Seven shapes is a lot to hold in your head when you want to move quickly, so in this lesson I want to show you the octave approach. It's a technique that lets you take the same two-string fingering pattern and jump it up the neck via octave intervals, and it's one of the most effective shortcuts in rock and metal lead playing. This is genuinely how players like Randy Rhoads and Michael Schenker are able to fly across the fretboard. There is one thing to watch out for on the B string due to the way the guitar is tuned, and I'll cover that too.

What You'll Learn

•       What the octave approach is and why I rely on it

•       How to identify and use octave shapes across the neck

•       How to move the same two-string pattern up through multiple octaves

•       The B string offset, how to adjust when you cross onto the B and high E strings

•       How to combine the octave approach with your horizontal scale runs

In Detail

What the octave approach is and why I rely on it

Rather than navigating every note of every position, the octave approach lets you take a small, manageable fingering pattern and jump it up the neck in octave leaps. It's not going through the full scale, but it's an incredibly fast way to cover ground and get into the register you want, which is exactly what I do when I need to move quickly in a solo.

The B string offset, how to adjust when you cross onto the B and high E strings

Due to the way the B string is tuned, the octave shape shifts slightly when you cross onto it, you need to adjust by one fret. I demonstrate exactly where this happens and how to correct for it. It's a minor adjustment, but one that catches people out if they're not expecting it.

How to combine the octave approach with your horizontal scale runs

The octave approach isn't a replacement for the seven shapes, it's a complement to them. I show how you can use octave jumping to quickly reach a different part of the neck, then drop back into the full scale positions once you're there. Combined with economy picking, this is one of the most powerful tools you'll have as a metal lead player.