Pebber I have spent a long time learning the 12 positions system. Its great and works terrific for jazz. However I have a question. ¿how do yo practice bebop scales with this system? there are some positions where its impossible to do the chromatics passing tones on bebop scales (major, minor, dominant etc) without breaking the rule of the middle finger. I also have noticed that the melodic minor is a problem too. I need a scale system for this scales cuz CAGED or 3NPS do not work for jazz specially on fast tunes with lots of changes.

I am not 100% sure that what you mean by "long time" is going to correspond very well with what it means according to the book of Pebber. 2 years, for instance would probably not be considered "long time"...So I am curious by exactly how long you mean (just a educated estimation should be sufficient for diagonstic purposes of the peps on the forums)

...Long may your middle finger rule...

Let me begin by saying English is not my first language, so any misunderstanding is due to that. Yeahh more or less like 3 years. I have played the guitar for like 10 years now. I started jazz like 4 years ago. I used to use 3 NPS cuz I played rock before but now that I play jazz the 12 positions system is way more efficient for quick changes. The problem is that Melodic minor o bebop scales break the middle finger rule in some positions. For example C major scale starting on F middle finger on 3d fret. G dominant bebop scale. How do you finger the chromatism on the E strings (EFF#G). The melodic minor on the other hand has like big stretches (some inhuman lol). I´m trying to study all fingerings so that I can play anywhere, anything. Horn player do not have to worry for the same note all over the fretboard. This limitations of the guitar ¿can be overcome by mapping out all fingerings or is it "something to deal with"(like map out transitions on some positions)? (sorry for the bad english).

Hi Pebber
Thanks for all the guitar playing information i never had access to before. No longer playing the wrong way in my own opinion.


The dominant bebop scale plays both dominant and natural seventh.Major bebop plays flat and natural 6th. The minor bebop plays minor and natural third. The rest of the major scale stays the same. That is what i think is called altered major scales.



all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_ scales is one place the scales are posted

Bebop scale is any scale with an added tone in order to make the chord tones fall in the strong beats. Mixolydian (dominant) bebop for example has the added major 7 (b7, 7, 1), major bebop (#5), dorian bebop (major7) etc. So if the chord is G7 and starting on a chord tone, you can run a bebop scale up or down falling with chord tone on the strong beats (1 or 3). Chord tones being the 1, 3, 5, b7 (for dominant). (Sorry for the bad english).