The first pattern, FIGURE 1, is a full-blown A blues scale in 5th position. Notice that it contains the root, b3rd, 4th, b5th, 5th and b7th degrees of an A major scale. All of the licks that we’ll look at here will be presented in the context of an A major blues.

FIGURE 1

The second pattern, FIGURE 2, is a reduced version of this same scale, which includes only the root, b3rd, 4th, 5th and b7th. This compact shape, known colloquially as the “Albert King Box”—because King virtually lived there after he signed with Stax/Volt Records in 1966—is an especially finger-friendly position.

FIGURE 2

The third pattern, FIGURE 3, commonly called the “B.B. King Box” (because he spent so much time there from the Sixties onward), contains the same scale degrees as the previous box but covers more of the fingerboard.

FIGURE 3