shows pretty well, that it's just the same combinations between full and half steps repeating over and over, it might help you as well to close some gaps.
At least it helped my mind to go click at some point...

Arpeggios are a great way to find your notes as well.
just play the chords of your scale once based on the E string (Em, E) and the A string (open C for example) to the D string (major, minor) and soon your fretboard will be full of notes you can play.

Playing the same licks starting from different strings might help as well.

But I highly suggest to paint it down as a visual help, and avoid trying all at once.
Look out for a new "field" on your fretboard and stay with that for a couple of days...

[Grandturk]

It also helps to get a feel for the notes on one string up and down the neck - just practice on one string at a time. You can even break it up into scale fragments - make a little melody of it.