10 Days To Fretboard Freedom: Unlock The Guitar Fretboard

1. Course Introduction: Welcome to ten days to fretboard Freedom, the mini course designed to help you unlock the fretboard in just ten days. The aim here is to have you playing throughout this guitar neck with complete confidence and fluidity, using methods that me and countless other pro musicians use to really navigate that fretboard. Before we get started, make sure you download the free supporting eBook, which is really going to complement this course. It's got everything we talk about plus a few extra little descriptions, diagrams, and practice exercises which you can help use to really unlock this fretboard. Mastering the fretboard can be a long process, but I promise you come the end of this ten day course, you'll really be able to navigate clearly and have a better understanding of how to properly tackle the neck. Remember, you can pause, rewind, and rewatch these videos at any time, should you need to brush up on any concepts or just go over any of the little practice exercises that we outline in the lessons. So with that said, let's jump into Lesson one. 2. Octave Patterns: Standing the fretboard is key to mastering the guitar. And there's a few ways we can do this. I'm going to talk about a few different visualization techniques that you can use to not only learn the notes of the neck, but also find little boxes that you can play in to start unlocking the rest of this board. Now we're going to start by learning some of the notes on the fretboard. To do this, I want to talk about octaves. Now, an octave is simply the same note at higher pitch. But for example, if I play a G here, an octave G, it's right there. Same note, up 12 semitons higher. Now, a great way to begin unlocking the fretboard is to find all of these individual notes across the board using octaves. And you can visualize these as little shapes as well, because across the board, they're sort of universal. So let's take our G again. I've got a G note here. We remember it's there because it's on the third third fret, the E string. Now, we can find another G by simply going two frets up on the D string. There's an octave, there's another G. That's a really nice shape for us to visualize and translate over the rest of the fretboard to find other notes. If I move this up to frets to the next dot, fret five, I've got an A, and I've got an octave right there. Same shape as before. This also works on the A string. Here on fret three of the A, I've got C, an octave up, again, two frets. The G string now is another C. Go through your fretboard and try and find these octaves on both the E and the A string. Start by using the dots as nice easy navigation points. G, A, B, C sharp, and E on the E string. On the A string, C, D, E, F sharp, and A. Once you've found those, you can fill in the gaps. Octaves on the G string are a little different due to how the guitar is tuned. If I place my guitar on that C octave we've got here at fret five of the G string, it's not quite the same shape as we've had on the A and the E. Instead, we're gonna have to stretch an extra fret. So I've got a C here at fret five on the G string. Now an octave higher would actually be a fret seven on the high Estring, and that's due to how the other strings are tuned. But that shape is translatable across the G string. Now spend some time learning those notes on the G and the high Estring, fill in the gaps and use those dots to help you navigate the board. 3. Mastering Intervals And Scale Degrees: This lesson, we're going to break down something that will completely change how you visualize scales on the fretboard. Now, I'm talking about intervals. Typically, when a guitar player learns a scale, especially for the first time, they'll learn the shape, they'll memorize it, they'll become familiar with it, and that's all they'll do. They won't necessarily learn the notes that are within the scale, how those notes relate to chords, what scale degree they're playing, et cetera. They'll just learn the shape. By learning the interval, by learning the scale degrees, within your scale, you can then visualize chord tones. You can visualize how to build chords within a scale. You can learn the notes on the fretboard, and it really is going to open you up to loads of other things that we're going to talk about in this course. So before we dive into that, let's quickly just go over what an interval actually is. So an interval is the space between notes. So if I take a G note, let's take a G here on the fretboard fret three of the Low E string, there's a G, and then I play a D, which will be on fret five of the A string. That's a perfect fifth interval. So it's the space between those notes, one, two, three, four, five, that makes it a fifth interval. Now, being able to recognize these intervals is a crucial skill for all musicians. Not only being able to recognize them by ear, but also recognize where they sit on the fretboard. It's going to help you learn songs. It's going to help you navigate the fretboard, find chord tones, learn notes on the fretboard, et cetera, et cetera. Now, each interval has its own name and unique sound, depending on the interval, right? The gap between the notes. Now, I'll put in the description of this lesson, a nice little table that gives you all of the intervals with the sort of their names and the semitones that go between them and all that. Now I'm going to teach these intervals using the G major scale because it sits really nicely on the fretboard. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm gonna play through the scale first and then I'll play through again slowly and name all the intervals or scale degrees as we go through. So here's the G major shape. So I'm just going to play through the G major scale and shout those intervals out loud just so we can start to see where they sit within the shape. So we've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight within that first octave. And if you've already seen the octave video, you'll know that eight is one. It's the octave, right? So we'll call that note one again, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Now, when you start visualizing a scale using these scale degrees or these intervals, instead of just using the shape, you're going to be able to improvise with more accuracy. You're going to start hitting those important chord tones to outline the harmony, and you can also start playing those sort of color notes to add a little bit of spice. We can also use them to construct chords. A chord is built up of notes one, three, and five. And I know if I take notes one, three, and five in my scale, I've got a G major cord. So you can see how that already is starting to unlock the fretboard for me in this kind of position. I'm starting to visualize all these things after just known one scale. Now, thanks to the guitar being shape based, the intervals within that major scale are exactly the same, no matter which key I play it in. So if I move my scale up to here and B, my intervals still sit in exactly the same place. It's still one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. So you've really only got a master of these intervals within that scale shape, and that's going to be translatable to everywhere across the neck. Now, learning where intervals sit in every scale you know might seem like a massive task. But if you break it down to just major and minor shapes, it really becomes a lot more digestible. If we take our major scale and compare that to the major pentatonic, they're essentially the same shapes on the fretboard, the pentatonic has less notes. So those intervals are really easy to transfer into your other scale shapes. Now, a great way to practice these intervals is to target specific quartnes or specific intervals. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to play the G major scale, but only target my root notes. Then only target my thirds, and then only target my fifths, okay? So my root notes, I know, will be here here and here. You should kind of already know that from our octaves lesson anyway. But then I can find the third degree, which would be here, one, two, three, fret two of the astring. And I know I've got one here, too. So I've got my root notes. I've got my thirds my fifths. They can use this as a great practice exercise. Go through each of the intervals, target them and find them within your scale shape. Let's do the same with the G minor scale just so we can see how they're gonna compare. So the G minor scale is as so So, like the major scale, I'm just gonna play that through again and shout out the intervals as we go. So we've got one, two, flat three, four, five, flat six, flat seven, eight, or one, two, flat three. Four, five, flat six, flat seven, eight, or one. So let's just give this concept a practical application as well. So it does actually have a use for unlocking the fretboard besides just a theoretical thing. If I'm going to improvise over a blues, we can use both a major and a minor scale. So I can target both the major and the minor third interval. Now we've gone through that little exercise of learning the intervals, I know where they are, so I can target them to be characteristic when I solo. So here's my major third within the G major scale. And here's my minor third. So I know I can use both of these notes here to sort of blur between the major and minor and sound characteristic of the blues. Before knowing where these intervals sat within the shapes, we were kind of improvising using guesswork, which is playing through unintentionally. We can now play with intention and target specific or tones to sound more purposeful, which is really going to unlock each section of the fretboard. Now, once you're comfortable doing this in both the major and the minor scale, apply it to your other scales, too, whether that's pentatonics, modes, altered scales, et cetera. Start to target where those or tones are and where the character notes are, too. So when you're improvising, you can specifically target them. It's also good practice to name the notes as you go through. G, A, B, C, D, et cetera, because you're going to start to learn all of those notes on the fretboard. 4. The Five Pentatonic Shapes: As we've already mentioned, the pentatonic scale consists of five nodes. Now we can build this out into five different pentatonic shapes that allow us to improvise across the fretboard. We've already learned two, and we'll use the minor pentatonic as shape one. We'll then use the major pentatonic as shape two. So let's put those two together to start with. We'll do this in the KG. We're then going to slide up two frets and come back down on the major pentatonic. When linking the pentatonic scales together, you always start the next shape from the second note of the previous scale. So if I was to play up the minor pentatonic and then up the major, it would look like this. And then I'd start the major pentatonic from the second note six. Like so. Let's now take a look at shape three. Now on the E string, we have got for eight and fret ten. We're gonna repeat that on the A and the D string. On the G string, we're gonna move to fret seven and stretch to fret ten. Now we're gonna adjust that slightly starting off for eight of the B string, reaching up to fret 11. And then we're going to finish that shape off with 810 on the i. All of these shapes are also written down below in a little tab that you can help play along to. Moving on to shape four. We're gonna start on fret ten, and we're gonna stretch up to fret 13. We're gonna repeat that on the A string. Now on the D string, we're gonna play 1012, and we're gonna play 1012 again on the GString. On the B string, we're gonna play 11 13. And on the height E, we're going to play 1013. Now, for our final shape, we're going to start on fret 13. And we're gonna reach to fret 15. Repeat this on the A string. Now on the D and the G string, we're gonna play 12 15. And now go back to our 13 15. For the last two strings. It's really important to learn these five shapes both individually and in a long sequence that allow you to play through the fretboard. Take a look at the catagm module to learn how to best practice these scales. 5. The Major Modes: Modes can be quite a complicated thing to wrap your head around because there's so many different explanations of how they work. What we're going to do is break down both the theory and the shapes on the guitar, so you can better understand not only the characteristics, but how to use them. Essentially, they're all one scale. If we took the G major scale and we started it from a different degree. So let's say we started the G major scale from note six, that would give us the natural minor scale. It's basically a mode of the same scale. It's a variation, and that gives us different intervalic structures, which gives a different characteristic of sounds. So our major scale, also known as the Ionian scale, we've looked at already. That's then followed up by the Dorian scale. It would be our G major scale starting from the second degree. So let's start it here. Sounds like this. You can hear if I compare that to the G major scale, They actually sound the same. And that's because they consist of the same notes just in a different intervalic structure. Now, we can use these modes to improvise and give different sounds over chord progressions. And we'll take a little look at the whiteboard later on the theory of the construction of these modes and the different sort of sounds they get. But for now, let's just look at the shapes on the guitar. Now let's take a look at the Dorian shape in the key of G. We're going to start on fret five of the E string and play five and then fret seven. On the A string, we're then go to stretch, and we're gonna play three, five, seven. On the D string, four, five, seven. G string, four, five, seven. B string 578. And then 578 on the high E string. Now be the Dorian mode. Moving on to our Phrygian shape. We're gonna start at fret seven because this will be the third degree of our G major scale. That'd be our phrygian mode, starting on the third degree of the G major scale. So let's take a look at that in a frettn shape. So start on fret seven of the Low E string, and we're gonna play seven, eight, ten. And then on the A string, we're gonna play 7910. 7910 on the D, 79 on the G. 7810 on the B and then 7810 on the high E. Now let's take a look at the Lydian mode. That's the fourth mode, starting from the fourth degree of the major scale. So fret positioning, we'll play 810 on the low E. And then we'll play 7910 on the A, 7910 on the D, 79 on the G, 7810 on the B and 7810 on the high E. You'll notice that's exactly the same as our phrygian scale. All we're doing is starting on a semitone higher. Next to the fifth mode, and that's our mixolydian scale. So, frets, we have ten, 12 on the E. We have nine, ten, 12 on the A. 910, 12 on the D. 911, 12 on the G. Ten, 12, 13 on the B. And ten, 12, 14 on the high E. Moving on, we have our sixth mode, the Aeolian scale. Now this is our natural minor scale that we've already looked at. And we're going to start this up here on the 12th fret. Now, I'm not going to talk about how to play that shape because we've already discussed it in our natural minor video. Moving on, we've got the final mode, the ochran mode, and that starts from the seventh degree of the major scale. You'll notice the shape is very similar to the Ionian mode or a major scale, just a semitone lower. So fretting that up here, we're going to start at fret 14. We're gonna play 14, 15, 17. On the A string, were play 14, 15, 17. And then on the D string, play 14, 16, 17 and the same again on the G. On the B string, we're gonna play 15 17. And we're gonna finish that off with 14, 15, 17 on the high E. Now, as I've already explained, these modes are basically variations of the same major scale. And they allow us to play throughout the fretboard a bit like the five pentatonic shapes. So it's really important to be able to link these shapes together and play fluidly between them. I'd recommend playing down one mode and playing back up through the other just to get you started. So let's try that. So we also want to be able to play these modes as standalone scales so we can improvise with them and add some color to our solos. A good way to practice all of these shapes on their own is to start from the same note each time. So let's do that real quick. I'm gonna play all of these modes, starting from G, so we can hear how they sound different from each other. We can also learn the shapes as we go. So here's the major scale or Ionian mode. And then we'll play Dorian also in G. So now I'll play frigianNG so we can hear the difference between the modes. So, as you can see from that demonstration, all of these modes have different sounds and tonalities. So spend a little bit of time exploring them for yourself. 6. Break Away From The Scalic Box: In the last few lessons, we covered both the pentatonic shapes and the major modes. And then we looked at how those can unlock the fretboard and allow us to improvise up and down the neck. I also gave the advice of practicing those skills vertically in those boxes, playing down one shape and up through the other. Now, they're fantastic for learning their shapes and practicing starting to move between them. But it does cause us a problem, and it's a hurdle that a lot of guitarists struggle to get over. Now, when I was studying the guitar, my teacher told me that your playing is a reflection of your practice. What my teacher meant by that is that when it comes to me improvising, solo in playing, moving around the neck, all I'm going to be doing is basically repeating the methods that I use in practice. So if I play my scales up and down vertically on the neck, very scalic, very one note at a time. My playing is going to sound that way. It's going to sound robotic. It's going to sound scalic. It's going to keep me stuck within each box shape. And unlocking the fretboard and true fretboard freedom isn't about being confined to those boxes. It's about being able to freely move up and down the neck horizontally. So that's exactly what we're going to do next. We're going to take those scales that we know, and we're going to learn them horizontally, and we're going to practice moving between them in a horizontal fashion instead of playing down one up through the other. So I've got a few practice exercises that's really going to help us add some fluidity into our fretboard navigation. So one of the first and easiest exercises I recommend to students when trying to play scouts horizontally, is to play the scale on one string. Now, playing horizontally on one string is going to do two things. It's going to break you out of that scalic box, and it's also going to help you play more melodically, because it'll force you to start thinking in intervals rather than just blazing up and down one scale shape. So if I was to take my G minor pentatonic that we've been working on, let's take it on the G string, and let's just sort of see how I can play that up through the shapes horizontally on one string. So there's the G minor pentatonic going up through those five scale shapes that we've touched on earlier. What I want to then do is practice improvising over a back and track, just using this one string to then make my solo more melodic and outside of those scalic shapes. Another great way to break out of our scalic box is to use a little gang style exercise that I love to give to my students. What we're going to do is we're going to pick a number 1-8. So let's take five. I'm then going to play through a scale, and I'm going to count as I go through. And then when I hit my chosen number, so when I hit note five, I have to move to the next shape. What that's going to do is it's eventually we're going to start moving between shapes in random spots, which breaks us out of that. I need to get to the end of one shape before I play into the other. So we're going to start transitioning between shapes in different spots to the neck. So let me just give you that idea as an example. So I'm going to play through the G minor pentatonic, and every five notes, I'm going to move to a different shape. So one, two, three, four, five. I'm now going to move to my next shape, shape two, one, two, three, four, five. Let's go up to our shape three. One, two, three, four. Come back down, five, and then we'll move to shape four. One, two, three, four, five. Next shape, one, two, three, four. Five. Let's take a different number. Let's take seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, have to move. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, have to move. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and so on. And this can be quite a challenge for your brain. So maybe start with just two shapes before you start tackling all five. So let's just do that between the shape one and shape two of the pentatonic. Let's choose six as a number. One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, three, four, five, six, one. Five, six, one, two, three, four, and so on. So as you can see there, I'm really starting to move between the shapes in different spots, and that's gonna really start connecting everything together. Now, one of the other ways of breaking out of these scalic shapes is to play scales horizontally, not on one string, but playing them sort of diagonally across the fretboard, blurring between all of the shapes. And that's really great if you're doing your modes because you can bring out some three per string kind of shapes, and I can sort of get into some other little techniques around that. But I'm going to keep it in the pentatonic to keep it nice and easy, and I'm just going to play through the scales horizontally. Getting really comfortable just doing that and improvising freely there is just gonna take me from here to here on the fretboard and really unlock things when I'm improvising. Mm 7. The CAGED System (Chords): The cage system is one of the most popular methods for unlocking the fretboard, and rightfully so because it builds on some of the concepts we learn as a beginner, guitar player. The cage system is essentially taking our basic open chords, C, A, G, E and D, and we can then take those open chord shapes and move them anywhere across the fretboard to unlock different voicings. Now, this is great because it allows us to play chords anywhere on the fretboard and then actually play voicings that are stylistic of different styles. So we'll get into a little bit more of that in a second. So first, let's just take a look at these open shapes. I'm going to start with C and work my way through the cage system. So here we go. So if I take my open C cord that we all know right here in open position, I can then move this shape anywhere on the fretboard to play different cords. So if I could move it up here, I can move it here, et cetera. But what we're going to have to do for the C cord is replace this nut, so it's going to be a little bit awkward to start with. So if I do like cell, that there would be a C shape, which I can move now across the fretboard. You can see my C shape right here in these three fingers. If I take that back to there. And as I said, my first finger just replaces the nut down here because we've got open strings and we can play our open chord. Now, I'll admit I don't often use this shape when playing purely because it's a little bit bulky, it's a little bit difficult to get your hands into that position, especially if you're on some quick changes. But it is good for other stuff, which we'll touch on in later videos. But what we're going to do here is we want to make sure that we know where our root note is. When I play a C chord here, my root note, my C is here on my pinky finger, right? It's fret three of the A string. Now, if I move my shape up here, my root note is still here on my pinky finger, the A string, and I know that's an E. So this now is an E major chord in the shape of a C. C shape, E major chord, there's my root. If I bring it down to fret five here, there's my root note on a D. So that would then technically be a D major chord there. So you can see already how this is going to start opening up the fretboard with familiar shapes. If we then move on to our A shape, you might already be familiar with this shape if you know bar chords. So if I move this up here, it fret three, you can see my A shape there. Let's take that back to there. You can see my A shape. And when I play my A major chord here, my root note is on the A string. So if I bring my first finger in like cell, I've got my first finger, I'll fret three, the A string, and then I'll fret five, I've got my A shape here on the D, the G, and the B. My root note is here on the A string, which is a C. And that would give me a C major chord. Likewise, if I move the up two frets, that'd be a D major chord. And as I said, if you know your bar chords already, you'll already be familiar with that sort of major shape, which we can move around the fretboard. So next, we've got G Again, we all know we know this G major shape. And like with the C cord, I'm going to have to sort of rearrange my fingers here because we've got a lot of open strings. So I'm going to replace my G chord to be with these three fingers here, my middle, my ring, and my pinky. And then my root note is here on my ring finger. It's fret three of that E string. Now, if I want to move this up, let's say, to play an A ord, we'll come up to fret five. My root note is here on the E string, and then I'm going to want to bar across here at fret two with my first finger there. So it's a little bit awkward, just like that C shape. And then we've got an A major chord. We've up to fret, it become a B major chord. Again, the voicing is quite clunky. It's quite difficult to get to. So I would mainly use this shape, as well as the C shape for finding notes in that position rather than actually using that chord. But I'll explain more of that in a second. Next, we've got our E shape, so our E major shape here, which we all know and love. Again, like with the A shape, if we know our bar chords, we'll know how this translates. Around the fret. So I replaced that E major chord to use my middle, my ring, and my pinky finger like so. My root note is on the E string, and then I can just move that around. If I move that up to fret five here, my first finger bars at fret three. So my root note is here on the Etring, that'd be a G, and that makes me play a G major chord. Move that up to frets. My root note is still here on the Etring so that'd be an A major chord. Okay. Now our final shape is the D shape. And our root note for this chord is on the D string. It's the open D string. So if I move this around here, I can move this up. Let's take it up to here our two frets. So I'm on fret four, fret five, fret four, there are my fingers. That would be an E major chord. If I revoice that, like so, my root note is here on the D string. Now, little trick, if you know your octaves already, you've also got a root note here in the decord. So I've got fret four, fret five, fret four. So my fret five here on the B string, it would also be my root note. You could also use that as a reference point if you choose, which to be honest, is what I go for because that shapes a little awkward. That's a lot more accessible. So if I want to move this up to say here, I'm on fret nine, fret ten, fret nine. My root note is here at fret ten, which I know from my octaves, is an A. That gives me an A major chord. So to practice these chord shapes, then, what I like to do is first, I like to pick a cord, and then I like to find all of the possible positions where it could be on the neck. Let's pick all of the A major chords we've got on the fretboard, using our cage system to help us find these shapes. So my first cord is here, my A open shape, and my root note on the A string. That would be my A shape A chord. My next A root note, I know I've got an A here at fret five on the lower E string. Now fret five on the lower E string, that gives me a G shape, so I can voice it like so. There is another a chord. I can also with my root note on the E string, play an E shape, A major chord just there. And then if I want to take that further with my octaves, I can play a D shape, A major chord just there. And then I've finally got another A major chord just here on the A string, which I can use the C shape for to play A and there. So I've got one here. I've got one here with a G shape, here with the E shape, here with the D shape, here with the C shape, and then we're back. To our A shape a major chord. So that's a really great practice exercise. Just pick any chord at random and go through with those cage shapes and find where they all sit. They all connect together, and it's going to help you also sort of remember where your root notes are. So you're going to learn the notes at a fretboard, and you're going to be learning these cage shapes and how you can move these voice ins all across the neck. Another great exercise is to take a chord progression that you're really familiar with. Let's take C, A minor, D minor and G, right? A minor, D minor, and G. We know those cords here in open position, and we can play that cord progression until the cows come home down here. But what we can then do is move through each of the cage positions and play that same cord progression again, and that's going to get us used to transferring between those different shapes, right? So we can start connecting it all together and start playing core progressions across the neck in different positions. So if I want to play our core progression here, as we've got C in an A shape, A minor in an E shape, D in an A shape. And G, in an E shape. We could then move that. Let's bring it up here, shall we? I've got a C here in the E shape up at eight. C to A minor, I want to take my D shape, D minor shape because the minor shapes are also transferable. It's there as our major. I'm going to make it minor, but by root note, it's still here on the B string at fret ten. So I've got C, A minor. Then we've got D minor. Now, where can I put that? I've got an A shape here. I've got that G. We talked about the Go. I don't really like that G. We could do Let's put one there. An E shape, D minor. And then we've got a G chord. Now we can either do a G chord here. A shape, there's my root note on fret ten. Or I can use a C shaped like. So let's do that. Let's do C, A minor, D minor, and then we'll put a G in there like. So, already you can see you're starting to get the same core progression throughout the neck, and it's really worth just taking some time just to experiment with this, try different cord progressions, hunt for different cords, find how all these shapes can connect together. And you'll find which ones you prefer, really. As I mentioned, I'm not a big fan of the C and the G shape, so I opt more for triads and in the D and A and the E shapes. But you may find that those CNGs are more comfortable for you. So whatever works, it's a tool to unlock the fretboard. There's no right or wrong answer here. It's all about seeing where these shapes land on the fretboard, how they connect, how you can get between them, and therefore, how you can then start traversing across that fretboard freely. 8. The CAGED System (Scales): Looked at the cage shape in regards to cords, but we can also use the cage system for things like scales and our peggios. So in this video, we're going to touch on the scales of the cage system. We've already learned our pentatonic shapes and our major modes, and they're a great way for unlocking the fretboard, which gives you a nice clear roadmap to be able to improvise up and down the neck. But we can also use those cage shapes to find other little positions and little micro scales, little small little blocks of scale on the fretboard, which I found a lot of guitar players like to think this way. They like to view the age system and view a major scale here, and then view here, view on here rather than viewing it as a whole roadmap across the fretboard. So what this is about is giving you an alternative method for unlocking the fretboard. Than learning all of your scales and your modes, et cetera. I'm going to take the major scale as an example here, I'm going to do it in C. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to slowly play through the major scale in each of the cage positions and play the cord around them, so you can see how it's all built off of these similar shapes, and you can start piecing the whole fretboard together in blocks. If I take a C, we'll take it in our C shape or open position for us right here. I can play a major scale right here. And you can see how the shape of that scale outlines the shape of that cord. But if I move across here to my A shaped C major cord, you can see instead there how the scale outlines this kind of position of the fretboard, right? So we've got here. We can do it here. So, already we're starting to unlock all of this part of the fretboard here just by using our two chord shapes. We can use our C, and we've used A. Next up would be G, which would be like so for our cord shape. My root notes here for eight of the E string. There's my C major scale. And I can play it in then this position of scale, so I can go here. Which again outlines where this chord shape sits on the fretboard. So using these shapes, it's so good for unlocking little blocks. Yes, you could visualize here. You could visualize that as, Oh, that's gonna be the Aeolian mode if you're really familiar with your modes. Yes, it is. But you could also, you could learn all of your mode shapes and all of your mode names and remember where they all sit. Or if you find it easier, you can keep thinking about C. And you just know that you've got a C shape here. Here. And here. And some people find it easier to just think purely about C rather than thinking about C and its modes. It's whatever works for you. So moving on, then it would be our E shape, which sits here at fre eight of the low E string. There's our C. And if you've done the four major scale, you'll recognize this shape here. That would be the E shape. So then moving on, then for our final cage shape, it would be our D shape, which I can place up here, my root note being on the B string where at fret 12, 13, 12. I've also got a root note here, remember, so you can put it major scale there. We could put one here, off our root note here. And in so on we're back to our open shape, so our open shape would also sit here. So you can see how it's a really great way of unlocking that fretboard. And in practice, I'd recommend doing exactly what we've just done in this video. Pick a cord, pick a scale, and use the cage system to work out where all these shapes are. And like what we talked about within our modes and our pentatonic shapes, perhaps try playing through one shape and up the other to really start connecting them. Mm hmm. It really is that easy. So just practice. Take your time, one cord at a time, one scale at a time, try connecting them through, and then try and add some fluidity between all of those scale shapes. 9. The CAGED System (Arpeggios): You mentioned in the earlier cage system videos, the cage system allows us to think about the fretboard in blocks in those five cage shapes. Now, we've touched on the cord and we've touched on the scale. And next we're going to touch on the arpeggio, because that's really going to help you then master where all the notes sit within those little shapes and help you unlock the fretboard, learn the notes in those positions, et cetera. So for those that aren't familiar with what an arpeggio is, it's essentially a stripped down scale. A scale stereotypically has got eight notes, and it would outline if we're in the key of C, it would go CDE, FGA BC. Arpeggio only outlines the notes used to construct a cord. So a C major chord has notes C, E and G. So the arpeggio is just going to be a repeat and sequence of C EG, C EG, et cetera, and that's going to outline all of the red tones in a specific position on the neck. So if you're improvising and you've got C chord coming up, you know where all of your u tones sit so you can land on a hard re tone. And then, again, it's going to help you unlock all of the notes on the fretboard as you do this with multiple cords. Using each of the cage shapes, I'm just going to play through some of the C major arpeggios that are available to us. I again show you where the cord sits. I'll show you where the scale sits, and then I'll show you where the arpeggio is. Just you can get a really full sort of understanding of everything in each position. So in open position, there's our C major cord in C shape. Our scale that we looked at earlier. Mm hmm. Sits there like soap. And an peggio would be CEG, CEG. We go C E, G C. And you can see. If I pick through the cord slowly, that's actually all of the notes of our C major chord. So if we move that on then to our A shape, there's our A shaped C major cord. Here was our scale. Or arpeggio. C, E, G C. Till that further EG. And those of you might see that actually outlined. A shape, C major cord there. So, you can see how this all ties in together. Moving on to our G shape. We've got our cord like so, and in our scale or so. Or our peggio again, C E, G C E, G. So you can again see how that sits within that shape. Moving on to our E shape. Like so there was our scale. And there's our arpeggio. Or D shape. We've got a root note here so we can build arpeggio here, C EGC. Build one here. So you can really see how all of these shapes can also be linked together. To give us an arpeggio that covers the whole neck. So, as I said, it's going to unlock all of it chord tones for us. It's going to help us learn all the notes. Just from doing that, I'm far more familiar now with where both C, E and G sit on the neck, and it's gonna just help you really unlock that fretboard. So add that into your cage system arsenal to really give a complete full understanding of how the fretboard works. 10. Triads And Inversions: Accord in its basic construction consists of notes one, three and five from the major scale. And when you play those three notes together, we get a triad, which is a chord in its most basic form, right? So I've got my major triad here, one, three, five. And to make it minor, I lower my third degree by one semitone flat 35. So those triads in their basic form can also be inverted. Basically, we can take that 135 combination and put them in different orders to give us slightly different sounds, and then we can use those inversions for voice leading. So that's all a G major triad. Here I've got G, B and D with G in the base, and that would be a root inversion. But I can take it to a first inversion. Well, I've got B in the base, the third. So I've got third, the fifth, and the root. Root inversion, one, three, five, first inversion, three, five, one? Other can then second inverter. We've got the fifth in the base. Five, one, three. So those will be our inversions. Building off of these E sort of shaped cords using our cage system. We can also find triads from our A shaped cords, we'll do that in C. So here's my C chord, A shape. System. And my triads right here. I've got one, three, five CE and G root inversion. I can then put it into first inversion where I put the third in the base. I sit there. I've got E, G and C. That's also the upper structure of our root inversion triad. So there would be a C triad there from our E shape. The upper structure of that. It's also kind of an inversion. You just change the base note. And then we can put it in our second inversion, which would be there. And if you notice, if you looked at the cage system video, that would also be our D shape. So you're starting to see how all of these shapes are starting to intertwine and you're starting to really understand how this wrap board works. Now using those different inversions, I can play C in loads of different places all over the fretboard. I've got here, I've got here, I've got here, here, here, there, and loads of other places, we're starting to unlock and understand the fretboard and able to play these chords in different positions, making chord progression sound more stylistically perhaps if we're doing let's say a funk tune, I wouldn't play a funct tune here. It's too clunky in the chords too big, but I would play that C chord up here. And then I can use those inversions to add some variation into my comp. 11. Course Summery: Covered a lot of ground in this course, and hopefully you've found some methods that really resonate with you to help you unlock this fretboard. Remember, they're not gospel. You don't have to learn all of them. Find what resonates with you, find what allows you to visualize shapes and scales on the fretboard and run with that, because as I said in a previous lesson, as long as you're able to move from here to here on the fretboard, stay within key, play the chords, play the right notes, and you can visualize where everything sits, you're winning. It doesn't matter whether you're using the cage system or the mode system or the pentatonic system. It doesn't make a difference. No one's going to judge. As long as you've got the right outcome, and that's what this course is all about. It's about giving you the tools and methods needed to unlock this fretboard. Now, of course, that doesn't mean you don't have to stick to one, either. I'm a big fan of combining the inversions with the cage shapes for chords. And then I like to use the scales for more improvising and note sort of based work. Mix and match, find what works for you, find which systems are best and really unlock your fretboard. But either way, I hope you've enjoyed unlocking the fretboard. I hope you found it useful. Remember, you have complete access to these videos forever. So keep coming back, use the miss reference point, refresh your memory, keep practicing, use the exercises that we've provided, and you'll really start to master the guitar and the fretboard. So no matter where you end up next, I wish you all the best. If you ever get stuck or want some help and extra guidance, do just email me because at the end of the day, I am here to help guitar players achieve their goals.