Does anyone recall a scene from The Exorcist where the young priest reports all the different demons that have manifested, and the old priest cuts him off, saying "There is only one." Let me play the old priest here and say there is only one pattern, it's the neck from nut to 22nd fret, E to shining E.
That's not to say learning devices like CAGED and the Grimoire aren't useful, they are. But they are just ways of breaking down a big piece of information into more digestible bits. Try them both, compare, and see where that leads you.
Here are some things I did that helped my playing out a great deal. Check them out, I hope they're some use to you.
1) Develop an understanding of the building blocks of music in the abstract. Learn intervals, key signatures, scales, triads, 7th chords, etc and how they're constructed . Having some familiarity with written music (staff paper) and the piano keyboard help, because each note appears in only one place, unlike the guitar neck.
2) Learn every note on the neck without the need for an external reference (like a chord shape or scale pattern.) Most folks already know E A D G B E, so you have the 1st and 12th frets covered, only 20 or so to go…………
3)Pick a small area and explore it thoroughly. Maybe a CAGED pattern or something from the Grimoire, maybe up and down one string, maybe a combination. Check out what one pattern gives you that another doesn't. What happens when you stretch to get three notes on one string vs. crossing to the next string. How do left hand fingerings affect the right hand's job? Can you adjust a fingering to make the picking lie better? What does the pick lying better mean to you?
This is a lot of work, but 1&2 at least are sort of finite. If you're gradual and consistent, the stuff comes together.
The other side of the coin is not to get so bogged down in learning the neck that you forget to make music. There's lot's of great music to be made even if you only know one or two scale patterns (Just ask Chuck Berry!)
PK
