Light bulb moment

Axe_meister

So after many hours practicing my 3 more per string scales, I suddenly realised there is really just one shape.
Assume you have a virtual 7th string.
Then the pattern is just. 3 times 5 fret stretch, 2 times 4 fret stretch with first two notes a semi tone apart, then 2 time 4 fret with notes 2 and 3 a semi tone apart.
Then depending on the mode you just flip the order of the patterns. 
As long as you know where the root notes are you can easily play any mode from any string.
I can now pretty much fly all over the fretboard .
If anything easier than the CAGED system I previously learned.

octatonic

You mostly group them in pairs.

124, 134 and 124 with a stretch between 1 and 2.

Play them in groups of two strings and jump up the octave each time (so a 6 note scale, say GABCDE at the 3rd fret of the 6 string (don't play the F) then jump up to the 5th fret of the D string and repeat, then jump up to the 8th fret of the 2nd string and play it again.

Another thing to do is play every string twice.

So GABGAB jump up a string, CDECDE and do everything else I said above.
This is one of the techniques for building speed- playing repetitive things in short sequences AKA chunking.
You are playing so fast that the notes become a blur and actually small tonal mistakes that take you out of key or mode become less noticeable.
The main thing is to not screw up rhythmically.

Playing everything twice helps with certain picking techniques (like down pick escape)- Troy Grady takes a lot about this.

You can play them as full scales too- work on that, don't just play the 6 note version.
Also, you can start on any scale degree- I like playing the Dorian shape a lot.

Danny1969

One thing that used to throw me when learning EVH fast runs was that I assumed the notes were in in key diatonically ... after a while I realized he often just played the same exact pattern across all the strings and the odd note being out of key didn't matter, just sounded a bit more interesting. He also did the repeat 3 notes thing @octatonic mentioned to give the illusion of more notes and more speed. 

I hear this in some modern country now, Brad Paisley in particular 

One thing I've been working on is 3 notes a string but a minor triad apart, so F# - A  - C# for example, because when you play this shape the following note on the next string is a tone  lower than the previous note and this sounds very different than any normal run  ... it is a bit stretchy though. 

digitalkettle

Apr 2020: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/2556919/#Comment_2556919
Mar 2022: https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/3206548/#Comment_3206548

I even got Lol'd for typing it once