This method has helped me a ton over the last few months on both guitar and bass and I hope you can get something out of it too.
This is the system I use to visualize the notes of a key on a guitar or bass fretboard. There’s most definitely nothing new in here, it’s just organized in a way I find easier to remember.
The system covers all the musical keys, incorporates all the modes, and makes it easy to build chords from scratch. It’s a single note or interval system rather than a big block chord system like CAGED. It’s rooted on the first fret rather than on open strings, so everything in here is applicable up the neck. It’s good friends with the Nashville Number System.
There are only three things to memorize and practice, and you can skip the third if you’re playing bass:
That’s not very much! If you put in some time with the above, this is what you get in return:
I have a lousy memory for big scale patterns on a fretboard, and it’s a lot easier for me to remember rules and apply them on the fly. I’ve recently been learning to sight read after a lifetime of tabulature and this is the document I wish I’d had when I started.
Honestly these are mostly notes for myself, but maybe they’ll help if you:
I don’t know if this is derivative of any other system and would be happy to hear if there are similar approaches. It’s not CAGED, because it’s not about those big block chords. I don’t think it’s 3NPS, because there are far fewer patterns. What I like about this system is that there are only three patterns to memorize and they’re very simple.
This will help you with diatonic notes only. That might not be a severe limitation: it lets you play in any key and any mode. However:
This is designed to be a cumulative system where each step is simple to add but provides a significant payoff. Take your time though, each step will be here when you’re ready for it
There are three patterns to memorize. Each has three notes per string and one position of the root note (in parentheses). Let’s call them pattern 3, 2, and 1.
| * | | * | | * |
| (*) | | * | | * |
| * | | * | | * |
| * | | * | * |
| * | | * | (*) |
| * | * | | * |
| * | (*) | | * |
Practice these on their own. On a guitar, stick to your E A D G strings for now so you don’t have to worry about the half step shift between B and G. Noodle a bit to explore. See how the harmonic environment changes if you focus on a note other than the root as you’re moving around. Practice while looking away from your fretboard.
Try skipping notes as you move around. Moving around in thirds (skipping over immediately adjacent notes) will give you a head start on the chord work below. Find all the ways you can skip a note while moving up or down your pattern. There aren’t very many since these are so small.
In your mind, stack the three patterns in a repeating, infinite strip. The trailing edge of Pattern 1 aligns with the trailing edge of Pattern 2; the leading edge of Pattern 1 aligns with the leading edge of Pattern 3.
Like this:
-------------------------------
| * | | * | | * | Pattern 3
| (*) | | * | | * |
| * | | * | | * |
-------------------------------
| * | | * | * | Pattern 2
| * | | * | (*) |
-------------------------
| * | * | | * | Pattern 1 (home)
| * | (*) | | * |
-------------------------------
| * | | * | | * | Pattern 3
| (*) | | * | | * |
| * | | * | | * |
-------------------------------
| * | | * | * | Pattern 2
| * | | * | (*) |
-------------------------
| * | * | | * | Pattern 1
| * | (*) | | * |
-------------------------
At this point you can place one of those root notes anywhere on the fretboard and play a major scale starting with that note. Pick a fret and a pattern and noodle your way up and down the infinite strip of patterns.
This isn’t a one finger per fret system since Pattern 3 is five frets wide, so where should you keep your hand? I tend to orient my four fingers around Pattern 1 or 2 and treat those as one finger per fret, and once I play into Pattern 3 I pivot for whichever fret isn’t already under my fingers.
Especially on a full scale bass, locking yourself into a one-fret-per-finger position means that Pattern 3 is too wide to comfortably fit under your hand. It’s time to start moving around the fretboard a little more flexibly, and you can borrow pivoting technique from the upright bass. If you keep your thumb steady at the same spot behind the neck of your instrument, you’ll find that you can move up and down the fretboard with remarkable range. You use your thumb as a pivot point but allow your hand to change shape to reach frets that are lower or higher than your hand spans.
I’ve found that by pivoting, I can comfortably reach from the first fret to the eighth on my short scale bass without moving my thumb: a perfect fifth! This has unlocked my ability to make bigger leaps with more confidence and the bass feels like a different but much more comfortable instrument under my hand. Practice this by hopping around Pattern 3 by fretting with a single finger, and you’ll see that spanning the five frets of Pattern 3 with index to pinky fingers becomes very easy.
Let’s start with C major. This is a 4 string example on the low E A D G strings of your instrument. If you’re on a guitar, continue to ignore the B and high E strings.
I’ve called that middle Pattern 1 above “home”. This is an infinite strip, so anything could be considered home, but there are some things later in the document that benefit from being relative to some chosen position. I chose that particular Pattern 1 because it helps orient us around a C major scale on the lowest five frets of the instrument.
That allows us to start with no sharps and no flats and play every note of the scale in a fretted position (rather than an open string) so we don’t lose expressive control. It also leaves us with one unambiguous place to play each note.
So let’s align Pattern 1’s root to the C on the third fret of the A string. Extending our infinite pattern from there, we get one line of Pattern 2 above and one line of Pattern 3 below.
G string || | * | | * | (*) | Pattern 2 (lower half)
-------------------------
D string || | * | * | | * | Pattern 1 (home)
A string || | * | (*) | | * |
--------------------------------
E string || * | | * | | * | Pattern 3 (upper third)
This is a C major scale, so the note positions correspond to the white keys of a piano: no sharps and no flats.
G string || | A | | B | (C) | Pattern 2 (lower half)
D string || | E | F | | G | Pattern 1 (home)
A string || | B | (C) | | D |
E string || F | | G | | A | Pattern 3 (upper third)
Note that on a four string bass, you’ll only ever need to hold up to one of each pattern in your head at once. On a six string guitar, you may have to be aware of two Pattern 3’s. But on both instruments, knowing the position of only one pattern will allow you to quickly derive the rest of the infinite strip on the fly.
Now if all the strings on a guitar were tuned to the same interval (like a bass), we’d be done: this infinite strip extends beyond both edges of the fingerboard, and once your root is placed you can visualize which notes under your hand are in the major scale.
But on a guitar, the highest sounding two strings–the E and the B–are tuned half a step lower than the interval used for the rest of the strings. This means that you have to play one fret higher on those strings to get the same note.
In my practice, I’ve focused on visualizing those strings as always shifted relative to the others. This means shifting the infinite strip by one fret where it strides the E and B strings.
So let’s extend this four string, five fret bass example to the strings of a guitar by finishing Pattern 2 on the B string and adding a line of Pattern 3 on the E string. We’ll shift both of those up by one fret to account for the tuning difference:
E string || | --> | G | | A | | B | Pattern 3 (lower third)
-------------------------------
B string || | --> | D | | E | F | Pattern 2
G string || | A | | B | (C) |
-------------------------
D string || | E | F | | G | Pattern 1
A string || | B | (C) | | D |
--------------------------------
E string || F | | G | | A | Pattern 3 (upper third)
fret 1
This breaks us out of the five fret box, but I’ve found it’s a lot easier to me to shift these smaller patterns on the fly than it is to memorize the full six-string patterns of the CAGED system.
As another example, let’s use this to derive a map for the key of F. First, place a pattern’s root note on the F. This time we’ll use Pattern 3 instead of Pattern 1, in order to show how F works in the same hand position:
E string
B string
G string
D string
A string
E string || (*) | | * | | * | Pattern 3 (middle third)
Using that as our anchor, we’ll visualize how the infinite strip extends by finishing Pattern 3 and stacking the other two patterns above it. We remember to shift things up half a step between the B and G strings:
E string || | --> | * | | * | * | Pattern 2 (shifted up half a step)
B string || | --> | * | | * | (*) |
-------------------------------
G string || | * | * | | * | Pattern 1
D string || | * | (*) | | * |
--------------------------------
A string || * | | * | | * | Pattern 3 (upper two thirds)
E string || (*) | | * | | * |
Compared to the C Major example above, this introduces one flatted note:
E string || | --> | G | | A | Bb | Pattern 2 (shifted up half a step)
B string || | --> | D | | E | (F) |
-------------------------------
G string || | A | Bb | | C | Pattern 1
D string || | E | (F) | | G |
--------------------------------
A string || Bb | | C | | D | Pattern 3 (upper two thirds)
E string || (F) | | G | | A |
Hey check it out, this ties together the key signature of F (one flat) with a pattern based system. I have had so much trouble in the past trying to reconcile half step based guitar intervals with notes on the staff, where the same space can span different numbers of half steps.
Wait, we shifted the infinite strip up to add a flat. Does that always happen when we shift it up?
Let’s extend what we have so far to get us all of the keys, in a way that ties together the fretboard and a musical staff.
Moving the infinite strip up moves your root note up five semitones; this moves the root up a perfect fourth. According to the circle of fifths, this motion adds a flat to your key (or subtracts a sharp if you’re in a sharp key).
Moving the strip down moves your root down five semitones, or a perfect fifth. This adds a sharp (or subtracts a flat).
So by keeping your hand in the same position and shifting the strip you can eventually cycle through all the keys. This has become the quickest way for me to look at a key signature and figure out what notes on the fretboard are in key: start from the home position and shift up or down by as many sharps or flats as you see.
In fact, you can memorize which line of the strip corresponds to each number of flats or sharps and jump there immediately by putting that line on your E string.
-------------------------------
| * | | * | | * | Pattern 3
6 sharps (F#) | (*) | | * | | * |
5 sharps (B) | * | | * | | * |
-------------------------------
4 sharps (E) | * | | * | * | Pattern 2
3 sharps (A) | * | | * | (*) |
-------------------------
2 sharps (D) | * | * | | * | Pattern 1 (home)
1 sharp (G) | * | (*) | | * |
-------------------------------
- (C) | * | | * | | * | Pattern 3
1 flat (F) | (*) | | * | | * |
2 flats (Bb) | * | | * | | * |
-------------------------------
3 flats (Eb) | * | | * | * | Pattern 2
4 flats (Ab) | * | | * | (*) |
-------------------------
5 flats (Db) | * | * | | * | Pattern 1
6 flats (Gb) | * | (*) | | * |
-------------------------
This was amazing when I figured it out: you can look at a key signature and immediately place the infinite pattern in the right spot to ensure you only play notes in that key. That works no matter the key or mode (major or minor? no prob!) and you can do that without knowing the notes of the staff.
Everything above has been built around the major scale: that was a side effect of choosing to root the patterns on the first scale degree. But there are seven scale degrees available, and each can be used to produce a different series of intervals and a different harmonic environment.
Let’s look at the patterns again but replace each asterisk with its scale degree. I’ll keep the 1’s in parentheses for visual continuity but it’s time to get untethered from that particular position.
| 4 | | 5 | | 6 |
| (1) | | 2 | | 3 |
| 5 | | 6 | | 7 |
| 2 | | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | | 7 | (1) |
| 3 | 4 | | 5 |
| 7 | (1) | | 2 |
To get the C major scale, we placed the 1 of any of these patterns over a C on the fretboard and played from there. To get any other mode of C, place the number of that mode on the C instead.
The different modes are always the same patterns, you’re just emphasizing a different position in the pattern as your root.
Here are the names and scale degrees for each mode:
So let’s say you’re wanting to play in G minor. That’s the Aeolian mode. Place the 6 of any pattern (in parentheses below) on a G note on the fretboard.
G string || | * | * | | * | Pattern 1 (lower half)
--------------------------------
D string || * | | * | | (*) | Pattern 3
A string || * | | * | | * |
E string || * | | (*) | | * |
Those are all the notes of G minor. You don’t need to know the key signature and you don’t need to know its relative major. Really you don’t need to think about anything aside from placing the 6 on the right root.
D Phrygian? Just put the 3 on a D.
G string || | * | * | | * | Pattern 1 (lower half)
--------------------------------
D string || * | | * | | * | Pattern 3
A string || * | | * | | (*) |
E string || * | | * | | * |
Bb Locrian? Put the 7 on Bb.
G string || * | | * | * | Pattern 2 (lower half)
--------------------------
D string || * | * | | * | Pattern 1
A string || (*) | * | | * |
--------------------------
E string || | * | | * | Pattern 3 (top third)
I’ll tell you right up front: I am struggling to organize this section and it’s still a work in progress.
Up above (in “All the patterns”) I suggested moving around the patterns in thirds. These are the intervals that result when you skip a note in the scale, and they can be used to build the diatonic chords.
For this document’s purposes, there are two kinds: major thirds and minor thirds. A major third is an interval of five semitones, and a minor third is an interval of four semitones. That’s a pretty dry explanation, though. Let’s go back to our patterns, where we’ll see that there are only two ways to go up (or down) a major third:
One string major third interval:
| M | | | | M |
Two strings major third interval:
| M | |
| | M |
And two ways to go up (or down) a minor third:
One string minor third:
| m | | | m |
Two strings minor third:
| m | | |
| | | m |
How do we get chord tones from these? Well a major triad is built when you start from a root and stack up a major third then a minor third.
Like this:
| M m | | | m |
| | (M) | | |
Or like this:
| m | | | |
| | | m M | |
| | | | (M) |
Or like this:
| | | m | | |
| (M) | | | | M m |
If you’re sticking to the patterns, these are really the only ways to play a major triad! The fourth option, where you play both intervals on one string, requires you to move your hand out of position.
A minor triad is just the same, except you reverse the order: it’s a minor third and then a major third.
Like this:
| | | M | |
| (m) | | | m M |
Or like this:
| M | | | |
| | M m | | |
| | | | (m) |
Or like this:
| m M | | | | M |
| | | (m) | | |
And once again these are the only practical options for making a minor triad in one hand position.
Take a moment to appreciate the similarities between the major and minor shapes. In each case, the shape can be rotated 180° to convert the triad between major and minor.
Each degree of the scale roots a triad with one of those shapes. 1, 4, and 5 are major triads and 2, 3, and 6 are minor. The only exception is degree 7, which leads into two minor intervals for a diminished triad.
Like this:
| | m | | |
| (m) | | | m m |
Or like this:
| m | | | | |
| | | m m | | |
| | | | | (m) |
Or like this:
| m m | | | m |
| | | (m) | |
Once you know which triad corresponds to each scale degree, you can write down in-key chord progressions with only the numbers of the chords. Major, minor, or diminished color is implied by the number.
Some example chord progressions:
Check this out: the third progression is in a minor key, but that doesn’t need to be mentioned at all. It’s implied by starting the song on the chord from the 6th scale degree. And the fourth is in the Phrygian mode! This opens up the whole world of modal progressions without making you think about which mode is which on the fly.
Let’s finish up this document by extending each of those triads with one more note for extra color. Following our patterns, the next third on top of the 1 and 4 chords is a major third. The next third for every other scale degree is a minor third.
We already know how to add a major or minor triad to any pattern: there are only two ways to produce them. What chords do we get if we add the next third to each triad?