Steve Stine Guitar Podcast

Improvisation Shortcuts to Learn NOW!

• Steve Stine

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Tired of being trapped in traditional scale positions? This eye-opening lesson reveals practical shortcuts that transform how you navigate the guitar fretboard when you need to think and move quickly. 

Starting with the familiar D major pentatonic scale, we explore how subtly repositioning the root note creates opportunities for more vocal-like expressions through sliding techniques. This simple adjustment immediately makes your playing sound more dynamic and less mechanical. The magic truly happens when we begin cutting diagonally across the fretboard, connecting multiple positions while maintaining our connection to essential chord tones.

What makes this approach revolutionary is the integration of three strategic chord shapes – the sixth-string barre, fifth-string barre, and D shape form. By focusing primarily on the top three strings of each shape, you'll develop melodic anchor points throughout your playing area. These shapes function as both targets and launching pads, allowing fluid movement between scalar passages and chord-tone focused phrases.

This system works beautifully in any key and even provides elegant solutions for handling minor chords that appear in progressions. Rather than attempting to master every position of every scale, you'll develop a practical approach to improvisation that works in real-world playing situations. Your musicality will shine through without getting lost in theoretical complexity. Try these shortcuts in your next jam session and experience newfound freedom across the entire fretboard!

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Steve:

All right, what I thought I would do in this lesson is talk about some shortcuts that I think that you could way, and it is important for us to study the fretboard right. We're learning how to play something and visualize it and all that kind of stuff across the entire fretboard, learning all the positions, and that's great. But in the real world, sometimes you have to make choices very quick and you don't have time to make all of those assessments. Now, if you're really good at it and you've got it figured out, that's awesome, but what I want to talk about today is what to do when you need to come up with something very quick, and so what we're going to do is we're going to use D major as our example, and it's going to be pentatonic, but it can be diatonic too, depending on what you add to it.

Steve:

So let me show you what I mean. Let's say, for instance, we start with the most basic thing, which is going to be what most people would view as the first position of D major pentatonic. Okay, so, basically, what I'm going to do you can call this anything you want, but I'm going to put my pinky on D here, on the 10th fret of the sixth string and I'm going to play the major pentatonic scale right here and I'm gonna play the major pentatonic scale right here.

Steve:

Now that position's really important for a number of reasons, but it's great because if you know where your Ds are inside there again, I'm playing in D, but we'll be able to move this into any key, any chord. When we get done with this we can make simple, simple phrases connecting to those roots, those D's that are sitting around there, and I don't want to get into licks and stuff like that, so that's a whole other conversation. What I want to do is just talk to you about shortcuts of movement and connection. That's what I want to talk about. We can always add the other stuff in as we keep going. So I'm seeing this right here. I'm thinking about the root in this case, which is the D, and where those are and how I could direct myself to those notes.

Steve:

But let's expand this a little bit and try and see this in a different perspective.

Steve:

So what I like to do when I try and teach this is let's start with exactly what we have right here, but instead of going to the D or the root down here on the sixth string right there, let's just put that note for the time being right here, which means when I descend, it's sitting right there. Now, what's really nice about that is I can start implementing a little bit of this sliding, where when I was playing it in the other position, there really wasn't a lot of opportunity for that. So all of a sudden I get more of this human sound to what I'm playing, this vocal sound, being able to slide in and out of that instead of just playing it that way, I get a completely different sound. Okay, so that's the first step, and then what you could do is, as you start learning this, you know, move it somewhere else if you want to. If you want to go to C again, c would be right here. Else, if you want to, if you want to go to C again, c would be right here.

Steve:

But instead of playing the C here, we're going to put it right there, you know, and so on. So just so you understand that. Okay. So let's move back to D and keep talking about this. So what I want you to start recognizing is when you play. Either this is when you play, either this or connecting down here.

Steve:

When I go down here, right to this note, right here, I actually have my D major fifth string bar chord sitting there as well. So I want to start visualizing that, especially what's happening right here, because those are the notes that I want to try and target when I'm improvising. Those are the notes of the scale that I'm playing, as well as the chord. So I've got my root. That note, that note, that note, those all become really important notes that I can try and target. So if I can learn to visualize that chord sitting right there and then the scale that's connected to it, and then, of course, start exploring movement and licks and whatever else that you'd like to do with this phrasing, all that kind of stuff, but learn to see that.

Steve:

And then over here, and then over here. Okay now.

Steve:

This is where we're going to start, kind of adding this shortcut, if you will, and then I'm going to put together some other pieces. I think that you'll find this really interesting. So let's do this now. We just created this new note down here, which is the D down here, but we just put it in a different spot. So now what I want to do is I want to start cutting across the guitar this way, so I'm gonna go, and then, right here, I'm gonna do the same thing right there. So I have, so I'm playing the same octave twice, okay, but what I'm doing is I'm kind of slicing through multiple positions as I do this. Now, if I look at the notes that I'm playing, it's the same notes, it just looks different and, of course, has a bit of different approach. Because now, okay, now this isn't the note that I'm looking for. I want this note because it's part of the D chord.

Steve:

That's what I want.

Steve:

Now we can even put a top on this right here Up there. Now, if you've ever played the second position, you know you've got these guys right here and this up here, this upper extension that you can do stuff with. Well, that's what I'm doing is I'm connecting to that, and when I play in this direction, it gives me opportunity to make what I'm doing sound different. The notes aren't any different, but because my approach is different, I have more opportunity to make this sound different with all of the sliding that's happening. Okay, so what I want you to start thinking about is using both of these positions.

Steve:

And Okay.

Steve:

And again you could move it to C and do exactly the same thing and you could learn how to do that. I wouldn't start moving it all over the fretboard until you get comfortable with this one place first. But we're not done. There's a more important reason that we're doing what we're doing here, and that's what I want to show you next. So if I took this D major pentatonic that I just played and then I started learning how to play it at an angle, like I just did, and then I started learning how to play it at an angle, like I just did, now what I want to do is, on top of this, I want to give you three chord shapes to think about. So, for instance, right up here is our 6-string bar chord. This would be D, sitting right there on the 10th fret. What I want to focus on right now are the first three strings, these guys right here 10, 10, and 9. Those right there Okay, I'm not going to worry about everything else, I just want this for now. Okay, now, because we've built this thing moving at an angle, sitting right up on top here, is that chord, and it's nice to know that, because maybe you move up there and you're not just playing in a scalar sense, but you're trying to play more of a melody with the chord or the triad sense. But you're trying to play more of a melody with the chord or the triad. Now you can see the other notes sitting around it because we've been working on the, you know. Maybe you know the second position or you've been learning what we're talking about right now. Whatever they're all intertwining with each other. But it's my approach. So everything that I'm doing doesn't just sound like I'm playing up and down a pentatonic scale, but I can really start trying to isolate some of the notes of that chord to make it sound a little more melodic, right, and you can hear right there, as soon as I drop back into that, it sounds more pentatonic and that's fine. But I can think about that. Now you'll notice I am adding other notes, like I'm adding this note right here.

Steve:

For now that is not a pentatonic note and if all you know is pentatonics, that might, you know, throw you off and I'm not trying to do that. I'm just saying when I play there's other notes that exist outside the pentatonic that eventually I want to become aware of and I might use those as well. So I've got this template. You know I could add a blues note in there. You know, whatever it is I like to do outside of that structure that we're building so I can move this way, I can move this way, and when I move this way, up on the top, there is where I've got this melodic spot sitting that I could start trying to engage in. Maybe I play some you know the notes individually or maybe I play them collectively you know something in there and then drop back.

Steve:

So the next one I want to show you is the fifth string bar chord, the D that's sitting right here, which we were visualizing when we started this sliding pattern. We were looking at the notes of that D sitting right there, which is great. We want those for sure, so we can see those. What I want you to see is the first three strings here right here that are sitting there, so I could be playing something and drop into that as well.

Steve:

What I love about this shape is the fact that I'll often use the sus sound, which would be five, five and seven. That sound right there. So I won't use the pinky here like you'd normally have. You'd be pressing on that note right there. I'm not using that. I'm using that sound. You don't have to, but it just sounds really nice because I can always use this note and I can see how it's attaching onto this next position here, which then attaches onto this, so I can make different position, movements or keep it more melodic by just playing more of the notes of the triad itself and then drop into something Okay.

Steve:

So we've got the fifth string shape sitting right there, ideally that sus4 sound or sus2 sound. That I think is really cool. We've got the six string bar chord sitting right here, and again, the first three strings are ideally what we're looking for, not that you can't add more, you can do whatever you want. And the third one is the D shape itself, which would be sitting up here as well. The octave of it would be up here, and I wanna show you that because I want to show you how I connect it to the rest of this. So, as I'm playing in this spot right here, if I look up here, I see the D sitting right up here and I can slide right down on that third string and now I'm connected to that or that, whatever I want, just by moving that, that third string down. Now I can move any other string. I'm just showing you an easy way of getting a kind of an exit strategy. So I'm seeing 14, 15, 14, and then I've got that 17 up on top there too, and notice how now, all of a sudden, it sounds more melodic and not just pentatonic, so I'm not having to learn the entire fretboard. What I'm doing is I'm looking for this pentatonic position but turning it into kind of a little slide pattern that would cut through. That's really all I'm doing with the scale.

Steve:

And then I'm trying to see three main visual triad or chord pictures on my fretboard using the sixth string, the fifth string, bar chords and the open chord which is D. Okay, the D shape, I should say right. So that's what I'm seeing as I'm playing. So I move from here. Now again, you can fill in the spaces of some of these other notes if you know them, and if not, don't worry about those right now. You can always add that stuff in Right now. We're not as worried about the larger musicality aspect, because that's a whole other conversation, although we can see where the potential is. What we're worried about right now is just learning how to see some shortcuts. So if I was to take this entire thing now and move it to C, let's take a look at that. So I'd have this and this.

Steve:

But expand that out.

Steve:

I'm going to expand it out and be able to visualize that right off of this chord. Okay, and then I've got the triad sitting on top the bar chord right there that I could make into a sus2. I could connect right to that On the top right up here.

Steve:

That's where the six string bar chord would be sitting.

Steve:

Okay, and then I've got on top of that coming all the way up here. That's where the D shape of the C chord would be okay, and I can visualize that if I want to. Right off of this note. However, it works for me, see. So you could do that for anything. Now we're not talking about minor chords right now. We're just talking about major chords and being able, you know, like your 1-4-5, for instance, just being able to chase those around as needed, and you don't have to do all of this all of the time. It just gives you a nice quick way of being able to grab an idea. So if you were playing from D and you did something, and then it went to C and then went to G, you could find really easy ways of just being able to cover over each one of those chords, and again, it doesn't even need to be as much as I just did. It could be something very simple.

Steve:

The shortcut to the minor for now is, if you get a minor chord, just play minor pentatonic. So let's say we were playing D major and we did something, and let's say it went to C. So again, I ended up here. So now I'm going to stay there, connect to the C, and then it goes to A minor. Let's say A minor fits in there. Well, I'm sitting right here so I could just do an A minor pentatonic thing of some sort and then let's say it goes to G after that, okay. Again, however, I want to see G. There's a million ways I could see G, but I could simply run into something like that. So you have to explore it a little bit, but it's a great way of being able to basically cover yourself whenever you're playing a major chord, and when the minor chord comes up, just throw something kind of bluesy, kind of melodic in there. Maybe do a little more bending on that one, for instance.

Steve:

Here comes G D C. Here comes G DC A minor.

Steve:

G, you know, whatever it is that you like.

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