Three notes per string

The position pattern you learned packs two notes on some strings and three on others. There’s another way to slice the same scale: exactly three notes on every string. Players call it 3nps. The payoff is regularity — every string feels the same under your fingers — and a set of shapes that climb the neck in an orderly ladder.

Pattern 1

G major again, same seven notes, new packing. Columns are strings, low E leftmost; o scale note, R root:

G major 3nps, pattern 1 (starts on the root, low E fret 3)
    E A D G B e
3   R o . . . .
4   . . o o . .
5   o o R o o o
7   o o o o o o
8   . . . . R o

notes per string, low fret first:
E: G(3) A(5) B(7)      A: C(3) D(5) E(7)     D: F#(4) G(5) A(7)
G: B(4) C(5) D(7)      B: E(5) F#(7) G(8)    e: A(5) B(7) C(8)

Two things to notice. First, the hand drifts: the low strings sit around frets 3-7, the high strings around 5-8. 3nps patterns lean up the neck as they cross strings — let the hand travel, don’t stretch until it hurts. Second, every string is the same job: three notes, one string crossing, repeat. That’s why this system is the favorite of players who run scales fast — the picking falls into an even three-per-string churn.

Drill it like last exercise: slow and clean first, then metronome at 60 BPM, up and down, alternate picking throughout.

Pattern 2

Here’s the system’s whole secret: pattern 2 is the same idea started one scale degree later. Pattern 1 began on G (degree 1). Pattern 2 begins on A (degree 2), fret 5 of the low E, and packs the same seven notes three per string from there:

G major 3nps, pattern 2 (starts on degree 2, low E fret 5)
    E A D G B e
5   o o R o . .
7   o o o o o o
8   o . . . R o
9   . o o o . .
10  . . . . o o

notes per string, low fret first:
E: A(5) B(7) C(8)      A: D(5) E(7) F#(9)    D: G(5) A(7) B(9)
G: C(5) D(7) E(9)      B: F#(7) G(8) A(10)   e: B(7) C(8) D(10)

Same key, same seven notes — only the vantage point moved up the neck.

How they connect

Play pattern 1 up to its top note (C, high e string fret 8). Now slide the index up and play pattern 2’s high e string: B(7), C(8), D(10). You just extended your range without changing key — the patterns overlap and hand off to each other. Practice the seam: up pattern 1, across the top into pattern 2’s upper strings, back down pattern 2, slide down, out through pattern 1.

The other five

Seven scale degrees means seven starting points, so there are seven 3nps patterns, one beginning on each degree, laddering up the neck until the whole thing repeats an octave higher (pattern 1 again at fret 15). You now know the construction rule, which means you could derive all of them yourself: start on the next degree, pack three per string. Pick them up one at a time, over weeks — the two you own already cover a lot of neck.