Stage 11 milestone
Milestone: The Fretboard Labyrinth
Review, practical challenge and self-assessment to close the stage with everything you learned.
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Stage 11 milestone
Review, practical challenge and self-assessment to close the stage with everything you learned.
You walked into the labyrinth with scattered islands: a few barre chords, a few pentatonic boxes, three-note chords. You walk out with a map. You have seen that one chord lives in five linked shapes, that the scale clings to those shapes, that seventh chords have colours the ear recognises, that every voicing is a decision and that between one chord and the next there is always a short path. This milestone brings it all together in a single original piece and leaves you a routine so the map doesn't fade.
| Stop | What you take with you | What connects it |
|---|---|---|
| The CAGED system | Five shapes of one chord, in the order C-A-G-E-D | Shared roots |
| The major scale across the neck | Five CAGED positions and three-notes-per-string patterns | Each position wraps a shape |
| Seventh chords | maj7, 7, m7, m7♭5, dim7 and the harmonised scale | Triad + seventh |
| Voicings and voice leading | Inversions, drop 2, drop 3, shells | The nearest note |
| Arpeggios | Chord tones as melody in every position | CAGED shapes + the seventh |
| Connecting positions | Vertical, horizontal, diagonal and guide tones | The 7th falling to the 3rd |
Everything revolves around one idea: the neck is not a collection of pictures, it is a network. Shapes share notes, chords share notes, and whoever can see those common notes moves without getting lost.
An original eight-bar piece in C major, using the most typical progression of seventh-chord harmony: Imaj7 – vi7 – ii7 – V7, a detour through iii7 and back home. Listen to the backing first:
Before playing, analyse: write under each chord its type (maj7, m7, 7) and its two guide tones. You will see that the progression almost always moves by fourths (A → D → G → C), which is why the thirds and sevenths walk down like a staircase. That staircase is the backbone of all three levels: in the first you play it almost bare, in the second you surround it with two more voices and in the third you hide it inside a melody.
Play it at three levels. Each level is a complete piece on its own; don't move on until the previous one sounds clean and in time.
Comp with 1-3-7 , alternating root on the 5th and on the 6th string. Look at strings 4 and 3: the guide tones barely move.
Now four voices on strings 4-3-2-1. Each change moves one or two voices at most; listen to the top voice: it is almost a melody.
An original line made almost entirely of chord tones, in 7th position. Each bar draws its chord; in bar 7 you switch arpeggio halfway through. Play it over the backing or with a friend playing level 2.
Two weeks, 20–25 minutes a day. Each day mixes three different blocks (interleaved practice) and comes back to earlier material (spaced practice). Always work in short blocks: if a tempo plateaus, drop 10 BPM and climb slowly.
| Day | Block 1 (map) | Block 2 (harmony) | Block 3 (music) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1, 8 | CAGED chain of C and G | Harmonised scale in sevenths | Challenge level 1 |
| 2, 9 | Scale positions 1–3 | Cmaj7 drop 2: four inversions | Level 1 + guide tone in the top voice |
| 3, 10 | Scale positions 4–5 + 3NPS | ii–V–I in drop 2, two zones | Challenge level 2 |
| 4, 11 | Dm7, G7, Cmaj7 arpeggios in 7th position | Shells through the cycle of fourths | Level 2 + improvise a phrase in each gap |
| 5, 12 | C major diagonal, up and down | Guide tones of the cycle | Level 3, bars 1–4 |
| 6, 13 | Arpeggio sequences | Ear: maj7, 7 and m7 | Level 3, bars 5–8 |
| 7, 14 | Free review of the map | Free review | Whole piece: levels 1, 2 and 3 in a row |
Do the map exercise for today from the table. Before each shape or position, name it ("D shape, root on the fourth string"). Always finish on a root.
Goal: Complete the day's block without stopping, saying out loud which shape or position you are in.
Do the day's harmony exercise with the backing. For each change, check which voices stay still.
Goal: Play the day's harmony exercise with every note clean and every change on time.
Play the corresponding level with the challenge backing. Record yourself once a week: by the end of the stage you should be able to play all three levels in a row, as head, comping and solo.
Goal: Play the day's level of “Labyrinth in C” three times in a row without mistakes, reaching 80 BPM by the end of the second week.
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