Know the fretboard

From single notes to moving across the whole neck with shapes, positions and guide tones.

Essential

Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.

Knowing the fretboard means knowing where every note is and, above all, seeing how they relate. This collection starts with the natural notes and intervals, moves on to the two big systems for organising the neck, CAGED and three notes per string, and ends by connecting positions and following the guide tones of a progression.

Alternate topics and sheets: read a topic, keep its infographic open while you practise and come back to it when in doubt. You don't need to finish the collection in one go; ten minutes a day on the fretboard pays off more than one long session a week.

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In this collection

1 · TopicNotes on the fretboardHow to find any note on the guitar from the open strings, the fret markers and octave shapes.
2 · InfographicNotes on the fretboardThe seven natural notes across the first twelve frets of all six strings, with one reference note highlighted.
3 · InfographicIntervals mapEvery interval within an octave on the fretboard in a single position, with its name, abbreviation and semitone count.
4 · TopicThe CAGED systemFive open-chord shapes that, moved up the neck, cover the whole fretboard and link chords, arpeggios and scales.
5 · InfographicCAGED mapThe five open-chord shapes that, linked together, cover the whole neck with the same major chord.
6 · TopicThree notes per stringScale fingerings with exactly three notes on every string; regular patterns for picking, legato and sequences.
7 · TopicConnecting positionsHow to move from one position to another with slides, finger shifts and diagonal runs so you can use the whole neck.
8 · TopicGuide tonesThe third and seventh define each chord; on the neck they form lines that move by step from one chord to the next.