I have been playing guitar for over 30 years now and nobody has ever explained it this way to me. I feel like my minds eye has been opened wide and now I can see all the patterns in my head without even looking at a guitar fretboard. For the people who find this complicated and confusing, just remember that our brains are wired a certain way to help us learn and in my case, I’m a pattern type of person and I have always seen this pattern on my feet board but the only thing I needed to know open my mind was the key to decipher it’s meaning. Thank you so much for this gift. I will like, subscribe, and share.
i’ve playing guitar for 52 years (really) and i have a degree in music theory and composition. i was mesmerized and lost at the same time. MIND BLOWN. Better watch it again.
Bro.. 🤜🏼🤛🏼 You win the best fretboard theory video I have ever seen. Its been 36 years of picking random covers out by ear.. I’m turning myself into a music theory, geek to figure it out. Now I love music theory, the traditional method, or the active listening method, I have never thought to related to a Taurus, my mind is blown.
Thanks for this incredible lecture! I grew up playing the classical guitar and have just picked up the electric guitar, where for the first time I'm conscious of the patterns to learning scales and using movable chords. It's made me more excited about this beautiful instrument. Your explanations have only helped me process and brought me clarity to what I've been observing.
Here is how you make this practical: LEARN YOUR GOD DAMN INTERVALS!!! There is no way around it. No matter how much of a revelation you think this video is, it will not provide any shortcuts to understanding the fretboard. You simply have to spend lots of time and brain power drilling the patterns of the fretboard into your brain, both visually and aurally. Even though it takes time, learning your intervals, especially learning to hear your intervals, will pay dividends for as long as you listen to, play, and internalize music. If this is new territory for you, start out with octaves! Memorize the main shapes used to play octaves between the following pairs of strings: E-D; A-G; D-B; G-E; E-G; A-B; and D-E! Start with that and don't move on until you have them under your fingers and can move them around all over the place. Then do (in approximately this order): fifths/fourths, major/minor thirds, half/whole steps between different strings (I'm assuming you have a handle on those when played on the same string), tritones, major/minor sevenths, and major/minor sixths, before moving on to larger intervals like ninths, tenths, etc. That said, just getting comfortable within an octave takes a long time (months, if not years if you're being truly rigorous with yourself), and I cannot overstate how far that alone will get you. It will take you very, very far. If you're not yet sold on committing time to this, I will say that for me the primary benefits have been: Being able to play melodies/motifs/other musical ideas by ear, instantly. It also allows me to improvise in a way in which I'm not guessing what notes will come out of the instrument-- I know exactly what I'm going to play before I play it, which means being able to fluidly convert my internal musical ideas into awesome lines in real time. To me, it is one of the most satisfying forms of self expression that being a musician can provide. One thing that this video overlooks (among others), is the exception to the rule which is the B string. You have to learn the patterns on and between each string, and that means learning the shapes for the normal strings, as well as intimately understanding the way in which those shapes change when the B string is involved. That is why I believe this level of abstraction can be detrimental, because it overlooks the fact that the guitar (typically) only has 6 strings (as opposed to an arbitrarily large number) and that it is not completely tuned in perfect fourths. I will say, the math behind music is absolutely incredible, and this video doesn't begin to scratch the surface of it. I would recommend someone like 3blue1brown for that. For the physics of music, checkout Science and Music by James Jeans if you really want a revelation.
Mendeleev Presented to The Royal Society, a Thesis which shows that the Periodic Table of Elements is in Octave Format, so We are All, and Everything is Condensed Energetic Music. Tolkien even includes "The Three Themes of Music" which Illuvatar "gives" to the Airnur to Sing, which in turn, brings all things into existence, providing the structure, and phenomena of reality.
I am glad a number of people interested in guitar found this helpful. I viewed it as a colorful way to make learning guitar more confusing. Thanks for your efforts, Mike.
The geometry of music is like the algebra of cooking. The best bread uses the fewest ingredients and you never measure them::: The magic is in the hands of the baker.
Wow, this is what I was looking for. I am a beginner playing the guitar, and also an electronic engineer for 40 years. Everything in electronics is mathematically based, this is the only way to really understand the mysteries of electronics. I knew the guitar fret board had to have a mathematical definition on how the fret notes are positioned on the neck. I feel a lot better now knowing there is some method to the madness. I'm still studying this video as I still have a few things to comprehend, nevertheless this video is a wonderful insight on this subject. Thanks so much for the details, I needed it.
At around minute 7, I was feeling the tug to disagree because of the major-3rd interval between the 4th and 5th strings of any standard tuning (regardless of how high or low you have 'standard' tuning). You do explain the semitone shift a minute later, but I feel that it is understated, as the results have big consequences, and those consequences are *enormous blessings to fingerstyle players* . I wonder if I'm unique in that I see chords and CAGED system patterns -- not a Cartesian coordinate system. I still like this video because it explains note relationships perfectly well but only while strings are *tuned fourths apart* . Food for thought.
Agreed. I’m a mathematician and guitar player, and it was an interesting exercise, with limited usefulness when in standard tuning. Also, good guitar players have simply memorized the fretboard as second nature from lots of practice and experience. That intuition is ingrained in their minds, not some color matrix or even conscious labeling of notes and intervals. Also, knowing the position and pattern of internals on the guitar is essential and much simpler than what is presented here.
I’ve been recently sorting through the joys of music theory and I found this video most insightful!! Thank you and keep up the fantastic work. This is the depiction of the higher dimensions we engage with as music lovers. Awesome content!
I have been playing for 20 years have a degree in jazz and followed what you were saying but it infinitely made guitar more complicated 😂. Scales and modes/ recognizing intervals works just fine for me
@@franciscoacosta1667 yes i make a living as a music teacher I definitely know what I’m talking about. This may be helpful for some but i just don’t need this kind of patterns to understand or explain guitar well
Very interesting, without knowing the concept of guitar theory, I had told a friend of mine whom is a lead guitarist that he was a color man, it was what I felt he brought to the band, so from a layman point of view to your explanation an agreement of understanding that makes this so very true, it's like a creative singer that feels this color and responds accordingly, like it was fait that brought this conversation, a language of it own that everyone can see as the hear, just down right spiritual, in fact in the Bible when God's people would go to war the tribe of Judah went first, the name Judah means praise. It's a God thing and you are a intelligent feller. Really enjoy your presentation.
My engineer mind LOVES this! After years of playing, last year I stumbled onto seeing the circle of 4ths or 5ths going across the strings at a given fret, and suddenly could know where the notes were within a key, relative to the root. Your observations gave me more insight into the repeating nature of the patterns for all the notes in a key... and merging that with my knowledge of the CAGED patterns... the light bulb is flickering on... THANK YOU!
I met a session musician 40 years ago. I asked him how he is able to understand the guitar so well, he replied that it's easy, music is just mathematics. I have been pondering that ever since. Now I see what he meant.
This is not necessarily helpful for teaching guitar but in revealing geometry behind music theory it’s pretty spectacular. The animations are incredible! I’ve always been intrigued by the mathematical foundation of music but I have a hard time articulating it to others. This video will be mucho shared
Mike, you are the Christopher Nolan of music theory videos! For a second, you brought me to a musical tesseract and unlocked a new dimension! Thank you for this mind-blowing mathematical lecture in musical physics.
I’m an engineer(electrical) by degree so the math part all makes sense. But my struggle in the past has been approaching the guitar like a mathematical tool. Not only does it force me to slow down to think (way too much) about what is going on, but it causes me to constantly review the fretboard patterns to make sure I’ve got the math right. Although I think this information is useful from a theory perspective, for me it would kill the pleasure and my skill in playing guitar. As one guitarist said to me, you can think the music or you can feel the music. When I get on my bike it’s total feel, as it should be. Now I have to retrain my mind (from years of abuse as an engineer) to begin feeling the music again. Thanks Mike George for this information as I found it fascinating.
You've got no idea how happy I'm am to have found your channel! I'm both a math and music nerd lol, this was like eating fries with ice cream, the perfect pair. Thanks a lot!
To me this explanation is making the whole thing more complicated. I rely on the major/minor scale and intervals to navigate my way around the fret board
Transposing the color spectrum to the fretboard - and then adding the 'shift' for the two bottom strings - screwed up any hope of following an already difficult pattern, at least for me.
It's important to know the notes on the fret board. Just period. How would know where your root is when you're playing? If you in any way have memorized the low e strings notes to assist in finding your root then you in fact have half assed learned the notes. Now match them to the other strings. Just do it. Why you cheaping out, don't you want to be a better player.
@@cfdwarrior 48 years playing, here. I do try to improve, and am always grateful for what I CAN do. Improving alot, I think, requires time. When I first started playing at 17 y.o., it was no big deal to put in 3 hours per day. I was/am very good with the little I know. I'm not EVH, that's for sure. Back then (1970's) you learned from your friends, practicing, and maybe guitar lessons. I know some people have more inherent talent than others, but I will quickly add that if you truly enjoy the instrument, you will always get better at it, and yes, whatever point you're at, you will always improve by the "you get out of it what you put into it" principle. Scales are needful, even if only from a conceptual background understanding of what you are playing, but I find them difficult to deal with 'on the fly'. Intervals, on the other hand, are very useful when playing melody, and the shorter intervals become intuitive after time. I would say, finally, that the single best concept for my own improvement has been that of the "CAGED" system. It can become very easy to use while improvising or simply looking for a better position to play, when you are constructing a song.
Grateful for creating and for sharing this. Amazing how maths and music can be taught in one shot. Thank you for the idea and for the time you spent to make it available.
On my umteenth viewing of this and still learning more. Now I can alter some basic chords and get a sound i anticipate. I'm on the road to improvisation.
Very good material, your introduction of n-dimensional topology as applied to the guitar and music in general is new to me, and fascinating. Since I'm a former data guy the fretboard has looked like a matrix/vector to me for a long time. A song looks like the (usually) cyclical audible expression of a series of vector transformations over/through a period of time. And the series for a given instrument and piece of music can be (and usually is) stacked and synced with the series - the musical "parts" - of others, to produce more complex performances. Bla bla. Linear algebra. Why this all works this way, and why music can engender psychological states in human listeners, beats me. Neato. Now you have me thinking about n-dimensional toroidal vectors and transformations along the time dimension. Hmm. Thank you, Mike.
Yeah this is easy enough, but what if we convert the notes by using logarithmic transformation? We can then take square roots of any note and any octave to inform our fingers where to go and get there ten times faster?
Learning guitar, and also being into color painting, I found your videos very interesting. Thanks a lot this make a lot of s'e'nse and is definitely useful. This is also a ,very rare, case wher "mind-blowing in a YT video is not a cheap click bait.
This is not a “how to play guitar” video. It is describing math and is not for everyone. After almost 40 years of playing guitar and bass I found this very interesting. I have been working with perfect 4ths tuning with the idea that I may try 8 string guitar at some point and want to keep the relationships the same. Anyway, very interesting take and great effort on the graphics: subscribed!
I actually found the information useful. I had noticed years ago that the fretboard on a horizontal plane (box type) was based on the circle of 5ths. My excellent guitar teacher at the time was unaware of that fact. Has it made me a better guitar player? Probably not, but I put the blame on the the player (myself), where it belongs. It is fascinating though: if one can unlock the fretboard and ALL of the other intricacies of becoming a great musician, that's when the fun really begins! It's still work for me.......
Love it. What you have discovered is that the guitar fretboard is (almost) ISOMORPHIC with 12-tone equal temperament -- that is, that both are generated by (a) stacking tempered perfect fifths and then (b) adding and/or subtracting octaves. See Wikipedia's articles on "Isomorphic keyboard," "Dynamic Tonality," and the papers in their references. Good work!
A few guitarists use P4 tuning (perfect 4th, E A D G C F) and then the fret board is completely isomorphic. And a few use M3 (major 3rd tuning, best with 7 strings E G# C E G# C E) which is also isomorphic. Standard tuning (which is perfect 4ths except for the major third between the 2nd and 3rd strings) is a compromise to totally isomorphic tuning, and the compromise is both wonderful and horrible. Wonderful because it facilitates loads of easy open chords and barre chords, and horrible because of always having to adjust for one stinking interval that is different that the rest.
For instance. Mix any one of these patterns with the pentatonic. For instance, the red and green line makes the blues scale when mixed with the pentatonic.
My brother played bass professionally for over 33 years and he only used his ear to learn the songs. That did limit his options career-wise. Music and mathematics are connected. Sound, vibration and frequency are built into human DNA. It's why music is such a powerful medium. Thanks.
Was hoping to find a new teaching tool. Nope. I was instantly lost. I'm a classically trained guitarist and this turned the fret board into a complete mystery.
Depends on the person I guess. As both a math brained person and an artist (so i study color theory) these videos have made it a million times clearer to me. I couldn't remember a single note name yesterday and today after watching only the interval playlist I can find not only the notes, but the intervals, where the fret is and I can even imagine the sound too without looking at a guide. Super helpful, but definitely confusing. But for literally a day it's been useful for me, I suspect he is a very logical/math brained person too.
He didn't really have any background. You have to jump on the merry-go-round at full speed. There are absolute notes A, B, C, D, E, F G and 5 sharps and/or flats. There are relative intervals. 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5, 6 ,7. Stare at middle C on a piano keyboard. It's almost impossible not to see: Step, Step, Half-Step, Step, Step, Step, Half-Step (the intervals of the major scale from 1 in order). If you bar(re) a finger across a guitar fretboard, you have 1, 4, b7, b3, 5, 1 starting from the lowest string (read b as flat). If you start on the second lowest string you have: 1, 4, b7, 2, 5. If you start on the third lowest string you have 1, 4, 6, 2. The relative interval have other names such as do, re me, fa, so, la ti, do (thank you Juilie Andrews).
@@user-otzlixr still doesn’t explain what he says in the rest of his (ego fodder) post. And if he was that INSTANTLY lost at another teacher’s lesson, not sure he should be teaching in the first place.
I've played guitar for 40 years, I don't know what the hell he's talking about. I have never once looked at the fret board like this. Just know what key your in, which scale you want to use, and off you go. No geometry required.
This is perfect for introverts (slow brainwave thinkers) or known as geniuses but now you need to make another video for Extroverts (Fast Brainwave thinkers) or known as Floor Generals. I subscribed to you channel and the wealth of information and presentation is "Fenomenal", good job!
Great visualization framework to help navigate the fretboard, in my opinion. If you are musically trained and/or can already navigate the fretboard fluidly good on you, this is obviously not something you need. I’ve been playing guitar as a hobby for two decades and still appreciate tools like this one and find them helpful to improve my skills in new ways. Thanks for the video!
Now I’m more confused. It was fun seeing how you broke this down, though. I just think about all of this complexity and it kind of intimidates me. Perhaps one day I will finally learn to play the guitar.
And now to actually _practice_ learning the fretboard geometry in a meaningful way, check out McFadden's Fretboard Harmony for University Study. Start from Chapter 3. Publicly available on the internet.
Thanks, Mike, This is the first time that I've seen these patterns laid out like this. Now, the trick, I guess, is bridging these patterns to practical application. I have begun visualizing the fretboard in terms of scale degrees in relation to the tonic in hopes of being able to quickly play any scale or mode just by knowing which scale degrees comprise it. Been working on the natural minor (Aeolian) - so now I'm thinking 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7 rather than trying to memorize a pattern (if that makes any sense). Although a pattern does emerge, I'm not trying to memorize per se. I think it's pretty cool how the half step patterns emerge - it feels like it's the half steps that give the scale/mode their feel. I'm rambling... anyone thanks again. - Cheers
Yes, this does make sense. Not memorizing the pattern that emerges, per se, but focusing on the underlying intervals themselves. It's a deeper understanding. Very cool. You're totally right -- bridging these patterns to practical application is the key. To put theory into practice. The "Fretboard Geometry" playlist dissects these patterns a bit more, so you really know all intervals at the atomic level -- to then build any pattern from there (scales, modes, chords, progressions). If you're interested, there's much more in the Community on the practical application of all this (link in the video notes).
Its interesting to use colors, but ultimately unhelpful outside of Modern or Serial music of some sort. When you eventually know the notes and intervals etc, the colors aren't going to be used. I think its best to go from using dots to numbers, assuming the dots are necessary in the first place. Perhaps the color system can be helpful in getting the point across that the numbers themselves arent Math anymore than the letters are words, but are place holders for a certain frequency or pitch. Music Theory often has several names for things that depend on how its being looked at. Adding colors seems to add another layer of confusion in something we're all trying to unify and generally sounds like a bad idea if taken too seriously by the student.
Pretty interesting as far as it goes; I don't quite see how this translates into more skillful playing, however. How does one employ this analysis in improvising a solo over a chord progression, for instance? The exciting introductory description hinted at cosmic revelations giving rise to enhanced mastery of the instrument, but I'm afraid that the application is not self-explanatory. It's very cool, though, so thanks...
Interesting take...however I'm colourblind...so there's that. Also I'm not sure that translating music theory (for guitar) into yet another language would be any easier than just learning the theory/fretboard...which is really only half the battle anyways.
This is certainly interesting especially from a compositional standpoint. And if improvisers have a compositional approach perhaps this might work. But the guitar in standard tuning is arranged to make it easy to form chords. This kind of explains the second and third string ( b and g) being in a third, while the rest of the tuning is in fourths. I think seeing the patterns as chords give it context even if you are playing in scalar fashion. But anyway, we can agree that the guitar is fascinating. I do like the thinking in colors approach. Worth exploring.
I memorize the fretboard like this, except I do it a bit simpler. I only keep track of root, third and fifths and figure out the rest on the fly. And I find the root with the circle of fifths.
So when you add the infinite number of extra strings I assume every 6th one would introduce the irregularity of the B-string 3rd interval and would be followed by 2 E-strings in row? Perhaps it would be better if you used 'All 4ths' tuning - but that could complicate the open chord fingerings. Higher frets might be useful but frets lower than 1 would again make open chords tricky and its hard to imagine they could exist at all.
Got half way ... Not needed for me .... 20 years ago I colour coded my fret board with coloured stickers was great help. I use boomwhacker colours for my note colours so seeing those colours assigned differently was odd hahaha
Great stuff! You show a regular grid with alternating coloured squares and circles , you then translate that grid over the fretboard and you shift the first 2 strings by one fret breaking the regular grid, you then go back to the previous regular grid without the shit overlayed over the fretboard again but this time without the earlier fret shift, you go on to expand the grid and you wrap it over the torus but now you show the grid shifted again! could you explain this shift? why is it needed? thanks
Hell! I flunked freshman Algebra and had to go to summer school! Thanks Miss “P” (name hidden to prevent a lawsuit) Now I’m totally screwed 53 years later!
I have wondered all my life why I cannot play the guitar... now I know exactly why. It's in a language that my brain cannot comprehend. Every time I find 2 or three notes that sound good together, they are in a different pattern everywhere else on the fingerboard. Even these color coded hints make no sense to me. So, I'll just keep on building great guitars and let YOU GUYS play them.
I have been playing guitar for over 30 years now and nobody has ever explained it this way to me. I feel like my minds eye has been opened wide and now I can see all the patterns in my head without even looking at a guitar fretboard. For the people who find this complicated and confusing, just remember that our brains are wired a certain way to help us learn and in my case, I’m a pattern type of person and I have always seen this pattern on my feet board but the only thing I needed to know open my mind was the key to decipher it’s meaning. Thank you so much for this gift. I will like, subscribe, and share.
Right?! I feel exactly the same way! The sky is the limit now.
i’ve playing guitar for 52 years (really) and i have a degree in music theory and composition. i was mesmerized and lost at the same time. MIND BLOWN. Better watch it again.
I'm spending time on just this video until the patterns become part of me.
Bro.. 🤜🏼🤛🏼
You win the best fretboard theory video I have ever seen. Its been 36 years of picking random covers out by ear.. I’m turning myself into a music theory, geek to figure it out. Now I love music theory, the traditional method, or the active listening method, I have never thought to related to a Taurus, my mind is blown.
This has changed my life completely, I am now a mathmusician
I feel the same way
Thanks for this incredible lecture! I grew up playing the classical guitar and have just picked up the electric guitar, where for the first time I'm conscious of the patterns to learning scales and using movable chords. It's made me more excited about this beautiful instrument. Your explanations have only helped me process and brought me clarity to what I've been observing.
Here is how you make this practical: LEARN YOUR GOD DAMN INTERVALS!!! There is no way around it. No matter how much of a revelation you think this video is, it will not provide any shortcuts to understanding the fretboard. You simply have to spend lots of time and brain power drilling the patterns of the fretboard into your brain, both visually and aurally. Even though it takes time, learning your intervals, especially learning to hear your intervals, will pay dividends for as long as you listen to, play, and internalize music. If this is new territory for you, start out with octaves! Memorize the main shapes used to play octaves between the following pairs of strings: E-D; A-G; D-B; G-E; E-G; A-B; and D-E! Start with that and don't move on until you have them under your fingers and can move them around all over the place. Then do (in approximately this order): fifths/fourths, major/minor thirds, half/whole steps between different strings (I'm assuming you have a handle on those when played on the same string), tritones, major/minor sevenths, and major/minor sixths, before moving on to larger intervals like ninths, tenths, etc. That said, just getting comfortable within an octave takes a long time (months, if not years if you're being truly rigorous with yourself), and I cannot overstate how far that alone will get you. It will take you very, very far.
If you're not yet sold on committing time to this, I will say that for me the primary benefits have been: Being able to play melodies/motifs/other musical ideas by ear, instantly. It also allows me to improvise in a way in which I'm not guessing what notes will come out of the instrument-- I know exactly what I'm going to play before I play it, which means being able to fluidly convert my internal musical ideas into awesome lines in real time. To me, it is one of the most satisfying forms of self expression that being a musician can provide.
One thing that this video overlooks (among others), is the exception to the rule which is the B string. You have to learn the patterns on and between each string, and that means learning the shapes for the normal strings, as well as intimately understanding the way in which those shapes change when the B string is involved. That is why I believe this level of abstraction can be detrimental, because it overlooks the fact that the guitar (typically) only has 6 strings (as opposed to an arbitrarily large number) and that it is not completely tuned in perfect fourths.
I will say, the math behind music is absolutely incredible, and this video doesn't begin to scratch the surface of it. I would recommend someone like 3blue1brown for that. For the physics of music, checkout Science and Music by James Jeans if you really want a revelation.
Mendeleev Presented to The Royal Society, a Thesis which shows that the Periodic Table of Elements is in Octave Format, so We are All, and Everything is Condensed Energetic Music.
Tolkien even includes "The Three Themes of Music" which Illuvatar "gives" to the Airnur to Sing, which in turn, brings all things into existence, providing the structure, and phenomena of reality.
I am glad a number of people interested in guitar found this helpful. I viewed it as a colorful way to make learning guitar more confusing. Thanks for your efforts, Mike.
Lol
If you like confusing, check out Pat Martinos take on parent chords etc. Its technically correct, but you'll need aspirin before you're done. Lol
The geometry of music is like the algebra of cooking. The best bread uses the fewest ingredients and you never measure them::: The magic is in the hands of the baker.
Keep lost in the fretboard.
If not, watch the video again. He is basicly explaining simetrical intervals between diferent strings and freets
Thank you for that, I appreciate it!@@franciscoacosta1667
Wow, this is what I was looking for. I am a beginner playing the guitar, and also an electronic engineer for 40 years. Everything in electronics is mathematically based, this is the only way to really understand the mysteries of electronics. I knew the guitar fret board had to have a mathematical definition on how the fret notes are positioned on the neck. I feel a lot better now knowing there is some method to the madness. I'm still studying this video as I still have a few things to comprehend, nevertheless this video is a wonderful insight on this subject. Thanks so much for the details, I needed it.
At around minute 7, I was feeling the tug to disagree because of the major-3rd interval between the 4th and 5th strings of any standard tuning (regardless of how high or low you have 'standard' tuning). You do explain the semitone shift a minute later, but I feel that it is understated, as the results have big consequences, and those consequences are *enormous blessings to fingerstyle players* . I wonder if I'm unique in that I see chords and CAGED system patterns -- not a Cartesian coordinate system.
I still like this video because it explains note relationships perfectly well but only while strings are *tuned fourths apart* . Food for thought.
@@LeeGee You could if you are like Tom Quayle who chooses to use all 4ths tuning:
ua-cam.com/video/LemVW0JxERY/v-deo.html
Agreed. I’m a mathematician and guitar player, and it was an interesting exercise, with limited usefulness when in standard tuning. Also, good guitar players have simply memorized the fretboard as second nature from lots of practice and experience. That intuition is ingrained in their minds, not some color matrix or even conscious labeling of notes and intervals. Also, knowing the position and pattern of internals on the guitar is essential and much simpler than what is presented here.
B/E string shift ruined the party 😮
I´m really happy that this was not the first video I've encountered when learning guitar.
I wish it would have been the first.
Muscle memory, intervals, chord shapes and good ears.
And arpeggios...
I’ve been recently sorting through the joys of music theory and I found this video most insightful!! Thank you and keep up the fantastic work. This is the depiction of the higher dimensions we engage with as music lovers. Awesome content!
I studied with Pat Martino in 1982 for 6 lessons. He was pointing these concepts back then. Good stuff.
This is above my understanding...I need a drink 😅😅😅
Cheers !
It's not above you. Just take one relationship at a time and explore it all over the fretboard. It will take time. You'll get it!
I have been playing for 20 years have a degree in jazz and followed what you were saying but it infinitely made guitar more complicated 😂. Scales and modes/ recognizing intervals works just fine for me
Those are intervals... Are You sure You have a degree? Or... Just trying to sound like You know what you're talking about?
@@franciscoacosta1667 yes i make a living as a music teacher I definitely know what I’m talking about. This may be helpful for some but i just don’t need this kind of patterns to understand or explain guitar well
Thank you. you took something complicated, the guitar fret board notes, and make it Extremely Complicated.
You're the greatest contemporary talant in music I ever know!!! 💖💖💖
Very interesting, without knowing the concept of guitar theory, I had told a friend of mine whom is a lead guitarist that he was a color man, it was what I felt he brought to the band, so from a layman point of view to your explanation an agreement of understanding that makes this so very true, it's like a creative singer that feels this color and responds accordingly, like it was fait that brought this conversation, a language of it own that everyone can see as the hear, just down right spiritual, in fact in the Bible when God's people would go to war the tribe of Judah went first, the name Judah means praise. It's a God thing and you are a intelligent feller.
Really enjoy your presentation.
My engineer mind LOVES this! After years of playing, last year I stumbled onto seeing the circle of 4ths or 5ths going across the strings at a given fret, and suddenly could know where the notes were within a key, relative to the root. Your observations gave me more insight into the repeating nature of the patterns for all the notes in a key... and merging that with my knowledge of the CAGED patterns... the light bulb is flickering on... THANK YOU!
How long you been playing??
I find that what helps me most with the guitar is to simply view the neck and fretboard as a piece of lumber with strings stretched over it.
Don't forget the frets! (LOL)
Very well explained. I will try to use the method. After 35 years of struggling with tin ear this will improve my right hand dramatically.
I met a session musician 40 years ago. I asked him how he is able to understand the guitar so well, he replied that it's easy, music is just mathematics. I have been pondering that ever since. Now I see what he meant.
I very much doubt that this specific conceptual framework is the secret of the maestros you cited.
Great explanation.. However, everything is shattered when you go to standard tuning which distorts the nice matrix
This is not necessarily helpful for teaching guitar but in revealing geometry behind music theory it’s pretty spectacular. The animations are incredible! I’ve always been intrigued by the mathematical foundation of music but I have a hard time articulating it to others. This video will be mucho shared
I’m tone deaf AND color blind… I wanted to learn guitar. I feel a little discouraged right now
This blows my mind! This will definately be totally usless.
Mike, you are the Christopher Nolan of music theory videos! For a second, you brought me to a musical tesseract and unlocked a new dimension! Thank you for this mind-blowing mathematical lecture in musical physics.
I’m an engineer(electrical) by degree so the math part all makes sense. But my struggle in the past has been approaching the guitar like a mathematical tool. Not only does it force me to slow down to think (way too much) about what is going on, but it causes me to constantly review the fretboard patterns to make sure I’ve got the math right. Although I think this information is useful from a theory perspective, for me it would kill the pleasure and my skill in playing guitar. As one guitarist said to me, you can think the music or you can feel the music. When I get on my bike it’s total feel, as it should be. Now I have to retrain my mind (from years of abuse as an engineer) to begin feeling the music again. Thanks Mike George for this information as I found it fascinating.
This is a fantastic explanation of the guitar fretboard, note relationships and music theory in general. Truly mind blowing and helpful! Thanks Mike!
You've got no idea how happy I'm am to have found your channel! I'm both a math and music nerd lol, this was like eating fries with ice cream, the perfect pair. Thanks a lot!
Mind-Blowing is certainly the proper terminology. Awesome!
9:46 “Holy Torus, Neo, that was incredible! 👍🏾🎶
Impressive. Thank you very much for the lesson!
This is an amazing video with great visuals. Much, much, MUCH appreciated!
Mind blowing information. Thanks a lot for sharing
To me this explanation is making the whole thing more complicated. I rely on the major/minor scale and intervals to navigate my way around the fret board
Yeah sure is more confusing 🤣
Transposing the color spectrum to the fretboard - and then adding the 'shift' for the two bottom strings - screwed up any hope of following an already difficult pattern, at least for me.
@@mtmcb As a beginner...my brain exploded while watching this!
It's important to know the notes on the fret board. Just period. How would know where your root is when you're playing? If you in any way have memorized the low e strings notes to assist in finding your root then you in fact have half assed learned the notes. Now match them to the other strings. Just do it. Why you cheaping out, don't you want to be a better player.
@@cfdwarrior 48 years playing, here. I do try to improve, and am always grateful for what I CAN do. Improving alot, I think, requires time. When I first started playing at 17 y.o., it was no big deal to put in 3 hours per day. I was/am very good with the little I know. I'm not EVH, that's for sure. Back then (1970's) you learned from your friends, practicing, and maybe guitar lessons. I know some people have more inherent talent than others, but I will quickly add that if you truly enjoy the instrument, you will always get better at it, and yes, whatever point you're at, you will always improve by the "you get out of it what you put into it" principle. Scales are needful, even if only from a conceptual background understanding of what you are playing, but I find them difficult to deal with 'on the fly'. Intervals, on the other hand, are very useful when playing melody, and the shorter intervals become intuitive after time. I would say, finally, that the single best concept for my own improvement has been that of the "CAGED" system. It can become very easy to use while improvising or simply looking for a better position to play, when you are constructing a song.
Grateful for creating and for sharing this. Amazing how maths and music can be taught in one shot. Thank you for the idea and for the time you spent to make it available.
10:02 ... “You will remember nothing!”
;) ... intriguing presentation,thanks mucho
Holy moly. Three of my favorite subjects in one video: music, math and color theory. My brain is doing back flips!
Me too
fascinating way to think about the fretboard, thank you for opening my eyes to this!
I'm glad it helps!
On my umteenth viewing of this and still learning more.
Now I can alter some basic chords and get a sound i anticipate.
I'm on the road to improvisation.
These kinds of ideas need to be contemplated.
Very good material, your introduction of n-dimensional topology as applied to the guitar and music in general is new to me, and fascinating.
Since I'm a former data guy the fretboard has looked like a matrix/vector to me for a long time. A song looks like the (usually) cyclical audible expression of a series of vector transformations over/through a period of time. And the series for a given instrument and piece of music can be (and usually is) stacked and synced with the series - the musical "parts" - of others, to produce more complex performances.
Bla bla. Linear algebra. Why this all works this way, and why music can engender psychological states in human listeners, beats me. Neato.
Now you have me thinking about n-dimensional toroidal vectors and transformations along the time dimension. Hmm. Thank you, Mike.
I’ve been a guitarist and teacher for a while now, but I gave up 4:31. The colours are nice though!
Your right! You blew my mind.
That was an incredible video. The time and effort and vision to build that and succinctly present those concepts is amazing!
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS. Bruh - keep it coming.
Yeah this is easy enough, but what if we convert the notes by using logarithmic transformation? We can then take square roots of any note and any octave to inform our fingers where to go and get there ten times faster?
Learning guitar, and also being into color painting, I found your videos very interesting. Thanks a lot this make a lot of s'e'nse and is definitely useful.
This is also a ,very rare, case wher "mind-blowing in a YT video is not a cheap click bait.
This is not a “how to play guitar” video. It is describing math and is not for everyone. After almost 40 years of playing guitar and bass I found this very interesting. I have been working with perfect 4ths tuning with the idea that I may try 8 string guitar at some point and want to keep the relationships the same. Anyway, very interesting take and great effort on the graphics: subscribed!
Awesome ❤
Wow that really makes things clear !
Excellent analysis across various disciplines.
I actually found the information useful. I had noticed years ago that the fretboard on a horizontal plane (box type) was based on the circle of 5ths. My excellent guitar teacher at the time was unaware of that fact. Has it made me a better guitar player? Probably not, but I put the blame on the the player (myself), where it belongs. It is fascinating though: if one can unlock the fretboard and ALL of the other intricacies of becoming a great musician, that's when the fun really begins! It's still work for me.......
Why didn't I have a teacher like you when I was a kid! This is amazing!
Love it. What you have discovered is that the guitar fretboard is (almost) ISOMORPHIC with 12-tone equal temperament -- that is, that both are generated by (a) stacking tempered perfect fifths and then (b) adding and/or subtracting octaves.
See Wikipedia's articles on "Isomorphic keyboard," "Dynamic Tonality," and the papers in their references.
Good work!
A few guitarists use P4 tuning (perfect 4th, E A D G C F) and then the fret board is completely isomorphic. And a few use M3 (major 3rd tuning, best with 7 strings E G# C E G# C E) which is also isomorphic. Standard tuning (which is perfect 4ths except for the major third between the 2nd and 3rd strings) is a compromise to totally isomorphic tuning, and the compromise is both wonderful and horrible. Wonderful because it facilitates loads of easy open chords and barre chords, and horrible because of always having to adjust for one stinking interval that is different that the rest.
Yes. I will apply this over the next three years 👍
That was interesting but how do you apply it?
For instance. Mix any one of these patterns with the pentatonic.
For instance, the red and green line makes the blues scale when mixed with the pentatonic.
My brother played bass professionally for over 33 years and he only used his ear to learn the songs. That did limit his options career-wise. Music and mathematics are connected. Sound, vibration and frequency are built into human DNA. It's why music is such a powerful medium. Thanks.
You gave me the mechanical breakdown of the guitar neck by the numbers
Was hoping to find a new teaching tool. Nope. I was instantly lost. I'm a classically trained guitarist and this turned the fret board into a complete mystery.
Depends on the person I guess. As both a math brained person and an artist (so i study color theory) these videos have made it a million times clearer to me. I couldn't remember a single note name yesterday and today after watching only the interval playlist I can find not only the notes, but the intervals, where the fret is and I can even imagine the sound too without looking at a guide. Super helpful, but definitely confusing. But for literally a day it's been useful for me, I suspect he is a very logical/math brained person too.
If you were classically trained this would be trivial and second nature as learning each note on the fretboard is the way classical guitarists learn.
He didn't really have any background. You have to jump on the merry-go-round at full speed. There are absolute notes A, B, C, D, E, F G and 5 sharps and/or flats. There are relative intervals. 1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5, 6 ,7. Stare at middle C on a piano keyboard. It's almost impossible not to see: Step, Step, Half-Step, Step, Step, Step, Half-Step (the intervals of the major scale from 1 in order). If you bar(re) a finger across a guitar fretboard, you have 1, 4, b7, b3, 5, 1 starting from the lowest string (read b as flat). If you start on the second lowest string you have: 1, 4, b7, 2, 5. If you start on the third lowest string you have 1, 4, 6, 2. The relative interval have other names such as do, re me, fa, so, la ti, do (thank you Juilie Andrews).
@@user-otzlixr still doesn’t explain what he says in the rest of his (ego fodder) post. And if he was that INSTANTLY lost at another teacher’s lesson, not sure he should be teaching in the first place.
I've played guitar for 40 years, I don't know what the hell he's talking about. I have never once looked at the fret board like this. Just know what key your in, which scale you want to use, and off you go. No geometry required.
I like your style! Thanx for the "Back to the Future" clip!
I lost you at about 2 min but I LOVE those cool colored dots!
I was confused about the fretboard before. But after watching this video I’m _really_ f***ing lost! 😵💫
An old feller told me once......."When in doubt, move up two frets" LOL!
This is perfect for introverts (slow brainwave thinkers) or known as geniuses but now you need to make another video for Extroverts (Fast Brainwave thinkers) or known as Floor Generals. I subscribed to you channel and the wealth of information and presentation is "Fenomenal", good job!
I need therapy, only 4 minutes in and there was a overloaded circuit breaker in my head, in a good way, you delivered
Great visualization framework to help navigate the fretboard, in my opinion. If you are musically trained and/or can already navigate the fretboard fluidly good on you, this is obviously not something you need. I’ve been playing guitar as a hobby for two decades and still appreciate tools like this one and find them helpful to improve my skills in new ways. Thanks for the video!
Excellent visual 🤙🏼🤙🏼🤙🏼
Damn, man, only 34,800 subscribers? Your channel is seriously underestimated!
This was such a great video! I'm taking a geometry of music course this semester and I will be sure to try to learn more about this in class!
Now I’m more confused. It was fun seeing how you broke this down, though. I just think about all of this complexity and it kind of intimidates me. Perhaps one day I will finally learn to play the guitar.
Don't be afraid, learning to play the guitar is far easier than trying to putting these notions to practice.
Great stuff, thank you!🙏 Now I want to here some of your music 🎸
This finally reaches me. This makes sense. Thanks!
This video was nuts man
And now to actually _practice_ learning the fretboard geometry in a meaningful way, check out McFadden's Fretboard Harmony for University Study. Start from Chapter 3. Publicly available on the internet.
Excellent reference, thanks!
Been playing guitar since I was 12 (70 now) - and never saw or realized this. As Ben Eller would say - "this is why you suck at guitar" LOL
Thanks, Mike, This is the first time that I've seen these patterns laid out like this. Now, the trick, I guess, is bridging these patterns to practical application. I have begun visualizing the fretboard in terms of scale degrees in relation to the tonic in hopes of being able to quickly play any scale or mode just by knowing which scale degrees comprise it. Been working on the natural minor (Aeolian) - so now I'm thinking 1,2,b3,4,5,b6,b7 rather than trying to memorize a pattern (if that makes any sense). Although a pattern does emerge, I'm not trying to memorize per se. I think it's pretty cool how the half step patterns emerge - it feels like it's the half steps that give the scale/mode their feel. I'm rambling... anyone thanks again. - Cheers
Yes, this does make sense. Not memorizing the pattern that emerges, per se, but focusing on the underlying intervals themselves. It's a deeper understanding. Very cool. You're totally right -- bridging these patterns to practical application is the key. To put theory into practice. The "Fretboard Geometry" playlist dissects these patterns a bit more, so you really know all intervals at the atomic level -- to then build any pattern from there (scales, modes, chords, progressions). If you're interested, there's much more in the Community on the practical application of all this (link in the video notes).
Jitterjive, I have been thinking in this same way! recently began approaching scales and the fretboard from the perspective of scale degrees.
That makes perfect sense.
Yes many thanks, very helpful
Excellent explanations
Its interesting to use colors, but ultimately unhelpful outside of Modern or Serial music of some sort. When you eventually know the notes and intervals etc, the colors aren't going to be used.
I think its best to go from using dots to numbers, assuming the dots are necessary in the first place.
Perhaps the color system can be helpful in getting the point across that the numbers themselves arent Math anymore than the letters are words, but are place holders for a certain frequency or pitch.
Music Theory often has several names for things that depend on how its being looked at. Adding colors seems to add another layer of confusion in something we're all trying to unify and generally sounds like a bad idea if taken too seriously by the student.
Pretty interesting as far as it goes; I don't quite see how this translates into more skillful playing, however. How does one employ this analysis in improvising a solo over a chord progression, for instance?
The exciting introductory description hinted at cosmic revelations giving rise to enhanced mastery of the instrument, but I'm afraid that the application is not self-explanatory.
It's very cool, though, so thanks...
I 'm off to my math class..
Interesting take...however I'm colourblind...so there's that. Also I'm not sure that translating music theory (for guitar) into yet another language would be any easier than just learning the theory/fretboard...which is really only half the battle anyways.
Wow, that's an original way of looking at things. I was expecting a discussion of the twelfth root of two and integer ratios.
This is certainly interesting especially from a compositional standpoint. And if improvisers have a compositional approach perhaps this might work. But the guitar in standard tuning is arranged to make it easy to form chords. This kind of explains the second and third string ( b and g) being in a third, while the rest of the tuning is in fourths. I think seeing the patterns as chords give it context even if you are playing in scalar fashion. But anyway, we can agree that the guitar is fascinating. I do like the thinking in colors approach. Worth exploring.
I was worried there for a second I'm happy you got to the major 3rd shift between strings 3 and 2 great video
Thanks!
I memorize the fretboard like this, except I do it a bit simpler. I only keep track of root, third and fifths and figure out the rest on the fly. And I find the root with the circle of fifths.
U lost me at hello!
It will make perfect sense when you take one relationship at a time, such as tritones, and play with them on the fingerboard.
So when you add the infinite number of extra strings I assume every 6th one would introduce the irregularity of the B-string 3rd interval and would be followed by 2 E-strings in row? Perhaps it would be better if you used 'All 4ths' tuning - but that could complicate the open chord fingerings. Higher frets might be useful but frets lower than 1 would again make open chords tricky and its hard to imagine they could exist at all.
Mind blown
Got half way ... Not needed for me ....
20 years ago I colour coded my fret board with coloured stickers was great help.
I use boomwhacker colours for my note colours so seeing those colours assigned differently was odd hahaha
Great stuff! You show a regular grid with alternating coloured squares and circles , you then translate that grid over the fretboard and you shift the first 2 strings by one fret breaking the regular grid, you then go back to the previous regular grid without the shit overlayed over the fretboard again but this time without the earlier fret shift, you go on to expand the grid and you wrap it over the torus but now you show the grid shifted again! could you explain this shift? why is it needed? thanks
Mike, did you figure the green for 528 Hz and the red for 740 Hz for the tritones? Brilliant.
Mind blowing video.
Hell! I flunked freshman Algebra and had to go to summer school! Thanks Miss “P” (name hidden to prevent a lawsuit)
Now I’m totally screwed 53 years later!
I have wondered all my life why I cannot play the guitar... now I know exactly why. It's in a language that my brain cannot comprehend. Every time I find 2 or three notes that sound good together, they are in a different pattern everywhere else on the fingerboard. Even these color coded hints make no sense to me.
So, I'll just keep on building great guitars and let YOU GUYS play them.
A string is a chromatic scale, East and West.
A fret is a segment of the circle if fifths, North & South.
Wow.