Another excellent warm-up exercise is the diagonal pentatonic scale.  Practicing this scale will get you into the habit of using the entire fretboard, instead of getting “stuck in the box”.  Not only is this a great warm-up scale, but it can be used for soloing purposes as well.

For our purposes, we will play the A-minor pentatonic scale, although this scale can be shifted anywhere on the fretboard by finding the root note.  Start by placing your third finger on the 5^th fret of the low E string.  This will act as a placeholder for the root.  Begin the scale by playing the 3^rd fret of the low E string with your first finger, then the 5^th fret with your third finger.  Although this is an A scale, we play the 3^rd fret first in order to maintain our finger shape.

After playing those two notes, stay in the same position and move down to the A string.  Here play the same two frets (3^rd & 5^th) with your first and third fingers, respectively.  After playing the 5^th fret of the A string, slide your third finger up two frets, and play the 7^th fret of the A string as well.

Now, maintain your position and move down to the D string, playing the 5^th and 7^th frets.  Next, move down to the G string and play the 5^th and 7^th frets.  Then, slide your third finger up two frets again and play the 9^th fret as well.  When it comes time to move down to the B string, remember what was previously mentioned about the difference in tuning of this string.  Therefore, our first finger is going to start on the 8^th fret, although you may naturally want to put it on the 7^th fret.

So, play the 8^th and 10^th frets on the B string, then shift down to the high E string, and play the 8^th and 10^th frets again.  Slide your third finger up two frets to the 12^th fret of the high E string to complete your run.  Once you have done this, go back down the scale slowly and meticulously, sliding your fingers backwards as you go.  It will be tricky at first, so do not try to play fast until you can.  When you have played the diagonal minor pentatonic scale forwards and backwards properly, it will sound like this:

Practice Assignment

This scale should be practiced in the same manner as the chromatic scale: play slowly and precise, use alternate picking, play 5-10 times, then play each note twice and three times.  As you get used to playing the diagonal pentatonic scale, you will be able to use it more and more in your solos.

Now, let's move on to a String Skipping Exercise.