Eric Gales turns position shifts into a seven-part roadmap for freer improvisation

Eric Gales has published a new video lesson focused on one of the defining features of his improvising: moving decisively between fretboard positions instead of staying inside a single blues-scale box.

Across seven examples in E, Gales demonstrates descending and ascending shifts through open, second, fifth, seventh, ninth and tenth positions. Slides, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs and quintuplet groupings help the transitions sound like continuous melodic statements rather than disconnected exercises.

The practical foundation is simple but demanding: learn every minor-pentatonic and blues-scale position across all six strings, then map the root notes so each shift has a clear destination. Gales also proposes a “step ladder” exercise — move up two positions, back one, then repeat — to generate unfamiliar melodic routes.

Because the lesson’s own video is embedded in the source article, players can match the notation and written explanation directly to Gales’s phrasing and timing.