*NEW:* I'm currently rolling out *Improv 101,* a step-by-step improvisation course for guitarists of _all ability levels_ (there are _no_ prerequisites other than being able to physically play single-note lines on your guitar). You can get early access on Patreon patreon.com/fretscience or learn more at fretscience.com/2024/10/25/fret-science-improv-101/ Fret Science is a new and robust method for understanding the fretboard (learning all of your scales, arpeggios, and chords) with _dramatically_ less memorization. And then using that knowledge to improvise and play freely in _any_ style of music. The core method for learning scales and chords is available _for free_ here on UA-cam. If you're new to the channel, I invite you to check out the "Big Picture" video and recommended video viewing order here: ua-cam.com/play/PLMuHlX9RiFi1L1RdC0CzYa1qxZllD5Ujz.html&si=cOp25GnXrL28rbLQ If you want to go deeper or interact with me directly, come join me on Patreon patreon.com/fretscience where I'm sharing exclusive new lessons, breaking down classic solos, and rolling out a new improvisation method that will help guitarists of _all ability levels_ learn to improvise confidently over chord changes in any style. You can also connect with me at fretscience.com or support my work with a donation at buymeacoffee.com/fretscience 🎸🧪🤘
Your channel is definitely the best guitar-teaching channel on youtube. Your method should be the default guitar-learning tool. It never made sense to me why and how to learn so many scales, if I dont even understand them. Your videos brought all the pieces together such as triads, intervals and scales, and created, as you say, the big picture of understanding the whole guitar fretboard. For this, and for what your videos mean for me and for every single person I know, that is trying to learn guitar, and to whom I will share your videos and method as salvation, thanks.
Seeing this channel come out of nowhere and becoming the best guitar instruction channel in ten videos is crazy. I don’t think there’s anyone else who’s actually tried to bring all the concepts together at once. What a great resource
I spent the whole week writing down every word from all your videos and filled two notebooks with that. It became my little obsession to gather together all this information lol. Im very thankful for all your videos. This will keep me busy with learning for the next few months, and i cant wait to see how my skills will develop. Your help is irreplaceable
Also, i want to go next year to music university for jazz guitar. Most people who apply there have finished music schools of 1st and 2nd degree. I've never been to music school. But im very dedicated, and its worth a try.
@@fretscience Thank you, i won't hesitate to reach out to you if i come across any difficulties with learning. I'm for sure gonna keep track of your channel and will comment on how my progress is going. Thanks a lot :)
These videos took me from not not understanding how to think about the fretboard to understanding the modes and how to break down/create chords in less than 3 hours. At this point it’s just memorization and putting it to use, but this channel is by far the most digestible content I’ve encountered for this, especially with basic history with music theory!
Maybe because i'm an engineer, this approach to learning guitar is JUST SO RIGHT ON. After 2-3 years of guitar I realized some of these concepts (and made a video), but this is just so much better thought through and presented. The way it seems to me is that learning music is like learning a language... at first you need to think about every word and putting together a sentence is tough... but eventually you just start thinking in that language instead of constantly translating. The goal in music is to get to that same place... instead of thinking of the scales and patterns, the song in your head just comes out through your fingers.
@EngRMP beautifully said haha I just recently starting realizing to my self "omg I'm really just learning a language." That's literally what becoming a musician is. Learning expression in the most beautiful language ever spoken.
I'm also an engineer. I took a different route. In 1974, before I could find any instruction anywhere, I charted out the natural notes, Cmajor/A natural minor on a grid. I circled fingering patterns that I "thought" the pros might be using. I worked those sections hard and practiced ending on roots and fifths for resolution. To flow freely, lots of muscle memory must form, no way around that. It's good if in tandem with the muscle memory formation, the chord tones' positions can be recognized as well. The stuff just has to get burned in for flow to happen. But these videos are great for scale tone pattern recognition.
@@jfo3000 I think of my framework as scaffolding for the kind of practice that yields muscle memory and fluidity like you are talking about. My aim is to make the chord tones obvious sooner and shorten the overall time it takes to get there, but hopefully we all end up at a similar place in terms of mastery. 🎸🧪🤘
@@jfo3000 Yup, that resonates so strongly with me. That seems similar to 6th grade grammar, where you learn the structure of sentences, tenses, etc. With that knowledge, creating poems, stories, songs all become easier. Once you have a strong grasp of "grammar", you can devote more mental bandwidth to creativity.
Now, knowing that you come from a CS background, it all makes sense. Like DSA (data structures & algorithms), you always have to approach solutions in small, easy-to-break-down ways and combine them all to produce an algorithm (a song/melody in the case of music theory). I studied in comp engineering (only eight years in the game compared to your 30, though), and it’s so cool seeing all of this come together.
I think we understand things so much more deeply when we know multiple ways to build them from the ground up. All of these music theory concepts interconnect and play off each other in ways that - once you see them - open up lots of possibilities. Cheers! 🎸🧪🤘
Keith, a MASSIVE fan from Seoul, Korea. You are absolutely fantastic and completely original. I've been struggling with the guitar on and off for 30 years and your insights (particularly the stack and rectangles) have completely transformed how I play. For the first time since 1980s, I am gliding down the fretboard vertically, horizontally and diagonally, knowing EXACTLY what I am doing. I wish I knew what you teach us 20 years ago. I run a computer programming business myself and I just love the way you put logic behind crystal clear explanations. Music is beautiful in its logic and symmetry, and you've enlighted what I kind of wondered and suspected. Now I understand WHY of all the characteristics about the fretboard. I subscribe to a lot of guitar channels -- most are similar, a very few are really good (e.g. Mike George although he is quite heavy on theory) and yours is completely original in content and presentation. Bought all your "cheat sheets", of course. I think your discovery about the modes and the diatonic notes along the stack and the rectangle is completely insane!!! You are a genius and you deserve a Nobel prize for music theory. Please keep doing what you're doing. Can't wait for your next videos!!!
I’ve been teaching guitar and music theory for over 20 years. So much of what I have taught over the years you cover but so much more succinctly. I am so impressed. If you had a patreon I would be a patron. I will be buying your PDFs to teach my own children. Really, I am so impressed. Great job.
You just won “comment of the month” and it’s only March 2nd. I hope to do a Patreon when I can scrap up enough time to share content regularly, but I can’t quite quit my day job yet 🤣🎸🧪🤘
@@fretsciencedude you should get a tip jug, payppal & patron. I'm sure there are other ways for people who appreciate your teaching to compensate you. Don't need to be a full-time utuber, Your putting in enough effort now it's quality product. Chicks are raking it in doing little dances. Cat videos etc.
For me this guy is the absolute don of guitar fundamentals on UA-cam. The fact that I don't have to keep referring to written notes to drill this stuff into my brain makes it SO much more enjoyable to learn. I can just mess around with all of the concepts and it naturally sinks in with minimal effort. Thanks a bunch!
I've just watched this and I'm very excited to start working my way through these videos. It sounds like it's just my kind of thing. Thank you so much. 😉 😁🎸🎼
I'm so grateful for your videos. I learn best by understanding why and how things are built. I've been playing for 20 years (minus a few in the middle). The grunt work of repeating scales, but not understanding how they were put together in the first place has kept me in the dark and confused for SO LONG. This makes so much sense now. This is Wisdom as opposed to knowledge. 🎉
I greatly appreciate your videos, Keith, and let me tell you why. After struggling for many decades with “the warp” (that B string, I called “the trip wire”), I decided to play all-4ths tuning, and happy at last, settled into the predictability and simplicity of that system. That was 5 years ago, but I so missed the chords I had loved in standard tuning (plus loving the style of Ted Greene and Tim Lerch), that I changed back! Now you come along and explain the basic patterns in terms of the all-4ths infinite frets/strings grid, and you introduce “the warp” as - let’s call it “a dance step” - a predictable move, and I now have the key to transition between standard and all-4ths tunings. I see how to take all of the all-4ths knowledge and apply it to standard tuning. Today I have two guitars with me, one tuned to all-4ths, the other to standard, and I’m playing around, back and forth, with your pentatonic patterns. Less mental work, more practice-based! Thank you!
Recent big moment for me was after discovering how find all the root notes on the fretboard and remembering your video about the root notes location in either the rectangle or the square, I instantly knew how to play all the pentatonic positions across the fretboard AND play vertically as well. I appreciate your the work you’ve done.
Yes, exactly…that’s explained in the referenced video. It makes things so much easier, especially if you ever pick up an unfamiliar instrument like a 5-string bass
As a true guitar beginner with a little prior knowledge of music theory I find your videos incredibly helpful. The connection to Kahneman is spot-on. Although I feel like my head is pretty far in front of my hands right now, I'm confident that the ways your videos are helping me to see and think about the fretboard will pay tremendous dividends. At my age it is challenging to learn new skills that combine physical, mental, and emotional "intelligences" and your focus brings tremendous clarity to the mental aspect. That clarity opens a path for the others, and I'm grateful for your work.
You’re FANTASTIC ‼️ You’ve done all the work which I was in the process of doing, connecting the dots gradually as I improve my playing 👏👏 Thanks for helping us connect the dots to move from System 2 to System 1❤️❤️
🔥 Best mnemonics and infographics on the topic I've ever seen! Bought the pdfs just to support the channel - they are reasonably priced too. This is pure gold, especially compared to the info-marketers who sell their pretentious "ultimate" course for hundreds of dollars, which only teach notes and intervals. Thank you! 🙏
Subbed. Watched all of your videos. Made my purchase of your bundle to support your channel. As a 60-yr old Mechanical Engineer, I love your systematic approach to teaching music. Thank you.
After watching weeks of music theory explain videos this is the one and only channel that explains all the theory in excellent clear videos. Thank you very much 🙏
Now that you mentioned you're a computer guy those patterns start to look like a circuit board to me. Very good work, it makes learning so much easier for the rest of us sciency guys. Way better than all the "just memorize these 500 scale patterns" channels out there! Now that I think of it, I think I'll design a PCB with the patterns as a portable cheat sheet.
I have viewed your memorize the fretboard video a few weeks back and saved it, and I'm so happy that I did. Your content is just liquid gold. Even though I'm a beginner guitarist, I just know that I'm incredibly lucky to be learning these information; taught in such a well thought out manner. Thank you for helping me in my guitar journey, as well as helping a lot of people get into music theory.
I want to reach out and say Thank You! There are a lot of great guitar teachers on youtube, but your approach has made me understand the guitar better than any other approach I've tried. Keep putting out this amazing content, you rock!
Even if I come from already knowing many of the concepts and fingerings discussed in this channel, I feel that everything is much better glued together for me after having gone through this series of videos. It is not only that each video condenses lots of invaluable information, explained in a super-clear, logical and mostly self-contained way, but a great value comes also from having a playlist with a recommended viewing order, so that the complete series of videos become a whole entity, rather than a bunch of disconnected hints. From all the great material discussed in these videos, if I had to highlight something over the rest, it would be the idea of visualizing the position of the root notes all over the fretboard and then overlapping the fingerings for the different applicable triads, pentatonics and modes (which could also be extended with e.g. 4 notes arpeggios), and considering them as a "hierarchy of notes" to chose from. I was already chasing that idea before reaching this channel, but the different videos have helped me a lot to really put it in practice. Finally, being an engineer myself, I appreciate how you have dissected a complex problem (mastering the fretboard) into a number of simpler aspects which can then be approached individually in a much more effective way, and not just for the sake of science (despite the name of the channel) but with a clear focus on its practical application. Great thanks!
Love seeing these concepts explained in such a clear concise way. I’m in year 20 of playing and just started making some of these realizations myself in this past year and then I came across these videos. I feel like they are exactly what I needed to strengthen the base that I had started and have accelerated the learning curve so much for me. Thank you for your taking the time to map this stuff out visually, I really appreciate your channel!
These videos are really really special mate. Your content is both digestible and concise, and you seem like a genuinely nice bloke. Eager to keep improving with Fret Science
I love your content man. I've started serious self-study of guitar and music theory last year and as a physicist that values conceptual understanding over memorization I quickly started to find an approach to the fretboard very similar to yours. e.g. the rectangle, the stack, the warp are concepts I also came up with to simplify memorizing the patterns of the fretboard. But you have much more knowledge of music theory and have already worked through much more material and tested if it actually helps. Seeing your videos greatly resonates with me and makes me want to keep exploring the guitar, thank you!
So excited to see this video. I purchased the pdfs and it’s been helping me learn to solo and learn the relationship between the notes with the stack and rectangle.
just found this and love it! as an amateur musician and full time scientist i love this approach. and as an intermediate player i'm well primed for it. count me in!
Do you know the Mel Bay book “Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation” written by Jon Finn? It’s very close to your “hidden in plain sight” concept. Such a cool concept. I was lucky to encounter the book in my first year of guitar playing in the early 2000s, which opened up modal playing from the start for me. It’s incredible to find a channel that is as analytical with guitar as I am. Math major, so pretty much as much of a nerd as a CS major 😉 Subbed today, your content is amazing. Keep it coming!
I cite Jon Finn’s book in the 12-page overview PDF. I adapted my presentation of “the warp” from there, and simplified and extended his treatment of pentatonic scales and the modes. I also used to go see him play live back in the 90s. Great teacher and musician! Thanks for your kind words 🎸🧪🤘
I was so excited to see this pop up in my feed. And, your video did not disappoint. Fantastic job that's packed with info and gems. Thank you, Keith! Keep up the excellent work!!!
The concept of rectangle and box + the warp really helps in a lot of situations. I'm trying to learn type 1 memory of the CAGED system to be able to play any chord progression in any key and find all scale notes for random position on the fretboard. The idea isn't new and will take some serious practice but it's my goal for this year. Thank you for clarifying these concepts on your channel and amazing graphics and animations 😊
Thank you very much man for the work you do with your content. And thank you even more for "purchasing power parity" in your store! I'm saving money to purchase the 12 PDF combo soon. Thanks for all, for real.
As a fellow computer scientist these are the explanations and visualizations that make the most sense to me. Have been a beginner guitar player for over 20yrs and was at the point of putting it back down again. This video hit me at just the right time to point out the through line of your videos and a map for finally buckling down and learning this thing properly and forever. Thanks for all your content. Found you months ago and instantly purchased your PDF but havent spent the time to internalize it all. Until now!
I am so very grateful to you for sharing all of this useful information. I only saw your previous video and half of this one, but I already know that your content is golden and plan to watch all the rest ones and look forward for the ones to come. I've been playing the guitar for 10 years already as a hobby(self-taught), but never could muster the willpower to get through all of the boring traditional methods and routines of learning to get to the point where I wanted to be with my skills. Even though I do have a slight idea of some music theory, but I still feel like a complete beginner stuck playing basic open chords most of the time, not particularly because of the lack of practice, but mainly because of a lack of understanding of why and how to apply the harder concepts, lack of understanding of how they connect, and a resentment towards the idea that you have to memorize soooo much stuff in order to get at least a little bit closer to feeling comfortable and free with this instrument, it just felt so redundant at its core principle, the efforts cost/return ratio was way too off-putting to get through it. I always felt that there must be a much easier and better method to do it and here you are proving that. I saw no one explaining everything as thorough and logical as you do. You are showing the ins and outs, deconstructing and consolidating everything so that it becomes digestable to anyone. Explaining not only the "why", the reasoning behind things, but also the "what for", the purpose and use behind every given concept. Providing not only the tiniest individual bits and pieces of any specific construct, but also fitting it into the overall view. Understanding is the key - and you are giving us the keys to understand the guitar. Thank you for all your effort. You are a truly great teacher.
Amazing video as always. I always wondered how you came up with such a fresh and streamlined way of learning this stuff and now hearing that you have a background in computer science makes complete sense now. Your techniques are the best out there, and I’ve already learned a ton from them. Can’t wait for the future videos 👍🙏🙏
As a guitar newb, you're quite a bit beyond where I am currently. That said, I've no doubt that all of this will be amazingly helpful. I'm very glad I found this. Thank you, and subbed.
I have been hacking away on guitar since I was 15 years in 1980. Being self taught made me look at patterns, and long before I learned of anything more than box one pentatonic pattern, I discovered that there were three different pentatonic box one patterns available in any particular diatonic key. For example, in the key of Am/C, there is Am/C pentatonic, Dm/F pentatonic, and Em/G pentatonic available in box one patterns. Then I noticed the "topo secret" filler notes. I call these the AI box, DL box, and the PM box for my modes based off the low E string. The Locrian box is its own deal. My first real breakthrough. Then I discovered what you mention, what I call the 3x3 and 2x4 boxes of all the pentatonic patterns. Later I learned 3 notes per strings. Of course, somewhere along I learned some theory, but I still go back to my original three positions of penta box one if I get lost. Good lesson. I often thought of how to explain this stuff to my friends that are trying to see the big picture, which I call connecting the dots.
@@fretscience Well, who knows about that?! I do know that I am a hack, but I have gotten really good at enjoying my journey. I am no pro or teacher, tried to be a rock star, and simply am on the journey at this point. I even k now what modes are after 44 years!
I made a similar observations a couple years ago. What you call 3x3, FS calls stack, and Ricky Comisky calls 3, I call tria seira, greek for three strings. The other pattern Vyo seira, two strings. Vyo + tria = penta. You'll have to go to google translate if you want to know how to pronounce them. The tria pattern is three adjacent strings having two notes of a M2 interval, with a m3 interval between the sequential notes on the adjacent string. I call it the Einstein approach to pentatonic positions. "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" -- A. Einstein I can't see pentatonic positions being made simpler than this. Anyone critical of this approach just needs to play with it until it clicks for them. Position approach is "This is the pattern and here are the location of the root notes within the pattern" This way is, "This is the root note, and this is the pattern that surrounds it". Either way, the same notes are included.
Man, your videos are overloaded with info, I have to pause them on and off and then try to find whatever it is in the fretboard that you’re explaining so at first they seem hard to comprehend but as you keep going the third eye starts to see 😂 I’m not very rhythmic person so I greatly appreciate these videos cause they have allowed me to visualize what otherwise would be hard to understand. I also appreciate the book references and the other intellectual aspects that you bring into the video, I agree there’s a lot of principles you can apply to music and the other way around too👌🙏.
Hi Keith! Your videos are incredibly insightful and have really helped me understand the instrument better. I'd love to see a video from you that outlines a practice routine incorporating your ideas. It would be a fantastic resource for guitarists looking to deepen their understanding and skill.
Watched 5 min of your video....Instant Subscribe! This is simply incredible. Thank you so much for putting this together. Will definitely spread the words about your channel
If you want to learn guitar music theory in, honestly, a day or two then Fret Science is the only way to go. I never tell people to buy anything but the $30 I spent for the cheat sheets is the best money I ever spent. As many others have said, this should be the standard method for teaching the fretboard. Two days ago I knew the basic chords and a few scales in a few different positions. Today I can use a root note to instantly play the pentatonic up and down the fretboard, I can add 2 notes to the pentatonic to make 6 of the 7 major scales, and I can build triads and build the corresponding chord at any position. I learned all of that yesterday and I’m just getting started.
Only reason i picked giitar is because of your videos....i am just enjoying playing your lessons as of now.nothing else and i feel i am doing great. Lots of love from india.
I know a lot of people are already saying this, but I really want to just throw my thanks on the pile. Shortly before finding your videos, I was trying to learn the CAGED system. And I was so frustrated. I knew that (with the exception of the warp) the strings followed a regular pattern vertically. And obviously each string follows a regular pattern horizontally as it's just the chromatic scale. So why, on an instrument with such a regular pattern, could I not figure out a pattern to connect the various scale shapes? I probably would have gotten there eventually, but I'm SO GLAD I didn't have to! I stumbled across your pentatonic box and stack concept shortly after starting guitar lessons and having the homework of learning the pentatonic CAGED system. And I started observing how this worked and overlayed on the CAGED system. and explored picking a note to be my root, and then starting with the stack and box, and then mapping it onto one of the caged patterns. and it's just really cool how i can start playing in the right key for any tonic wihout needing any sort of calibration to a pattern. like CAGED, I find the tonic and then have to remember where the root is in each pattern, and figure out what pattern to play at that location. this one i just... start playing the scale? it's insane! I think some people prefer to just have a map to follow and don't mind memorization and that's fair. but i LOVE deriving things for myself and actually understanding what's going on. and I think that's what's so cool about your system. It actually makes sense of the pattern of the (standard tuning) fretboard, and works in conjunction with it. where as CAGED and 3nps feel like they just... discovered the pieces that happen to work over it? theyre helpful and functional and work as a roadmap. but your's teaches us to actually survey the land ourselves. i know im rambling and gushing at this point but it's just... so revolutionary! Thank you so so so much for figuring this all out, and then not only releasing it to us, available for free. But taking the time to make it so well taught. You explain everything clearly, consiely, and visually. Throwing up your notes on a gist for people to stumble through would have been so helpful already. And I think it'd be fair to require compensation for this education. (I'm so glad you don't. I'm going to buy the cheat sheets because I want to support you, but I'm really glad that this information is freely available and accessible to anyone with an internet connection). And you don't. Just.. hats off to you. Thank you so much, and I hope that you're proud and feel fullfilled in this content because you deserve it. it's so incredibly helpful.
Stumbled across your channel and I'm blown away by your thoughtfulness and teaching style. Your methods are inspiring, pure clarity and logic, are you Vulcan by any chance? 😂
ive been attracted to a few of ur videos and the info wasnt clicking until today: 4:22 this graphic was the point where it kinda clicked. Still dont have my diminished sounds going, but this does help a lot. Funny how you can say the same thing in 15 different ways and on the 16th way, it clicks for the student.
I'm electrical engineer that decided to learn guitar in my 50's. Your approach completely resonates with me. And being a visual learner, the animated diagrams are outstanding. While I completely get the content of your lessons, I'm at the point of how to most efficiently ingrain that knowledge to make use of it "on the fly". I'm "here" at this point -understanding. How do I get to "there" - playing? I'm sure the answer is "practice" but the question is practice what and exactly how. How about a video suggesting specific practice methods to do so? To clarify, I'm just at your first two videos ingraining the 2 box shapes for major and minor. Thanks and fantastic job!
@misterjay3 I’m going to be sharing practice approaches on my new Patreon, and some of that will probably come to UA-cam. The challenge is that effective practice is highly individualized. If you’re interested, check out patreon.com/fretscience
What a great channel! Love your vids, but we don't see you play much. What about demonstrating a solo that goes up and down the neck using all of these cool methods you have taught? Also would like to encourage anyone reading this to buy the fretscience PDF bundle - these vids seem very time consuming to create with the animations , and we are getting so much valuable knowledge for free!
Thanks for your support. I’m not that great of a player, and nobody wants to hear me play an extended solo. I’m very good at creative problem solving, solid at communicating and teaching, and pretty mediocre as an “advanced intermediate” guitarist. I think of your request as being like asking Bill Belichick to demonstrate throwing a touchdown pass. I’m sure he can do it, but it wouldn’t be pretty, and that’s not what he’s being paid to do. 🤣 That said, I will be playing more in my upcoming videos about improvisation techniques. 🎸🧪🤘
@@fretscience Ha, yeah that makes sense! I've been studying theory for a about a year now, and was pretty much where you were at - all the memorization really turned me off. Maybe it's because I am a IT systems engineer as well, but your videos really gave me that "AHA!" moment that nothing else has. The animations really helped me visualize things. I am very grateful and refer to the PDFs often! Thanks for all your efforts.
From one fellow programmer and (struggling) musician to another: Excellent discussion and animation! BTW, does it ever make sense to talk about a mode with respect to a pentatonic shape? The reason I ask is that the first 2 pentatonic shapes are named the 'minor pentatonic shape' and the 'major pentatonic shape' but the remaining 3 shapes appear to be nameless. How come and what function do those shapes serve?
I also studied both music theory and computer science, so my approach is probably only going to resonate with other people who enjoy breaking a problem down to its fundamental pieces and then reassembling those pieces to build whatever you want. All the most common scales (pentatonic, blues, major, minor, etc.) are nothing more than a series of whole steps, half steps, and possibly major or minor third steps. Most guitarists can easily traverse those steps on a single string, but don’t know how to traverse them across a pair of strings. Once you learn how to do that, all the patterns fall into place, both for scales and (closed voicing) chords. The nice thing is that instead of memorizing a bunch of patterns, you really only need to memorize how to traverse those four different steps between strings (only two different patterns, if you learn how to move by a whole step and major third and understand how to warp those patterns into a half step and a minor third). So everything can be simplified to memorizing two two-note patterns between strings (plus knowing how the “warp” between the 4th and 5th strings changes those patterns).
That’s a decent summary of a good portion of my approach, but I have found that it’s helpful to have multiple mental models, so that you can use different tools for different jobs. But I agree, there is definitely more than one way to break things down into building blocks.
@@fretscience good to know! I will definitely be checking out your videos for more content. BTW, I couldn’t agree more. Different approaches are extremely useful.
Just an idea for a future video piece How about a 2 octave scale using the box patterns you have and do a lesson on this? This also unlocks more for soloing over chords. I teach this idea to my guitar students because the pentatonic patterns are too limited for certain kinds of expression. The 2 octave scale can be moved to other different sections of the guitar for tonal sounds of the strings. Just shooting it out there for you and see what you think of this idea.
Hi Jon, I'm interested in your suggestion, but it's not 100% clear to me what you mean by adding a two-octave scale, since several of the methods I teach (rectangle and stack + hidden in plain sight, five-string repeating modal pattern, 3nps) create 2+ octave patterns when you play them across all six strings. Maybe shoot me an email with an example?
@@fretscience u r welcome only one thing is to deepen, position of fingers in the stack when playing modes, I understood rectangles. Maybe could be also useful some ideas on Linkin geometric forms in impro: which chord use? What's the best position to start? May I use shapes even in triads? Thanks
As a leftie, is there a trick way to look at the fretboard? I see it in normal fashion and then need to remember I need to flip it over. Trying to review this material without adding an extra step would be great. So far, this course is just what I've been looking for. Thanks!
I don’t yet have any material specifically for lefties…the good news is that there are only a handful of patterns in this method that need to be internalized, so worst-case you can just write them down. Sorry that’s not more immediately helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
Almost! I need the chords. Mnemonic device for chords from the root. Anywhere on the fretboard you have to know where are the chords from here ? Which chords ? All of them. CAGED is a good start.
Triads are the key, and they are covered in this method. If you’re looking for fancy jazz chords, you can build them off of triads, but I mostly leave that to jazz instructors.
Hi @Fret Science, What would you suggest for an absolute beginner who doesn't even understand most of the words that you are saying in that first "How to visualize chords and scales video"? I watched it, yet the vocabulary used throughout was too advanced for me. Do you have a resource in your kit to learn the basics to help that initial video begin to make sense? Thanks!!
A youtube suggestion on the banner partially helped to answer my question. I would still love to know of any resource that you might have also created. (The suggested video: The Guitar Fretboard Map by Mike George Link: ua-cam.com/video/VwSBtuWkhiA/v-deo.html )
I usually recommend that beginners start with a channel or program like JustinGuitar that specializes in the early stages. Most of the content on my channel is aimed at intermediate and advanced beginner players who are starting to learn to improvise. That said, I try not to assume too much prior knowledge, so any reasonably experienced player (and certainly any competent teacher) should be able to answer whatever questions you have. I do my best to answer questions in the comments as well
Hi, I wish to follow your Method fully. However, I'm on video #2 and am confused as to the perfect fourth and flat notes. What am I missing? I know my String note names and my Major and Minor pentatonic scale forms. Should I know all the 5 Pentatonic Boxes first? Where should I go from Video 1 and Video 2? I want to get through All 11 Videos. I will learn the entire Guitar fretboard before my time on Earth is over!!!! Thanks
I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking. The Intervals video may help with your question about the perfect fourth and flat notes. This video explains the recommended viewing order and that it’s not necessary to get everything perfect before moving onto the next video. You should expect to come back to earlier videos later on with a deeper understanding. If you have questions about the individual videos, please feel free to ask them in the comments, or better yet, on my Patreon
*NEW:* I'm currently rolling out *Improv 101,* a step-by-step improvisation course for guitarists of _all ability levels_ (there are _no_ prerequisites other than being able to physically play single-note lines on your guitar). You can get early access on Patreon patreon.com/fretscience or learn more at fretscience.com/2024/10/25/fret-science-improv-101/
Fret Science is a new and robust method for understanding the fretboard (learning all of your scales, arpeggios, and chords) with _dramatically_ less memorization. And then using that knowledge to improvise and play freely in _any_ style of music.
The core method for learning scales and chords is available _for free_ here on UA-cam. If you're new to the channel, I invite you to check out the "Big Picture" video and recommended video viewing order here: ua-cam.com/play/PLMuHlX9RiFi1L1RdC0CzYa1qxZllD5Ujz.html&si=cOp25GnXrL28rbLQ
If you want to go deeper or interact with me directly, come join me on Patreon patreon.com/fretscience where I'm sharing exclusive new lessons, breaking down classic solos, and rolling out a new improvisation method that will help guitarists of _all ability levels_ learn to improvise confidently over chord changes in any style.
You can also connect with me at fretscience.com or support my work with a donation at buymeacoffee.com/fretscience
🎸🧪🤘
Very nice work.
@@deathmagneto-soy Thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Fret Science has been an absolute game changer for me.
That’s awesome to hear, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
I second that!
Your channel is definitely the best guitar-teaching channel on youtube. Your method should be the default guitar-learning tool. It never made sense to me why and how to learn so many scales, if I dont even understand them. Your videos brought all the pieces together such as triads, intervals and scales, and created, as you say, the big picture of understanding the whole guitar fretboard. For this, and for what your videos mean for me and for every single person I know, that is trying to learn guitar, and to whom I will share your videos and method as salvation, thanks.
Thanks for your kind words! 🎸🧪🤘
4rt
But brother from which video i start serially learning
Seeing this channel come out of nowhere and becoming the best guitar instruction channel in ten videos is crazy. I don’t think there’s anyone else who’s actually tried to bring all the concepts together at once. What a great resource
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Yeah, I found this channel last year and my fretboard just totally opened up. He's awesome. I am glad he is making more videos now.
FULLY AGREED‼️ How I wish he was born earlier than me or I later than him so I didn’t have to wait HALF A CENTURY 😂😂
I spent the whole week writing down every word from all your videos and filled two notebooks with that. It became my little obsession to gather together all this information lol. Im very thankful for all your videos. This will keep me busy with learning for the next few months, and i cant wait to see how my skills will develop. Your help is irreplaceable
Also, i want to go next year to music university for jazz guitar. Most people who apply there have finished music schools of 1st and 2nd degree. I've never been to music school. But im very dedicated, and its worth a try.
Wow…I would love to hear updates as you work on this, and I’d be happy to answer questions that come up. You can email me via my website. 🎸🧪🤘
@@fretscience Thank you, i won't hesitate to reach out to you if i come across any difficulties with learning. I'm for sure gonna keep track of your channel and will comment on how my progress is going. Thanks a lot :)
These videos took me from not not understanding how to think about the fretboard to understanding the modes and how to break down/create chords in less than 3 hours. At this point it’s just memorization and putting it to use, but this channel is by far the most digestible content I’ve encountered for this, especially with basic history with music theory!
That’s awesome to hear! 🎸🧪🤘
Maybe because i'm an engineer, this approach to learning guitar is JUST SO RIGHT ON. After 2-3 years of guitar I realized some of these concepts (and made a video), but this is just so much better thought through and presented. The way it seems to me is that learning music is like learning a language... at first you need to think about every word and putting together a sentence is tough... but eventually you just start thinking in that language instead of constantly translating. The goal in music is to get to that same place... instead of thinking of the scales and patterns, the song in your head just comes out through your fingers.
I think language acquisition is a good analogy on a bunch of levels. You might play “with an accent”, for example. 🤔🎸🧪🤘
@EngRMP beautifully said haha I just recently starting realizing to my self "omg I'm really just learning a language." That's literally what becoming a musician is. Learning expression in the most beautiful language ever spoken.
I'm also an engineer. I took a different route.
In 1974, before I could find any instruction anywhere, I charted out the natural notes, Cmajor/A natural minor on a grid. I circled fingering patterns that I "thought" the pros might be using. I worked those sections hard and practiced ending on roots and fifths for resolution.
To flow freely, lots of muscle memory must form, no way around that.
It's good if in tandem with the muscle memory formation, the chord tones' positions can be recognized as well. The stuff just has to get burned in for flow to happen. But these videos are great for scale tone pattern recognition.
@@jfo3000 I think of my framework as scaffolding for the kind of practice that yields muscle memory and fluidity like you are talking about. My aim is to make the chord tones obvious sooner and shorten the overall time it takes to get there, but hopefully we all end up at a similar place in terms of mastery. 🎸🧪🤘
@@jfo3000 Yup, that resonates so strongly with me. That seems similar to 6th grade grammar, where you learn the structure of sentences, tenses, etc. With that knowledge, creating poems, stories, songs all become easier. Once you have a strong grasp of "grammar", you can devote more mental bandwidth to creativity.
Now, knowing that you come from a CS background, it all makes sense. Like DSA (data structures & algorithms), you always have to approach solutions in small, easy-to-break-down ways and combine them all to produce an algorithm (a song/melody in the case of music theory). I studied in comp engineering (only eight years in the game compared to your 30, though), and it’s so cool seeing all of this come together.
I think we understand things so much more deeply when we know multiple ways to build them from the ground up. All of these music theory concepts interconnect and play off each other in ways that - once you see them - open up lots of possibilities. Cheers! 🎸🧪🤘
Keith, a MASSIVE fan from Seoul, Korea. You are absolutely fantastic and completely original. I've been struggling with the guitar on and off for 30 years and your insights (particularly the stack and rectangles) have completely transformed how I play. For the first time since 1980s, I am gliding down the fretboard vertically, horizontally and diagonally, knowing EXACTLY what I am doing. I wish I knew what you teach us 20 years ago.
I run a computer programming business myself and I just love the way you put logic behind crystal clear explanations. Music is beautiful in its logic and symmetry, and you've enlighted what I kind of wondered and suspected. Now I understand WHY of all the characteristics about the fretboard.
I subscribe to a lot of guitar channels -- most are similar, a very few are really good (e.g. Mike George although he is quite heavy on theory) and yours is completely original in content and presentation.
Bought all your "cheat sheets", of course. I think your discovery about the modes and the diatonic notes along the stack and the rectangle is completely insane!!! You are a genius and you deserve a Nobel prize for music theory. Please keep doing what you're doing. Can't wait for your next videos!!!
Thanks so much for your kind words and support! 🎸🧪🤘
I’ve been teaching guitar and music theory for over 20 years. So much of what I have taught over the years you cover but so much more succinctly. I am so impressed. If you had a patreon I would be a patron. I will be buying your PDFs to teach my own children. Really, I am so impressed. Great job.
You just won “comment of the month” and it’s only March 2nd. I hope to do a Patreon when I can scrap up enough time to share content regularly, but I can’t quite quit my day job yet 🤣🎸🧪🤘
@@fretsciencedude you should get a tip jug, payppal & patron. I'm sure there are other ways for people who appreciate your teaching to compensate you.
Don't need to be a full-time utuber, Your putting in enough effort now it's quality product.
Chicks are raking it in doing little dances. Cat videos etc.
Hear hear. I will join your patreon in an instant. Just let us know when.
There are many who people who charged so much fee but you gave us literally free of cost thank you so much free education keep post more🎵
Lots more to come! 🎸🧪🤘
im trying to learn this in my 40s and your process has become invaluable to me. ty
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
For me this guy is the absolute don of guitar fundamentals on UA-cam. The fact that I don't have to keep referring to written notes to drill this stuff into my brain makes it SO much more enjoyable to learn. I can just mess around with all of the concepts and it naturally sinks in with minimal effort. Thanks a bunch!
Much appreciated, thanks...I'm glad to hear that it's working for you! 🎸🧪🤘
It's always a good day when FS pops up in my feed 💯💪👍
It’s always a good day when I manage to finish a video!
I've just watched this and I'm very excited to start working my way through these videos. It sounds like it's just my kind of thing. Thank you so much. 😉 😁🎸🎼
Awesome, glad to hear it’s connecting with you! 🎸🧪🤘
I'm so grateful for your videos. I learn best by understanding why and how things are built. I've been playing for 20 years (minus a few in the middle). The grunt work of repeating scales, but not understanding how they were put together in the first place has kept me in the dark and confused for SO LONG. This makes so much sense now. This is Wisdom as opposed to knowledge. 🎉
Thanks for your kind words! 🎸🧪🤘
Yay he should rename the channel to Guitar Genius‼️
I greatly appreciate your videos, Keith, and let me tell you why. After struggling for many decades with “the warp” (that B string, I called “the trip wire”), I decided to play all-4ths tuning, and happy at last, settled into the predictability and simplicity of that system. That was 5 years ago, but I so missed the chords I had loved in standard tuning (plus loving the style of Ted Greene and Tim Lerch), that I changed back! Now you come along and explain the basic patterns in terms of the all-4ths infinite frets/strings grid, and you introduce “the warp” as - let’s call it “a dance step” - a predictable move, and I now have the key to transition between standard and all-4ths tunings. I see how to take all of the all-4ths knowledge and apply it to standard tuning. Today I have two guitars with me, one tuned to all-4ths, the other to standard, and I’m playing around, back and forth, with your pentatonic patterns. Less mental work, more practice-based! Thank you!
That’s awesome to hear! 🎸🧪🤘
Recent big moment for me was after discovering how find all the root notes on the fretboard and remembering your video about the root notes location in either the rectangle or the square, I instantly knew how to play all the pentatonic positions across the fretboard AND play vertically as well. I appreciate your the work you’ve done.
One of my favorite things about guitar is how everything you learn connects to and illuminates everything else. Thanks for your kind words! 🎸🧪🤘
7:30 These boxes "scroll" up/down too! They also always alternate, so when you finish one box you just have to switch to the other. Fascinating 😊
Yes, exactly…that’s explained in the referenced video. It makes things so much easier, especially if you ever pick up an unfamiliar instrument like a 5-string bass
Thank you FS. You've taught me everything I know!
Ha, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
As a true guitar beginner with a little prior knowledge of music theory I find your videos incredibly helpful. The connection to Kahneman is spot-on. Although I feel like my head is pretty far in front of my hands right now, I'm confident that the ways your videos are helping me to see and think about the fretboard will pay tremendous dividends. At my age it is challenging to learn new skills that combine physical, mental, and emotional "intelligences" and your focus brings tremendous clarity to the mental aspect. That clarity opens a path for the others, and I'm grateful for your work.
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
You’re FANTASTIC ‼️ You’ve done all the work which I was in the process of doing, connecting the dots gradually as I improve my playing 👏👏 Thanks for helping us connect the dots to move from System 2 to System 1❤️❤️
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
🔥 Best mnemonics and infographics on the topic I've ever seen!
Bought the pdfs just to support the channel - they are reasonably priced too.
This is pure gold, especially compared to the info-marketers who sell their pretentious "ultimate" course for hundreds of dollars, which only teach notes and intervals.
Thank you! 🙏
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
You sir are a genius! The way you explain this makes so much more sense than the way I have been learning guitar.
Glad it was helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
This is the best video for this topic I’ve ever seen! Thank you so much for explaining everything for free!!
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Subbed. Watched all of your videos. Made my purchase of your bundle to support your channel. As a 60-yr old Mechanical Engineer, I love your systematic approach to teaching music. Thank you.
Much appreciated, Tom! 🎸🧪🤘
After watching weeks of music theory explain videos this is the one and only channel that explains all the theory in excellent clear videos. Thank you very much 🙏
That’s very kind of you to say. I’m glad they helped! 🎸🧪🤘
I have struggled for a long time trying to put together shapes, e.g. the pentatonic boxes. I’m really excited to jump into these videos.
Glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
Now that you mentioned you're a computer guy those patterns start to look like a circuit board to me. Very good work, it makes learning so much easier for the rest of us sciency guys. Way better than all the "just memorize these 500 scale patterns" channels out there!
Now that I think of it, I think I'll design a PCB with the patterns as a portable cheat sheet.
Send me one! 🤣🎸🧪🤘
hey man! thank you so much for sharing the knowledge. these videos are super helpful for a beginner like me
Much appreciated! 🎸🧪🤘
I have viewed your memorize the fretboard video a few weeks back and saved it, and I'm so happy that I did. Your content is just liquid gold. Even though I'm a beginner guitarist, I just know that I'm incredibly lucky to be learning these information; taught in such a well thought out manner. Thank you for helping me in my guitar journey, as well as helping a lot of people get into music theory.
Glad you’re finding it helpful…thanks for your kind words! 🎸🧪🤘
I want to reach out and say Thank You! There are a lot of great guitar teachers on youtube, but your approach has made me understand the guitar better than any other approach I've tried. Keep putting out this amazing content, you rock!
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Even if I come from already knowing many of the concepts and fingerings discussed in this channel, I feel that everything is much better glued together for me after having gone through this series of videos.
It is not only that each video condenses lots of invaluable information, explained in a super-clear, logical and mostly self-contained way, but a great value comes also from having a playlist with a recommended viewing order, so that the complete series of videos become a whole entity, rather than a bunch of disconnected hints.
From all the great material discussed in these videos, if I had to highlight something over the rest, it would be the idea of visualizing the position of the root notes all over the fretboard and then overlapping the fingerings for the different applicable triads, pentatonics and modes (which could also be extended with e.g. 4 notes arpeggios), and considering them as a "hierarchy of notes" to chose from.
I was already chasing that idea before reaching this channel, but the different videos have helped me a lot to really put it in practice.
Finally, being an engineer myself, I appreciate how you have dissected a complex problem (mastering the fretboard) into a number of simpler aspects which can then be approached individually in a much more effective way, and not just for the sake of science (despite the name of the channel) but with a clear focus on its practical application.
Great thanks!
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
I’m a computer science nerd as well. Can’t wait to see how you broke this down into small pieces and algorithms.
Glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
Love seeing these concepts explained in such a clear concise way. I’m in year 20 of playing and just started making some of these realizations myself in this past year and then I came across these videos. I feel like they are exactly what I needed to strengthen the base that I had started and have accelerated the learning curve so much for me. Thank you for your taking the time to map this stuff out visually, I really appreciate your channel!
Glad you’re finding it helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
These videos are really really special mate. Your content is both digestible and concise, and you seem like a genuinely nice bloke. Eager to keep improving with Fret Science
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
I love your content man. I've started serious self-study of guitar and music theory last year and as a physicist that values conceptual understanding over memorization I quickly started to find an approach to the fretboard very similar to yours. e.g. the rectangle, the stack, the warp are concepts I also came up with to simplify memorizing the patterns of the fretboard.
But you have much more knowledge of music theory and have already worked through much more material and tested if it actually helps. Seeing your videos greatly resonates with me and makes me want to keep exploring the guitar, thank you!
That’s great to hear, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
So excited to see this video. I purchased the pdfs and it’s been helping me learn to solo and learn the relationship between the notes with the stack and rectangle.
That’s awesome to hear…I’m glad it’s been helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
just found this and love it! as an amateur musician and full time scientist i love this approach. and as an intermediate player i'm well primed for it. count me in!
Welcome aboard! 🎸🧪🤘
Great work, man - you're contributing uniquely and fruitfully to this world. You're appreciated and your efforts are not taken lightly.
Thank you 🙏🎸🧪🤘
Do you know the Mel Bay book “Advanced Modern Rock Guitar Improvisation” written by Jon Finn? It’s very close to your “hidden in plain sight” concept. Such a cool concept. I was lucky to encounter the book in my first year of guitar playing in the early 2000s, which opened up modal playing from the start for me. It’s incredible to find a channel that is as analytical with guitar as I am. Math major, so pretty much as much of a nerd as a CS major 😉 Subbed today, your content is amazing. Keep it coming!
I cite Jon Finn’s book in the 12-page overview PDF. I adapted my presentation of “the warp” from there, and simplified and extended his treatment of pentatonic scales and the modes. I also used to go see him play live back in the 90s. Great teacher and musician! Thanks for your kind words 🎸🧪🤘
I was so excited to see this pop up in my feed. And, your video did not disappoint. Fantastic job that's packed with info and gems. Thank you, Keith! Keep up the excellent work!!!
Glad you enjoyed it! 🎸🧪🤘
why did it take me so long to find a channel like this I appreciate your work
I constantly ask myself why I didn’t figure this stuff out sooner 🤣🎸🧪🤘
The concept of rectangle and box + the warp really helps in a lot of situations. I'm trying to learn type 1 memory of the CAGED system to be able to play any chord progression in any key and find all scale notes for random position on the fretboard. The idea isn't new and will take some serious practice but it's my goal for this year. Thank you for clarifying these concepts on your channel and amazing graphics and animations 😊
Glad to hear it’s working for you! 🎸🧪🤘
I wish i discovered your channel sooner you're an amazing teacher and i really appreciate you making these videos.
Better late than never 🤣 Cheers! 🎸🧪🤘
@@fretscience absolutely. Nothing will ever stop my craving for knowledge of music lol
Thank you very much man for the work you do with your content. And thank you even more for "purchasing power parity" in your store! I'm saving money to purchase the 12 PDF combo soon. Thanks for all, for real.
I happy you’re finding it helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
As a fellow computer scientist these are the explanations and visualizations that make the most sense to me. Have been a beginner guitar player for over 20yrs and was at the point of putting it back down again. This video hit me at just the right time to point out the through line of your videos and a map for finally buckling down and learning this thing properly and forever. Thanks for all your content. Found you months ago and instantly purchased your PDF but havent spent the time to internalize it all. Until now!
Awesome…glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
Спасибо за вашу систему! Thanks for your system. If there was a Nobel Prize in music, you deserve it.
Much appreciated…cheers! 🎸🧪🤘
You are the absolute goat! Thanks for sharing this information! I am improving a lot from your instructions!
That’s great to hear…thanks for your kind words! 🎸🧪🤘
I am so very grateful to you for sharing all of this useful information. I only saw your previous video and half of this one, but I already know that your content is golden and plan to watch all the rest ones and look forward for the ones to come. I've been playing the guitar for 10 years already as a hobby(self-taught), but never could muster the willpower to get through all of the boring traditional methods and routines of learning to get to the point where I wanted to be with my skills. Even though I do have a slight idea of some music theory, but I still feel like a complete beginner stuck playing basic open chords most of the time, not particularly because of the lack of practice, but mainly because of a lack of understanding of why and how to apply the harder concepts, lack of understanding of how they connect, and a resentment towards the idea that you have to memorize soooo much stuff in order to get at least a little bit closer to feeling comfortable and free with this instrument, it just felt so redundant at its core principle, the efforts cost/return ratio was way too off-putting to get through it. I always felt that there must be a much easier and better method to do it and here you are proving that. I saw no one explaining everything as thorough and logical as you do. You are showing the ins and outs, deconstructing and consolidating everything so that it becomes digestable to anyone. Explaining not only the "why", the reasoning behind things, but also the "what for", the purpose and use behind every given concept. Providing not only the tiniest individual bits and pieces of any specific construct, but also fitting it into the overall view. Understanding is the key - and you are giving us the keys to understand the guitar. Thank you for all your effort. You are a truly great teacher.
Thanks for your kind words…you’ve captured exactly what I’m trying to do 🎸🧪🤘
this is the best and most effective methods ive heard so far
Amazing video as always. I always wondered how you came up with such a fresh and streamlined way of learning this stuff and now hearing that you have a background in computer science makes complete sense now. Your techniques are the best out there, and I’ve already learned a ton from them. Can’t wait for the future videos 👍🙏🙏
Thanks for your kind words! 🎸🧪🤘
As a software engineer myself this makes so much sense. Thank you for these videos
Glad they’re helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
As a guitar newb, you're quite a bit beyond where I am currently. That said, I've no doubt that all of this will be amazingly helpful. I'm very glad I found this. Thank you, and subbed.
Welcome aboard! Don’t underestimate your ability to pick this up quickly, especially if you can work with a coach/teacher 🎸🧪🤘
I have been hacking away on guitar since I was 15 years in 1980. Being self taught made me look at patterns, and long before I learned of anything more than box one pentatonic pattern, I discovered that there were three different pentatonic box one patterns available in any particular diatonic key. For example, in the key of Am/C, there is Am/C pentatonic, Dm/F pentatonic, and Em/G pentatonic available in box one patterns. Then I noticed the "topo secret" filler notes. I call these the AI box, DL box, and the PM box for my modes based off the low E string. The Locrian box is its own deal. My first real breakthrough. Then I discovered what you mention, what I call the 3x3 and 2x4 boxes of all the pentatonic patterns. Later I learned 3 notes per strings. Of course, somewhere along I learned some theory, but I still go back to my original three positions of penta box one if I get lost.
Good lesson. I often thought of how to explain this stuff to my friends that are trying to see the big picture, which I call connecting the dots.
Sounds like you started about five years before me and figured it out a lot faster 🤣🎸🧪🤘
@@fretscience Well, who knows about that?! I do know that I am a hack, but I have gotten really good at enjoying my journey. I am no pro or teacher, tried to be a rock star, and simply am on the journey at this point. I even k now what modes are after 44 years!
I made a similar observations a couple years ago. What you call 3x3, FS calls stack, and Ricky Comisky calls 3, I call tria seira, greek for three strings. The other pattern Vyo seira, two strings. Vyo + tria = penta. You'll have to go to google translate if you want to know how to pronounce them. The tria pattern is three adjacent strings having two notes of a M2 interval, with a m3 interval between the sequential notes on the adjacent string.
I call it the Einstein approach to pentatonic positions.
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler" -- A. Einstein
I can't see pentatonic positions being made simpler than this. Anyone critical of this approach just needs to play with it until it clicks for them. Position approach is "This is the pattern and here are the location of the root notes within the pattern" This way is, "This is the root note, and this is the pattern that surrounds it". Either way, the same notes are included.
Greetings from Israel, Your methods are the best I have encountered, Thanks!
Great to hear! 🎸🧪🤘
Your channel is absolutely amazing. I'm so glad I found this.
Glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
Man, your videos are overloaded with info, I have to pause them on and off and then try to find whatever it is in the fretboard that you’re explaining so at first they seem hard to comprehend but as you keep going the third eye starts to see 😂 I’m not very rhythmic person so I greatly appreciate these videos cause they have allowed me to visualize what otherwise would be hard to understand. I also appreciate the book references and the other intellectual aspects that you bring into the video, I agree there’s a lot of principles you can apply to music and the other way around too👌🙏.
There’s a lot in modern learning theory that’s helpful for practice. I definitely need to do a video on practicing effectively. Cheers! 🎸🧪🤘
Hey I love your videos and look forward to every new one. I buy every “cheat sheet” for each one as well…major support from Texas
Much appreciated, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Awesome info, so useful. Gratitude to you!
Glad it was helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
Hi Keith! Your videos are incredibly insightful and have really helped me understand the instrument better. I'd love to see a video from you that outlines a practice routine incorporating your ideas. It would be a fantastic resource for guitarists looking to deepen their understanding and skill.
That’s great to hear, and I do want to make a video on practicing effectively at some point. Thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Watched 5 min of your video....Instant Subscribe! This is simply incredible. Thank you so much for putting this together. Will definitely spread the words about your channel
Much appreciated…glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
This is SOLID GOLD my friend. SOLID GOLD. Thank you so much.
Glad you’re finding these videos helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
Thank you! Your lessons have helped me tremendously.
That’s great to hear! 🎸🧪🤘
FRET SCIENCE SAVED ME YEARS OF LIFE!
🤣🎸🧪🤘
If you want to learn guitar music theory in, honestly, a day or two then Fret Science is the only way to go. I never tell people to buy anything but the $30 I spent for the cheat sheets is the best money I ever spent. As many others have said, this should be the standard method for teaching the fretboard.
Two days ago I knew the basic chords and a few scales in a few different positions. Today I can use a root note to instantly play the pentatonic up and down the fretboard, I can add 2 notes to the pentatonic to make 6 of the 7 major scales, and I can build triads and build the corresponding chord at any position. I learned all of that yesterday and I’m just getting started.
Thanks, Boris…I’m so glad this material is working for you, and I appreciate your support! 🎸🧪🤘
Only reason i picked giitar is because of your videos....i am just enjoying playing your lessons as of now.nothing else and i feel i am doing great.
Lots of love from india.
Glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
You deserve a Nobel peace prize
Ha, thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Thank you! Subbed. Looking forwarding to this series and learning from you! Very clearly explained!
Welcome aboard! 🎸🧪🤘
You’re channel is awesome I’ve watched most of your videos but I’m going to subscribe anyway cheers for your help
Thanks…there’s more to come! 🎸🧪🤘
What a nerd! As a fellow nerd I love it. I'll digest these 10 videos this week!
I know a lot of people are already saying this, but I really want to just throw my thanks on the pile. Shortly before finding your videos, I was trying to learn the CAGED system. And I was so frustrated. I knew that (with the exception of the warp) the strings followed a regular pattern vertically. And obviously each string follows a regular pattern horizontally as it's just the chromatic scale. So why, on an instrument with such a regular pattern, could I not figure out a pattern to connect the various scale shapes?
I probably would have gotten there eventually, but I'm SO GLAD I didn't have to! I stumbled across your pentatonic box and stack concept shortly after starting guitar lessons and having the homework of learning the pentatonic CAGED system. And I started observing how this worked and overlayed on the CAGED system. and explored picking a note to be my root, and then starting with the stack and box, and then mapping it onto one of the caged patterns. and it's just really cool how i can start playing in the right key for any tonic wihout needing any sort of calibration to a pattern.
like CAGED, I find the tonic and then have to remember where the root is in each pattern, and figure out what pattern to play at that location.
this one i just... start playing the scale? it's insane!
I think some people prefer to just have a map to follow and don't mind memorization and that's fair. but i LOVE deriving things for myself and actually understanding what's going on. and I think that's what's so cool about your system. It actually makes sense of the pattern of the (standard tuning) fretboard, and works in conjunction with it.
where as CAGED and 3nps feel like they just... discovered the pieces that happen to work over it? theyre helpful and functional and work as a roadmap. but your's teaches us to actually survey the land ourselves.
i know im rambling and gushing at this point but it's just... so revolutionary!
Thank you so so so much for figuring this all out, and then not only releasing it to us, available for free. But taking the time to make it so well taught. You explain everything clearly, consiely, and visually. Throwing up your notes on a gist for people to stumble through would have been so helpful already. And I think it'd be fair to require compensation for this education. (I'm so glad you don't. I'm going to buy the cheat sheets because I want to support you, but I'm really glad that this information is freely available and accessible to anyone with an internet connection). And you don't.
Just.. hats off to you. Thank you so much, and I hope that you're proud and feel fullfilled in this content because you deserve it. it's so incredibly helpful.
Thanks so much for writing such a thoughtful comment. I just woke up and you’ve already made my day 🎸🧪🤘
It's content like this that makes all the horribleness of the internet worth it.
That’s very kind of you to say 🎸🧪🤘
Ha! No doubt.
Been through a 1000 guitar & theory vid tutorials.
I like this guy here..
I'm in.
Thanks❤🎉
@ToddRock16 glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
Excellent breakdown.
🎸🧪🤘
Stumbled across your channel and I'm blown away by your thoughtfulness and teaching style. Your methods are inspiring, pure clarity and logic, are you Vulcan by any chance? 😂
Welcome aboard! Definitely not Vulcan, but I do aim for clarity 🤣🎸🧪🤘
Love the material. Be great to one day see a lefty pdf bundle with the diagrams flipped horizontally.
Noted! 🎸🧪🤘
ive been attracted to a few of ur videos and the info wasnt clicking until today: 4:22 this graphic was the point where it kinda clicked. Still dont have my diminished sounds going, but this does help a lot. Funny how you can say the same thing in 15 different ways and on the 16th way, it clicks for the student.
Glad you stuck around! 🎸🧪🤘
Love all of this.
Thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
All right, I’m in!
Glad you’re here! 🎸🧪🤘
I'm electrical engineer that decided to learn guitar in my 50's. Your approach completely resonates with me. And being a visual learner, the animated diagrams are outstanding. While I completely get the content of your lessons, I'm at the point of how to most efficiently ingrain that knowledge to make use of it "on the fly". I'm "here" at this point -understanding. How do I get to "there" - playing? I'm sure the answer is "practice" but the question is practice what and exactly how. How about a video suggesting specific practice methods to do so? To clarify, I'm just at your first two videos ingraining the 2 box shapes for major and minor. Thanks and fantastic job!
@misterjay3 I’m going to be sharing practice approaches on my new Patreon, and some of that will probably come to UA-cam. The challenge is that effective practice is highly individualized. If you’re interested, check out patreon.com/fretscience
Awesome content, I like your style and approach. Bought the PDFs for reference and to support you!
Much appreciated, thank you! 🎸🧪🤘
What a great channel! Love your vids, but we don't see you play much. What about demonstrating a solo that goes up and down the neck using all of these cool methods you have taught?
Also would like to encourage anyone reading this to buy the fretscience PDF bundle - these vids seem very time consuming to create with the animations , and we are getting so much valuable knowledge for free!
Thanks for your support. I’m not that great of a player, and nobody wants to hear me play an extended solo. I’m very good at creative problem solving, solid at communicating and teaching, and pretty mediocre as an “advanced intermediate” guitarist. I think of your request as being like asking Bill Belichick to demonstrate throwing a touchdown pass. I’m sure he can do it, but it wouldn’t be pretty, and that’s not what he’s being paid to do. 🤣 That said, I will be playing more in my upcoming videos about improvisation techniques. 🎸🧪🤘
@@fretscience Ha, yeah that makes sense! I've been studying theory for a about a year now, and was pretty much where you were at - all the memorization really turned me off. Maybe it's because I am a IT systems engineer as well, but your videos really gave me that "AHA!" moment that nothing else has. The animations really helped me visualize things. I am very grateful and refer to the PDFs often! Thanks for all your efforts.
Thank you
Thanks for sharing! Love your content
Thanks for watching! 🎸🧪🤘
This sounds like it’s made for me.👍🏼 I’ll try it out later.
🎸🧪🤘
Just fantastic!
Thanks! 🎸🧪🤘
Youre a badass, guitar mad scientist
🤣🎸🧪🤘
From one fellow programmer and (struggling) musician to another: Excellent discussion and animation!
BTW, does it ever make sense to talk about a mode with respect to a pentatonic shape? The reason I ask is that the first 2 pentatonic shapes are named the 'minor pentatonic shape' and the 'major pentatonic shape' but the remaining 3 shapes appear to be nameless. How come and what function do those shapes serve?
Thanks, Dan…much appreciated! 🎸🧪🤘
I also studied both music theory and computer science, so my approach is probably only going to resonate with other people who enjoy breaking a problem down to its fundamental pieces and then reassembling those pieces to build whatever you want.
All the most common scales (pentatonic, blues, major, minor, etc.) are nothing more than a series of whole steps, half steps, and possibly major or minor third steps. Most guitarists can easily traverse those steps on a single string, but don’t know how to traverse them across a pair of strings. Once you learn how to do that, all the patterns fall into place, both for scales and (closed voicing) chords.
The nice thing is that instead of memorizing a bunch of patterns, you really only need to memorize how to traverse those four different steps between strings (only two different patterns, if you learn how to move by a whole step and major third and understand how to warp those patterns into a half step and a minor third). So everything can be simplified to memorizing two two-note patterns between strings (plus knowing how the “warp” between the 4th and 5th strings changes those patterns).
That’s a decent summary of a good portion of my approach, but I have found that it’s helpful to have multiple mental models, so that you can use different tools for different jobs. But I agree, there is definitely more than one way to break things down into building blocks.
@@fretscience good to know! I will definitely be checking out your videos for more content. BTW, I couldn’t agree more. Different approaches are extremely useful.
Just an idea for a future video piece
How about a 2 octave scale using the box patterns you have and do a lesson on this? This also unlocks more for soloing over chords. I teach this idea to my guitar students because the pentatonic patterns are too limited for certain kinds of expression. The 2 octave scale can be moved to other different sections of the guitar for tonal sounds of the strings. Just shooting it out there for you and see what you think of this idea.
Hi Jon, I'm interested in your suggestion, but it's not 100% clear to me what you mean by adding a two-octave scale, since several of the methods I teach (rectangle and stack + hidden in plain sight, five-string repeating modal pattern, 3nps) create 2+ octave patterns when you play them across all six strings. Maybe shoot me an email with an example?
You are amazing!
You’re much too kind 🤣🎸🧪🤘
This is surely the best method nothing to add
Thank you! 🎸🧪🤘
@@fretscience u r welcome only one thing is to deepen, position of fingers in the stack when playing modes, I understood rectangles. Maybe could be also useful some ideas on Linkin geometric forms in impro: which chord use? What's the best position to start? May I use shapes even in triads? Thanks
Thank You !
You’re welcome…cheers! 🎸🧪🤘
This is how I think. How I learn. Amazing n❤❤
Awesome, glad to hear it! 🎸🧪🤘
Where have you been my whole life!!!!
Glad you’re here now! 🎸🧪🤘
As a leftie, is there a trick way to look at the fretboard? I see it in normal fashion and then need to remember I need to flip it over. Trying to review this material without adding an extra step would be great. So far, this course is just what I've been looking for. Thanks!
I don’t yet have any material specifically for lefties…the good news is that there are only a handful of patterns in this method that need to be internalized, so worst-case you can just write them down. Sorry that’s not more immediately helpful! 🎸🧪🤘
Almost! I need the chords.
Mnemonic device for chords from the root. Anywhere on the fretboard you have to know where are the chords from here ? Which chords ? All of them. CAGED is a good start.
Triads are the key, and they are covered in this method. If you’re looking for fancy jazz chords, you can build them off of triads, but I mostly leave that to jazz instructors.
Hi @Fret Science, What would you suggest for an absolute beginner who doesn't even understand most of the words that you are saying in that first "How to visualize chords and scales video"? I watched it, yet the vocabulary used throughout was too advanced for me. Do you have a resource in your kit to learn the basics to help that initial video begin to make sense? Thanks!!
A youtube suggestion on the banner partially helped to answer my question. I would still love to know of any resource that you might have also created. (The suggested video: The Guitar Fretboard Map by Mike George Link: ua-cam.com/video/VwSBtuWkhiA/v-deo.html )
I usually recommend that beginners start with a channel or program like JustinGuitar that specializes in the early stages. Most of the content on my channel is aimed at intermediate and advanced beginner players who are starting to learn to improvise. That said, I try not to assume too much prior knowledge, so any reasonably experienced player (and certainly any competent teacher) should be able to answer whatever questions you have. I do my best to answer questions in the comments as well
I've been through many tutorials. I can conclude you are God!
Far from it, but much appreciated! 🤣🎸🧪🤘
Hi, I wish to follow your Method fully. However, I'm on video #2 and am confused as to the perfect fourth and flat notes. What am I missing? I know my String note names and my Major and Minor pentatonic scale forms. Should I know all the 5 Pentatonic Boxes first? Where should I go from Video 1 and Video 2? I want to get through All 11 Videos. I will learn the entire Guitar fretboard before my time on Earth is over!!!! Thanks
I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking. The Intervals video may help with your question about the perfect fourth and flat notes. This video explains the recommended viewing order and that it’s not necessary to get everything perfect before moving onto the next video. You should expect to come back to earlier videos later on with a deeper understanding. If you have questions about the individual videos, please feel free to ask them in the comments, or better yet, on my Patreon