Day 1 – Musical Alphabet – Fretboard Wizard

[jumpinjeff]

works all over. Just remember the nut represents what is “the bar”, as you go up the neck the open strings get covered. When you leave the nut you have to cover the string to make the patterns work.

[BrandonK]

Thanks JumpinJeff,

I might have to go back through the video to better understand what you are referring to as “the bar”….etc.

[Moose408]

@jumpinjeff was explaining barre chords which are described on Day 1 of Week 3.

What you were asking about was the patterns described in Week 1 Day 1. Those patterns are not about chords but how to located notes on the fretboard. Once you have 1 note, you can use the patterns to find the same note at other locations on the fretboard.

Chords comes later I believe in Week 2

[jumpinjeff]

Moose, good catch I was getting ahead in order of lessons. I will point out one thing to consider. All the pent shapes are chords, in fact every pent scale has within it a chord/triad and once you are aware it is easy to see the corresponding CAGED chord shapes in every scale shape. Kinda cool. I would go further by saying every chord/triad is the foundation that the Pent scale builds on by adding two notes. That is then the foundation for the Octave scale (two half steps) when two more notes have been added. Root Note, Chord, Pent scale, Octave scale. That is the hammer and nails of improvisation in order of complexity.

[Moose408]

“All the pent shapes are chords, in fact every pent scale has within it a chord/triad and once you are aware it is easy to see the corresponding CAGED chord shapes in every scale shape.”

Wow. Lightbulb moment for me there. Thanks Jeff!

[jumpinjeff]

Headed for lightspeed now Moose, buckle up! : )

[jumpinjeff]

the bar reprents the nut. There are 5 opened shaped major chords. Once you move out of open territory you have to remember that if moved up three frets the Em pent shape (now a Gm pent shape due to the location change) will have what use to be open strings now covered on the fret where you put your index to bar for an Em shaped Gm scale. I am not saying you should bar this but keep track of it as a point or reference. My index likes to have a good home base. I will bar for raking or tritone effect but I don’t leave it barred.

[TerriG]

Hi Brandon,

As you progress through the FW, you’ll find there are various patterns based on shapes which is the CAGED system. It is revolutionary and you’ll learn more in Week 3. Enjoy the FW journey.

[Bill_Brown]

Hi @BrandonK , I hope you’re enjoying the Fretboard Wizard course. I was fortunate enough to be one of the first “FW students” in this iteration of the course. The patterns that you’re asking about are the patterns to find the NEXT SAME NOTE on the fretboard. For instance, let’s start with an open B string or a B note. Where is the next closest B note? According to Tony’s formula, we need to skip one fret (toward the body of the guitar) and skip 2 strings (toward the ceiling) to find the next B note. To work that out, we skip the 1st fret and goto the 2nd fret, then we skip the G & D strings and goto the A string and there is the answer – A string 2nd fret = the next closest B note. And that works for any note along the B string, that next closest note will be on the A string 2 frets toward the body from the note on the B string. And Tony explained the relationship from all the strings to another string to find the next closest same note. The downside is that this requires a lot of memorization, skipping frets and skipping strings. But I found a much easier way to find the next closest same note, without all of that memorization. In fact, you just need to remember 1 word and 1 number. The word is “B A G E D” (almost caged, but not quite). This word is the order of string names, the order in which you go from one string to the next to find the next closest same note all along the fretboard, and it works like the musical alphabet. If we have a note on the A string and we want to find the next closest same note going forward (toward the body), we’ll find it on the G string. And if we want to go backward (toward the head stock) from that note on the A string, we’ll find it on the B string. Like I said, this works just like the musical alphabet. Now for the number, it’s 11212. This number represents the number of frets to skip between the strings. If we combine the number with the word, we have B(1)A(1)G(2)E(1)D(2)B. That right there is the whole ball of wax pertaining to finding the NEXT SAME CLOSEST NOTE.

I hope this helps make the concept more clear Brandon!

[BrandonK]

Hi Bill,

Let me clarify. The pattern I am looking for is called the Pentatonic scale. My goal is to be able to try to find the base chord when listening to a song off the radio for example. Once I find the base chord I should be able to play the Pentatonic scale to which will be in tune with the song.

[TerriG]

Hi Brandon,

After reading your response, I believe what might help you once you understand the overall theory is the “Circle of 5th’s”. The Circle will tell you all the relationships between the Key notes & Chords (Major/Minor) and their relationship to each other. It also helps with the Nashville Number System (Week 2) and just a handy tool to have on hand to put everything in perspective along with the pattern recognition you’re looking for.

As I progress in the Daily Challenges, it is eye-opening to see how Tony’s lessons fall in the Circle of 5th’s sectors. Then, to incorporate the CAGED system with the Circle is definitely a game changer. It brings you up to the next level in music theory. Definitely check it out. Amazon has a Circle of 5th’s wheel, but you probably can make your own. Good luck!

[Bill_Brown]

Hi @BrandonK , I think I see what you’re talking about now, and that pertains to what Tony calls Finding The Key By Ear. The process as Tony teaches it is to have you play notes along the lowE string and try to match what you feel is the lowest chord sound in the song, because 99% of the time, that is the KEY in which the song is written. Once you’ve decided on the lowest note, then from there he wants you to play a major scale and/or a minor scale using that lowest chord sound as the root of that scale to see if the KEY is major or minor. I’m not sure why you want to use pentatonic scales, but that will work as well, provided you know the difference between a major pentatonic scale SHAPE and a minor pentatonic scale SHAPE. You should “Google” pentatonic scales. I think you’ll see that doing a major scale shape will be much easier, but like I said, the pentatonic scale shape will work also.

Good luck Brandon.

[BrandonK]

Hi Bill,

That is exactly what I am trying to do. I was watching “MasterClass” with Tom Morello. He was the one who recommended the pentatonic scale once I find the lower e string that that matches the lowest key in the chord.

To use the pentatonic scale chords to riff with the song because the chords in that range should sound good no matter which one I or multiple I play with the song.

Going with what you are recommending playing the major or minor scale. I see the Major Scale Formula, I use do not see the Minor scale one. Does Toni teach the Minor Scale?

Also, does Toni teach the skill to find the note like we are talking about and how to riff?

Thx,

[Bill_Brown]

Hi @BrandonK ,I know that you’ve heard the saying “too many chefs in the kitchen spoil the soup”. After reading what you’ve written, I can see that this is a classic case of spoiling the soup. I think you should go through FW, learn it, before going on to another “class” – JMHO – I’m not criticizing, you can do what you want, it’s your journey. I believe that by doing multiple music theory courses at the same time isn’t going to make you a better guitar player or give you a better understanding of theory, it’s just going to create confusion. I say choose one course, go through it, get some understanding under your belt, then move on to another course if you wish. Right know, I feel you’re just mixing and matching ideas from one course with another, without understanding or experiencing any of the underlying concepts. Step back, choose a course, go through it, learn from it, then try the next one.

[BrandonK]

Thank you @Bill_Brown for your response. I am doing that because the Daily Challenges are too hard for me right now and the other resources are keeping me moving forward ie

Gibson App

1:1 Lessons

MasterClass

YouTube – Lauren Bateman and Gibson Channel.

TAC – currently going through Fretboard Wizard and just watching the Daily Challenges.

Doing it this way for me being an applied learner I have been able to create a daily practice routine for myself, learn my mistakes from strumming and starting to get two songs that I can kind of play.

As you know it’s a work in progress.