3 Steps to TOTAL Fretboard Freedom (Works Every Time)

Want to get to the point of having total freedom across the fret-board then you'll need to start by avoiding the common mistakes that players make when training on guitar. Too often guitarists get stuck relying entirely upon the memorization of shapes, without ever learning about the intervals, chord tones, or the actual notes their playing... 




In this video, I’m going to show you the fastest way to understand your fret-board and I'll explain 3 steps that you need to take in order to make sure that you don’t get hung up on memorizing shapes (and nothing but shapes), along the way.

WATCH THE VIDEO:




FRETBOARD FREEDOM:
In this lesson I want to introduce you to a process for developing a much deeper understanding of anything that sits on your guitar neck - from scales to chords, or arpeggios.

This "Fretboard Freedom" idea is all based upon organizing notes on the guitar neck through; formulas, note names and patterns.

This lesson focuses on learning how the distances that relate to the type of; scale, arpeggio or chord pattern will only change slightly to produce other colors of harmony.

What we’re going to do is learn how to understand all of this with a simple one octave arpeggio... We’ll study the arpeggio as; intervals, along with the arppegios ‘formula,’ and we’ll also learn to view the shape as note names, as well as, fingering patterns.

Plus, as we go through the learning process, I’ll also discuss how this idea is used by guitar players to create melodies for song-writing or improvisation.




APPLICATION (Example 1):
Let’s start by learning how to play a 2-string (single octave) shape of an “A Major 7” arpeggio.

STEP ONE: "FORMULA"
To understand our arpeggio guitar shape as a "Formula" we’re going to begin by plotting each note in relationship to the numeric interval layout of the arpeggio.

This means, you’ll need to understand that (from the root note), we have a formula of; major 3rd a perfect 5th and a major 7th to form the structure, of the arpeggio called, “Major 7.”



STEP TWO: "NOTE NAMES"
If we consider the actual note names from our root (located at our 5th fret of the 6th string), we get the notes of; “A, C#, E and G#.”

These notes are all from the key of “A Major.” And, once we know the formula as well as, the note names - this establishes a far better understanding of our “Neck Pattern.”


STEP THREE: "PATTERNS"
With the interval and note names behind us, we can view the patterns with greater understanding and clarity. We can better comprehend which notes at which areas of the layout would change to create other musical colors.



Plus, within that geometrical pattern of intervals and note names, we can start organizing different ways of structuring the notes across the fret-board.

I’d like to next show an example of one way to structure these notes, it’s called sequencing… and if you haven’t figured it out, this is the part of the process that’s used create melody for songs and solos.

Major 7th – Structured as; “1-3-5, 3-5-7.”







FORMULA OVERVIEW:
Now that you’ve had the chance to work through the process with that Major 7 arpeggio, let’s find out how easily the sound of Major can become Minor.

But first, before we jump into that direction, we need to learn a little bit about formulas. If you’re unaware, “Formulas,” are what’s used to generate musical sound quality differences.

The Formulas are used as a universal method for switching between different note groupings so that we can have notes behaving as Major, or Minor, or as Dominant or Diminished, or Augmented.

In diatonic harmony we have four chord formulas for Triads, another four that are used with 7th quality chords, and also, two primary scale formulas.

The scale formulas are thought of a neutral degrees for the Major Scale, they’re numbered as; 1 through 8.


When we want to change up the degrees to create Minor, all we need do is lower the; 3rd, 6th and 7th steps.



When it comes to chords and arpeggios, we’ve got four triads of Major, Minor, Augmented and Diminished.




There are also four 7th chord formulas of; Maj.7. Min.7, Dom. 7 and Min.7(b5).



When we create melodies, we can change the notes to reflect any formula to create any kind of “chord or arpeggio.”




APPLICATION (Example 2):
So, in wrapping things up - let’s convert our Major 7th arpeggio exercise, from the start of the video, over to a, “Minor 7th.”

STEP ONE: "FORMULA"
Understand the interval relationships of the tones involved and how they differ from the Major outline.


STEP TWO: "NOTE NAMES"
Learn the specific note names that the formula generates as the layout is established off of a particular root (naming note /Tonic).


STEP THREE: "PATTERNS"
Apply the visual orientation of what you have organized onto the fretboard as a "Pattern." This patterned shape will be what your mind will rapidly recall when you set forward to apply the idea musically.


Finally, apply the pattern in some form of a musical manner so that it shifts from being a geometrical /physical shape on the guitar, to becoming a more musical concept.

Minor 7th – Structured as; “1-b3-5, b3-5-b7.”






CONCLUSION:
Well, I hope that you enjoyed this idea of using formulas as a way to work toward total fret-board freedom... If you’d like to learn more about how to further develop your guitar playing - join my web-site as a free member and start taking a look at all of my “Guitar” Courses.

The courses cover a ton of information on improving general and advanced playing skills. The lessons are all well planned and they’re easy to follow.

VISIT THE WEBSITE:
If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one and many others, join my members site as a free member and start looking through my, “Guitar Courses.”

I’ve spent over 25 years working with hundreds of guitar students creating thousands of detailed step-by-step guitar lessons for both my website members and my private students.

The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.


LIMITED TIME OFFER:
If you join my site as a Premium member, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my popular Guitar Technique eBook.

My Guitar Technique eBook is 28 pages of jam-packed exercises, drills and studies for mastering all of your technical skills at playing Guitar.

___________________________________________________

GET GOOD NOW - JOIN THE MEMBERS AREA


Join Now

Guitar Chords | F Chord | Guitar Notes | G Chord | C Chord | D Chord | Guitar String Notes

The "30 Day" Guitar Modes Workout

Are you ready for a Maximum MODES workout challenge that is suitable for every guitar player - no mater what level of skill? In this video, I’m going to show you my Max-Modes™ workout routine that you can do for 10 mins a day for the next 30 days straight!




This workout is going to help teach you the most popular Modes and give you a jump start on being able to solo with them. There are just 4 exercises in this Modes workout, each one hitting the popular color tones of each common Mode, (Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, Lydian).

WATCH THE VIDEO:



HEARING THE MODES:
In this lesson, we’re going to learn about developing the modes because this topic is one of the most common things that leads a guitar student to have confusion.

Usually, it begins with a statement that a guitar student will make to me in a lesson that sounds something to the effect of, “I Just Don’t Understand the Modes.” But, what they're really saying is, "I can't HEAR the sound of Modes."

While there might be several reasons why a student would say this, the lead up to this statement about using Modes is generally almost always the same.

The guitar player will already possess some good general technique, they understand the basic premise surrounding chords and playing rhythm guitar, and they’ll know at least the basics of major and minor soloing – even if it’s only with the Pentatonic scales.

However, Modes (the whole idea of Modes) is a topic that’s often confusing for students to get their mind (or should I say ears), wrapped around!

So, in this lesson we’re going to set up a rather different system for learning the modes.

What I have for you is a routine that any guitar player who’s already familiar with the sounds of Major and Minor (as well as the Pentatonic Scales), will be able to use to start practicing the modes.

And, the best part is if this routine is practiced for as little as 10 mins a day for 30 days, any guitar player will develop a decent grasp for how modes work and for how to use them.




THE "COMMON MODES" (WESTERN MUSIC):
This system that I have for you is based upon first of all realizing that the basic Major and Natural Minor scales are in fact Modes. Their modal names are “Ionian” and “Aeolian.”

For most guitar players, even ones who only understand Pentatonic scales, the Major and Minor scales are common sounds that are in use all the time, and they’re sounds that we learn very early on when trying to play any type of solo.

Now, the “Modes” that are presenting the “Mystery” to students aren’t those sounds. The Mystique around modes is instead based upon names that I’m sure you’ve heard, but they may have had you puzzled. Those names are; “Dorian, Mixolydian, Lydian and Phrygian.”

Okay, so how can the popular modes be easily practiced? Well, scale modes are actually just a mixture of Major and Minor scales that have had simple modifications done.

And, when I say “Simple,” I mean there’s only one note that creates the overall effect of each mode. That’s it.

For a student learning modes this means, by applying the practice routine I have for you –  all we’re going to do is simply focus in on the fact that each Mode is either Major or Minor.

The only difference between them, is one unique tone that functions as the one note which makes the sound of a Mode come alive.




LEARN TO CONTROL THE SOUND:
Playing a melody with a mode means that you’ll need to have that mode in your mind, so that you can control the sound.

To nail-down this particular skill in just 30 days, you’re going to need to do two things.


  1. Learn a simple pattern that will help you zero in on the important color tone of each popular mode.
  2. Play the pattern over a modal jam-loop that will help your ear establish the correct sound. 

If you do these two things for 10 mins a day, for 30 days, you’ll gain the perspective for each of the popular modes unique color.




SCALE PATTERN COLOR TONES:
First let’s go over the patterns for each mode. I’ve taken liberty within the diagrams and I’ve highlighted the tones of each unique scale pattern with a color-code.


How it works is really easy.
  • A Black dot (with a circle around it) is the Modes Naming note, (the Root note)
  • A plain black dot is the Quality defining note, (that’s the one note that qualifies the mode as being Major or Minor)
  • Any red dot, is a perfect tone, (those are notes that are neither Major nor Minor)
  • The Blue dot is the important one, (that’s the unique color tone of the mode – that’s the note you’ll want to focus in your attention on)




THE PRACTICE SHAPES:
Next, we'll learn the different practice shapes that I have for you - once these shapes are familiarized, you can go and study each of the modes using the 10m for /30 days routine.

There are going to be two patterns for each mode. The first pattern is based off of the sixth string and the second pattern is an upper octave that’s played off of the 4th-string.

Both patterns are the exact same notes, the only reason we’re learning two, is so that you’ll have a greater range across the fingerboard when you practice with the loop-tracks.

DORIAN: 6th String Root


DORIAN: 4th String Root


PHRYGIAN: 6th String Root








PHRYGIAN: 4th String Root



MIXOLYDIAN 6th String Root:



MIXOLYDIAN 4th String Root:





LYDIAN 6th String Root:




LYDIAN 4th String Root:







THE "30 DAY" MODES WORKOUT:
Now that you have all the shapes, the actual exercise itself is pretty simple. All you do is turn on your modal loop jam-track and let it play through for 2 mins.

During that 2 mins., all you need to do is play through the modes fingering pattern and focus in on the unique color tone that’s related to the mode that you’re working on.

There’s four modes that we’re studying, so that gives you 8 min. for all 4 modes, with 2 min. to spare for getting set-up between each exercise.

The loop tracks are available below – download them, work for 30 days using this approach and you’ll build up some solid playing skills for using these popular modes!

_________________________________

_________________________________  


This 30 day Modes exercise is perfect for any guitarist who’s never understood the modes.

So, if you’re a guitar player who’s bored with the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales, or if you’re tired of using the common Major and Natural Minor sounds, (and you’re ready for some new sounds), this exercise will get you used to the popular modes.

Then, when you want to learn more, you can start digging into a more thorough study of using the Major Scale Modes.My popular eBook "Using the Major Scale Modes," can be a big help in that department.



LEARN MORE:
If you’d like to learn more about what I do as an online guitar teacher - visit my website and start looking through my Guitar courses. 

There are dozens of lesson plans all with very detailed videos along with PDF worksheets that you can download and print out to start learning more about the guitar.

The lessons are all well planned they’re easy to follow – and they all work in a very organized way so that in the end, you’ll increase your knowledge of guitar, and you’ll be able to start incorporating higher end guitar skills for the music that you enjoy.


VISIT THE WEBSITE:
If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one and many others, join my members site as a free member and start looking through my, “Guitar Courses.”

I’ve spent over 25 years working with hundreds of guitar students creating thousands of detailed step-by-step guitar lessons for both my website members and my private students.

The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.


LIMITED TIME OFFER:
If you join my site as a Premium member, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my popular Guitar Technique eBook.

My Guitar Technique eBook is 28 pages of jam-packed exercises, drills and studies for mastering all of your technical skills at playing Guitar.

___________________________________________________

GET GOOD NOW - JOIN THE MEMBERS AREA


Join Now

Guitar Chords | F Chord | Guitar Notes | G Chord | C Chord | D Chord | Guitar String Notes

The PERFECT Blues Scale!

If there was a "perfect" Blues Scale what would it consist of? Certainly it would have the primary chord tones of the key, (like the Root, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th and Minor 7th). But, it would also benefit from having other important color tones as well. Those additional tones would make the scale complete (Perfect)...




In order to round out the "Perfect" notes for the Perfect Blues Scale, we'll need to fill in the gaps of what is lacking from the notes contained in the standard Blues Scales, (Major and Minor). And, that is exactly what we're going to do in this video.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



THE "PERFECT" BLUES SCALE:
I want to introduce you to a Blues scale pattern that I always enjoy showing to my own students here in the studio. I’ve nick-named this one, the “Perfect” Blues Scale Pattern.

The cool thing about this shape is that it can cover almost any kind of Blues situation you’d need it to because it not only applies the primary chord tones of the key center, but this Blues pattern also offers a few interesting "Blue Note" options for us!

These "Blue Note," options are not a part of the basic Minor Pentatonic Blues scale.

What are Blue Notes?
A blue note is a note that gets played at a slightly different pitch than standard.

Typically the alteration to the pitch is between a quarter-tone and a semitone, but it will tend to vary depending upon the sound of the musical piece in which it will get used.





THE 'PERFECT' PATTERN:
So, let’s get right into learning this pattern… We’re going to learn two root locations for this scale. One will be off of the 6th-string and we’ll also add a similar layout for this pattern off of the 4th-string.

First, here’s the pattern off of the 6th string - built off of a root note of, “A.”

 click the above image to show full-screen


Next, we’re going to expand on this Blues Scale patterns’ layout by establishing a second octave on the neck. This will help by stretching out the range on the fingerboard. Here’s how this group of notes sits on the neck when built off of the 4th-string.

click the above image to show full-screen

Once you have learned and memorized the notes as related to the key of "A" (shown above), start taking the pattern along and across the fingerboard - treating it as a universal "moveable" scale pattern on the fret-board.


6th-String Moveable Pattern:

click the above image to show full-screen


4th-String Moveable Pattern:

 click the above image to show full-screen




CONTROL THE SOUND:
Now, that you understand how this pattern sits on the neck, the next step is to start learning how to control its sound.

As you can see diagrammed in the above shapes, there are a group of five tones on the middle string of the pattern that are all chromatic.

And, as I’m sure you also noticed I had highlighted the notes of “C#” and “Eb” because those tones are ones that you can bend and manipulate using different phrasing ideas to highlight some really cool sounds over any type of Blues Jam.

Use the classic 8-bar Blues jam progression given below to practice how you could put this "Perfect Blues Scale" fret-board pattern to use.

Download the MP3 Rehearsal Loop 
( right-click "Save link as" ), for at home study


click the above image to show full-screen





CONCLUSION:
Well, I hope that you enjoyed this PERFECT Blues scale pattern video... You can download a FREE loop-track for the 8-bar Blues you heard me play over - via the link above.

If you’d like to learn more about how to develop your guitar playing, join my web-site as a free member and start taking a look at all of my, “Guitar” Courses.

The courses cover tons of information for improving both general and advanced playing skills. The lessons are all well planned and they’re easy to follow. 




VISIT THE WEBSITE:
If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one and many others, join my members site as a free member and start looking through my, “Guitar Courses.”

I’ve spent over 25 years working with hundreds of guitar students creating thousands of detailed step-by-step guitar lessons for both my website members and my private students.

The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.


LIMITED TIME OFFER:
If you join my site as a Premium member, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my popular Guitar Technique eBook.

My Guitar Technique eBook is 28 pages of jam-packed exercises, drills and studies for mastering all of your technical skills at playing Guitar.


___________________________________________________

GET GOOD NOW - JOIN THE MEMBERS AREA


Join Now

Guitar Chords | F Chord | Guitar Notes | G Chord | C Chord | D Chord | Guitar String Notes