Second WindThis is a continuation of a thread that 404’d recently after a lot of discussion. A few people asked thoughtful questions, and seemed genuinely curious, so I figured it was worth reposting. Looking forward to seeing where the discussion goes this time. POST 1/5 - IntroductionMade a guitar learning system that’s very visual and not based on memorizing licks or traditional scale shapes.I’ll be posting a 4-part explanation below since it doesn’t fit the 2K character limit.Will be including more example diagram fragments along the way to illustrate the concepts visually.If you’re curious about alternate ways people internalize the fretboard, read on. If not, feel free to ignore.
POST 2 / 5 - TL;DR + PremiseTL;DRMany modern guitar fretboard diagrams prioritize aesthetics over clearly conveying theoretical concepts in a uniform and consistent way across all keys.By treating the fretboard as a 24×6 note matrix, using C Major / A Minor as parent keys, and separating Letter-based from Interval-based forms, the relationships between notes, scales, and chords become immediately visible.In no way am I attempting to introduce new theory. Rather, I’m clarifying existing relationships using a consistent visual framework.To explore this approach, I developed a complete, color-coded set of diagrams covering all Major and Minor keys (including theoretical keys) across both 12- and 24-fret ranges, with the goal of making complex theory visually intuitive.Hello everyone,I’ve been playing guitar for 15 years and studying music theory for nearly that entire time. Outside of four short-term teachers and about a dozen in-person lessons spread across seven years, most of my learning came from YouTube (especially Pebber Brown, R.I.P.), seeing Buckethead live 12 times, and relentless self-directed practice/study.I’ve always had a deep curiosity about how theory actually maps onto the guitar, not just how it’s traditionally taught; this heightened my desire to push past fragmented pedagogy toward something cleaner and more complete.
POST 3 / 5 - Origin of the IdeaWhat I’m really here to talk about is how these diagrams came to exist.They were born from a single question:“How can the piano keyboard be meaningfully related to the guitar fretboard?”That question hit me in 2013 after my high school Intro to Music teacher played a piano passage and asked me to reproduce it verbatim on guitar. Even after three years of playing, I couldn’t. Being mostly self-taught has limits, and this exposed one of them.Fast-forward to 2017. During downtime at work, I started experimenting on graph paper. I drew a 24x6 rectangle (24 frets, 6 strings) and filled in only the notes of C Major / A Minor. Something was still missing.I made another rectangle and added Roman numerals for scale degrees. Then I realized minor alters them. That required another rectangle, then another.Still not complete.What about the spaces between C and D? C Sharp? D Flat? Both? Neither? If C is the tonic, what is C Sharp in context? The questions themselves pointed to the answer, but only if each string were treated as its own piano keyboard stacked vertically.The underlying idea isn’t new; what is unique is the visual form it took on the guitar in the specific way I implemented it.
>hey guys did you know power chords are like piano chords!
POST 4 / 5 - Breaking from Traditional Fretboard LogicOnce I saw the fretboard this way, C Major / A Minor suddenly looked unfamiliar in a good way.I began questioning everything:Why do theoretical diagrams still show literal strings?Why rely on traditional fret markers that even advanced musicians disagree on?I realized those markers could be repositioned for clarity.The 2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th, and 11th frets made far more sense visually. Why? Because traditional positions lead directly to a contradiction.In E standard, the 3rd fret of the low E is G, the 5th is A, the 7th is B, and the 9th is C Sharp/D Flat. On a piano, that’s three white keys and one black key marked as if they were equivalent. No pianist would accept that.Once repositioned, a visual pathway emerged.Black and white “keys” on the low E string became obvious. Even more striking: looking only at the “black keys” from frets 1–4 across all six strings revealed the naturally occurring first position of the Major Pentatonic (second of Minor Pentatonic).The pattern exists even when note names are removed, and that matters.
POST 5 / 5 - The System & Why It WorksThat realization unlocked something important.Patterns can be practiced without knowing the key center if the goal is fingering and spatial familiarity. This applies to every scale shape that occurs naturally within a note matrix. Simplifying the visual system reduces theoretical overload.Over the next eight years, I developed 120 color-coded diagrams covering both 12- and 24-fret ranges.- 60 Letter-based- 60 Interval-based- All Major and Minor keys- Including theoretical keys like C Sharp Major / A Sharp Minor and C Flat Major / A Flat MinorThe letter forms provide familiarity with a new “skin.”The interval forms give exact coordinates using a clean modifier system.This works because the fretboard itself is a hierarchy of matrices. All notes form the parent matrix. Each key is a matrix within it. Each scale, chord, or shape is another matrix inside that.Before we play anything, this structure is mathematically sound. We apply musical meaning to it.These diagrams are what the earlier posts set up. They remove unnecessary pedagogical and ideological clutter and present the fretboard as a single coherent system for anyone willing to explore the fretboard visually.
Argh, almost had the formatting spot-on this time! In POST 2 / 5 right before, "Hello everyone," is where the TL;DR has officially ended. Apologies anons, improving with each iteration.
>>128887933¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Interesting anon, thanks very much for sharing.
>>128888019Ok, make it into video with live examples of you using it. Otherwise it's bullshit.
>>128889178I appreciate it, anon. Thanks for taking the time to engage with it.
>>128889187I get wanting a video, but that’s not what this is meant to demonstrate. The validity lives in the relationships it exposes, not in a clip of anyone using it.
Still here. Thoughts welcome, anons.
>>128890567are we going to have to see this every day now?>I get wanting a video, but that’s not what this is meant to demonstratewhat the hell are you talking about? why the politician response? then what is it meant to demonstrate? what's the point if you can't actually use it to play? thoughts on what? why does your name sound like the kind of brand names that spammers come up with? are you simultaneously brainstorming and shilling an upcoming course on here?
>>128893295i dont think you play guitar and know enough to get it, it's fine
>>128893295>are we going to have to see this every day now?coming from the hayley simp beta cuck lmao>>128889187you're a low iq individual
>>128893349That guy isnt me, I'm the hayleyfagso when you posting the results that this indeed makes learning easier? rather than say... Stickers with names on the frets. Ofc with the correct tuning type.
>>128893333>>128893349figures you'd be the type to make diagrams in excel instead of actually playing lmfao
>>128893423he just needs to make this into a video instead of relying on like 3-5 anons that might see it and be like: aaah this could work, idk. (then they go back to learning with Tabs form a YouTuber)
