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You know you have arrived as a guitarist when you have your own scale pattern named after you. Much like the “Hendrix Chord” a.k.a. E7#9 or the “Bo Diddley Beat”, blues guitar ambassador B.B. King has a scale fingering that many players associate with him. It’s a testament to B.B.’s wonderful approach,touch, sound, and unique conception that makes him one of the most imitated and admired bluesmen of all time. It’s easy for guitarists to analyze and cop things from players that have come before us. It is quite another to have carved out your own voice on the instrument and be instantly identifiable with one note! The “B.B. Box” as it’s known, is derived from the minor pentatonic scale, with the addition of a 9th and the b7 replaced by a 6th. Another way to think of it, could be a Dorian scale without the b7. It is often mentioned that this scale gives access to the “sweet notes”. What defines the sweet notes may vary from player to player but I think an understanding of how to target chord tones gives you the most value in regard to particular patterns or fingerings. For the purpose of the lesson, I am going to relate the “B.B. Box” to the minor pentatonic, due to it’s familiarity to most players.

 

 

Ex.1 Illustrates the “B.B. Box” in the key of E and it is written in the 3rd pos of the Em pentatonic scale. I have notated this on the top three stgs only, but I do recommend learning where all the notes are in all the 5 pos of the min pent scale. The notes in order from the root are E,F#,G,A,B,C#. That gives us 1,2,b3,4,5,6. The attraction of this fingering to many players is the comfort in which the notes fall under the fingers. This is to facilitate phrasing and also ease of bending because you can reinforce your third finger with the first and second finger.