[davies]

I always love these threads about ionians, pentatonics, shapes etc. Because I don't have the first idea what anyone's talking about. (Well, ok, not strictly true but...)

If you asked me to play a scale starting on the nth fret of the nth string, I could. Without thinking. I could even tell which key it was. Ask me what its 'proper' name is, which of the five (?) shapes it is...

Hell, I just play the damn thing and, to (eventually) answer your question, the thing that helps me learn faster is... practice.