Original subtitles

you can Master the guitar much faster

than you might think and whether you've

been playing for three days or 30 years

this video will help to clarify exactly

how the notes are laid out whether

you're right-handed or left-handed so

you can easily navigate the fretboard

using the inherent geometry of music to

play scales and modes and chords so you

can play any song you want or write your

own music basically by the end of this

video you'll gain a kind of x-ray vision

into music theory and we're going to do

it in less than 13 minutes so let's go

alright so to begin the point to keep in

mind is that you don't have to memorize

a bunch of finger positions you see most

people think of the guitar the way they

picture it is to see it as a big grid of

dots where these dots represent notes or

finger positions up and down the

fretboard if you press these notes for

example it's the c major scale

and this is the same pattern in a

different octave

or to play chords you press other dots

moving your fingers to play each group

with the idea that if you practice

enough if you can develop the muscle

memory needed to become a good player

the only trouble is you don't really

learn this way it's just rote your

muscles remember what to do but your

mind doesn't get a clear picture of why

these patterns work the way they do

which is really necessary for good

songwriting these dots don't paint a

clear picture of what you're playing

because they're really more like Braille

than a vivid image of the underlying

patterns of Music Theory so to bring

these patterns a little more into Focus

instead of using uniform black dots to

represent the notes let's label each

with its letter name like this on the

low E string for example the letters

rise up the Frets in half step intervals

the open string is e the first fret is f

then a half step above that on the

second fret is g flat then G on the

third fret and so on up the string

and on all of the other strings the

notes are laid out in a similar way with

the notes rising up the strings in half

step intervals now with each note

labeled with its own letter name like

this we're a step closer to cracking the

code of the guitar fretboard closer than

we were with only a bunch of black dots

to work with because now with these

letter names each note is distinct which

helps to pick out the logic of this

pattern like the fact that each string

is really just a chromatic scale or the

12 basic notes of Music rising in half

step intervals like this on the

fretboard where the same pattern is

repeated on the various strings which is

insightful and gets us a step closer

like I say to mastering the fretboard

only it's still hard to really see what

we're looking at to really understand

the significance of these patterns since

these letter symbols are a little

overwhelming this image is still sort of

visually chaotic so let's take a quick

closer look at these notes of the

chromatic scale to see the special

relationships between them that will

help to clarify what's actually

happening on the fretboard so these 12

notes of the chromatic scale

this is the most basic set of pitches in

music and really the mother of all note

patterns because everything from scales

and modes to chords and progressions

they all arise from these 12 notes just

by playing different interval patterns

in other words no one really plays the

chromatic scale itself because it

doesn't sound very Musical on its own

instead musicians pick and choose

smaller groups of notes from this

pattern to play things that sound more

Musical and by far the most popular and

important pattern derived from the

chromatic scale is the major scale like

this C major scale formed from a

sequence of whole step and half step

intervals

unlike the chromatic scale which sounds

sort of plain and aimless

the major scale is better on the ears

it has a more definite feeling of

movement and Direction where it

establishes a tonal center of gravity

around one of the notes which in the

case of C major is the C note whether

you're rising up to this high C

or falling down to this low overseas

this major scale pattern of whole step

and half step intervals creates the

sense that either of these C notes on

the bookends are the tonal destination

it sounds like home so the major scale

is powerful in this way and the way that

it creates an audible sense of meaning

or context within the notes is key to

understanding the fretboard but it gets

even better because this special pattern

of whole steps and half steps in the

major scale leads to the next most

important pattern in music called the

circle of fifths which really helps to

explain the guitar and this is how it

works let's take the c major scale c d e

f g a b c and notice how we can split

the interval pattern in half so we get

whole step whole step half step whole

step whole step whole step half step or

intervals one two three four five six

seven eight well if we start on the

second half of this pattern on the G

note of the c major scale or interval

five and we repeat the same pattern of

whole whole half whole whole whole half

we get another major scale

[Music]

this time the G Major scale that begins

on G where the G note is now the tonal

Center of this scale or in this key the

key of G and if we repeat this same

process splitting the G Major scale in

half starting on its fifth note D and

play the same interval pattern of one

two three four five six seven eight we

get the D major scale which is awesome

and by going through each scale this way

starting on the second half of each

respective pattern to form a new scale

the sequence of starting on each fifth

note of the previous scale eventually

Cycles through all 12 Keys forming one

big loop of overlapping scales that we

call the circle of fifths now all of

this is leading directly to your Mastery

of the guitar fretboard so check this

out the circle of fifths is important

because just as the major scale animates

the chromatic scale by injecting

movement and meaning into the notes the

circle of fifths is basically the major

scale on steroids so compared to the

spark of musical energy created by the

major scale of any key the circle of

fifths is more like an electrical

Powerhouse of music relationships that

lights up and connects all 12 Keys into

one big super pattern though again with

all of these letter symbols for notes

it's a lot to take in to clearly see how

all of the major scales in this pattern

overlap and intertwine so to picture

these relationships more directly it

helps to instead represent each key in

the circle of fifths as a color in the

color wheel so for example you can see

how the key of G red orange is equal

parts C red and D orange and how D

orange is equal halves g red orange and

a orange yellow Etc in the same

consistent way all around the circle all

of the colors bleed seamlessly into one

another just as all of the keys overlap

in music so now we have a more intuitive

view of the notes not relying on uniform

black dots to picture them or the

standard letter names for notes but

using colors that actually convey how

they're all related in music and not

only the relationships between

neighboring keys but also the

relationships between all of the notes

because the same symmetrical patterns

between between colors also happen to

highlight the same symmetrical

connections between the notes in music

color and music Follow the same patterns

it's just that one is visible while the

other is audible but like two languages

that tell the same story they are

essentially one but how does this all

apply to the guitar fretboard clearly

these three patterns are connected the

chromatic scale the major scale and the

circle of fifths but how does any of

this help you play the guitar here's how

now that you can actually see the 12

notes of music using color in the circle

of fifths all you have to do is

rearrange them through a simple rotation

back into the chromatic scale again and

we're back to where we started only now

all of the relationships between notes

the otherwise invisible connections

between them are baked into the colors

so the chromatic scale is now also

brimming with musical energy so now you

can literally see the connection between

the chromatic scale the mother of all

note patterns and the circle of fifths

which explains how all of the keys and

notes are related in music which is

where the guitar fretboard comes in

because the fretboard as a turns out

sits at the intersection of these two

patterns since each string on the guitar

is really just a chromatic scale where

the notes on each string rise in half

step intervals up the Frets and the

notes on each fret rise in a circle of

fifths pattern in other words if you see

the fretboard as one big grid of notes

all of the rows the strings are

chromatic scales while all of the

columns the Frets are the circle of

fifths and this is because of how the

guitar is tuned with each open string

above its respective fifth note except

for a slight shift in the pattern

between strings two and three which

staggers the chromatic scales on each

string in a way that causes them to

align like this and within this

perfectly organized Matrix of notes the

geometry of relationships between colors

between the notes informs how to play

everything on the fretboard like all of

the scales in every key and the chords

that are built from these scales

including all of the chord inversions

that you see in the Caged chord system

which I explain in another video and of

course all chord progressions in any key

and mode since all of these patterns

scales modes chords and progressions are

all built upon this underlying framework

of notes which is basically an

interlaced Matrix of the chromatic scale

and the circle of fifths so you can

always revert the old days of black and

white to Simply memorize where to place

your fingers or you can try to picture

these patterns using the letter names

for notes getting lost in the

alphabetical clutter or you can use the

natural patterns of sight color to see

the underlying patterns of sound music

to really understand how the guitar

fretboard is laid out so you can easily

navigate as you play this is music

theory by definition which means to see

sound Theory comes from the Greek

theoria which means to look at view or

see so music theory means to see sound

so now you see it now you don't you can

blindly grow up in the dark using muscle

memory or you can actually see what

you're doing to make music and once you

really understand and can see that the

fretboard is just this interlaced

pattern of the chromatic scale and the

circle of fifths combined you can really

play anything and I have different

playlists that dive into how to navigate

these patterns on the guitar but just to

show you some examples here are some

patterns on the fretboard I've flipped

the guitar upside down here so it's the

perspective of when you're holding the

instrument looking at the fretboard and

again each string is a chromatic scale

while every fret follows the circle of

fifths which explains why the c major

scale for example looks like this on the

fretboard splitting the scale into

segments across multiple strings the

sequence is c d e f g a b c or up an

octave it's c d e f g a b c where this C

note is directly above its fifth note G

on the string below while at the same

time C is also below F it's other

neighbor in the circle of fifths only

over an upper fret because of the shift

in the pattern of these top two strings

and because each Octave of a note is the

same color you can quickly find any note

anywhere on the fretboard so it's easy

to play any C note for example whether

it is here or here or here here here or

here or here and the same goes for any

of the notes whether it's G or E flat

Etc and since the underlying framework

of notes is consistent across the

fretboard you can also play scales in

any key and octave so like this G Major

scale

or this E minor scale

or really any scale and mode on the

fretboard of course it's about more than

just finding each note on the fretboard

it's also about seeing how and why all

of the notes are related which the

colors show because the relationships

between them are baked in and just like

the scales the same goes for any chord

on the guitar since each chord is

derived from a scale which is informed

by the same consistent Matrix of notes

like the c major chord made from notes c

e and G

and no matter what the chord is whether

it's D minor for example

or E minor

or F major

[Music]

Etc obviously we're moving a little fast

here and scratching only the surface but

like I say these colors explain every

possible pattern on the guitar whether

you're right-handed so playing a

fretboard like this or left-handed since

the same patterns apply only in reverse

patterns that are otherwise hiding in

plain sight and once you can see them

you really can't unsee them in the video

notes there's a link to a PDF with all

of these diagrams and in the community

there are lots and lots of videos and

diagrams that dive into all of this a

lot further so you can check that out if

you want hopefully this was helpful and

if so please let the algorithm know and

I will see you in the next video