Practical music theory for intermediate guitarists. -Fretboard Foundation aims to organize and simplify the information required for fluency on guitar, +
Fretboard Foundation aims to organize and simplify the information required for fluency on guitar, including playing by ear, chords and harmony, and scales and melody.
Start reading at the Table of Contents.
This edition: First Edition, February 2024
-plus revisions as of February 3, 2024.
This edition: Second Edition, March 2024
+plus revisions as of March 12, 2024.
The latest version of this book can always be found at -fretboardfoundation.com/book.html
- -All editions are available at -fretboardfoundation.com/editions.html
+fretboardfoundation.com/bookCopyright © 2022-2024 by Jason Grimes.
+Copyright © 2022-2024 by Jason Grimes. +All rights reserved.
This is the book I always wanted to learn guitar from. It didn’t exist, so eventually I just had to write it. Now I use it as the core of my ongoing music studies.
+This is the book I always wanted to learn guitar from.
+ +Though I searched for decades, +I could never find a straightforward explanation of the core knowledge that was obviously possessed by those I considered masters of the art. +They would share bits and pieces of wisdom, +but it was always incomplete, +and left a tremendous amount unsaid. +It had yet to be analyzed and distilled into an accessible method. +Eventually, I assembled it myself.
+ +Now I use it as the basis for my teaching and ongoing music study.
Countless resources are available for beginning guitarists, +
Countless resources are available for beginning guitarists, and excellent materials exist for advanced musicians with a solid background in theory and practice. -But for those of us in between, -the “intermediate” guitarists, +But for those of us in between, +the “intermediate” guitarists, it can be a long and hard slog to master the instrument well enough to really express ourselves.
Most of the material aimed at this level sorts into either classical or jazz styles.
-Classical guitar instruction tends to focus on the precise performance of a composer’s work, +
Classical guitar instruction tends to focus on the precise performance of a composer’s work, with little emphasis on improvisation or creativity.
-Jazz digs deep into improvisation and theory, +
Jazz digs deep into improvisation and theory, but with techniques that often don’t translate well to other styles because of an emphasis on dissonance and extended chords.
-And both approaches promise at best a long and winding road toward mastery, +
And both approaches promise at best a long and winding road toward mastery, requiring years of study and a somewhat blind faith that it will lead somewhere we want to go.
In the long run, +
In the long run, it would be ideal to learn everything. But life is rarely ideal, and the length of our run is unknown.
@@ -2918,12 +2925,12 @@Right now, -given the overwhelming amount there is to learn, -how can we make the most progress in the shortest time? +
Right now, +given the overwhelming amount there is to learn, +how can we make the most progress in the shortest time? What’s the minimum we need to learn, and the fastest way to learn it?
@@ -2956,8 +2963,8 @@By simply taking a step back and realizing that Western harmony is just one framework among many—albeit -one that is particularly suited to Western musicians—otherwise +
By simply taking a step back and realizing that Western harmony is just one framework among many—albeit +one that is particularly suited to Western musicians—otherwise confusing concepts suddenly become clear, even obvious.
@@ -2975,13 +2982,13 @@If you are among the audience imagined for this book, -you might describe yourself as an intermediate guitarist. -You can play some songs, and you know whatever you consider to be “the basics”. -You can play chords, and maybe some scales (or maybe not). +
If you are among the audience imagined for this book, +you might describe yourself as an intermediate guitarist. +You can play some songs, and you know whatever you consider to be “the basics”. +You can play chords, and maybe some scales (or maybe not). The subjects in this book sound at least vaguely familiar to you.
-Most importantly, you want to make music on guitar, +
Most importantly, you want to make music on guitar, with a facility and a graceful freedom that allows you to express yourself creatively, and produce the sounds you hear inside as fluently as possible.
@@ -3026,13 +3033,13 @@If this was a step-by-step guitar method, -it might be organized in reverse. -First it might teach scales, +it would traditionally be organized in reverse. +First it would teach notes and scales, then how to assemble the scales into chords, -and finally improvisation, +and finally improvisation, chord melody, and playing by ear.
-But I have found it more effective to study guitar in the opposite order, +
But I have found it more useful to study guitar in the opposite order, and in short iterations rather than a long step-by-step path. First improvising by ear, however clumsy or imperfect, @@ -3043,7 +3050,7 @@
A practical and hopefully enlightening approach to scales is given in Part 3.
@@ -3094,13 +3101,13 @@Guitar basics.
-See References +
See References and fretboardfoundation.com for better sources on these topics.
Over 2000 years ago, -a Greek philosopher and mathematician named Pythagoras laid the foundations of Western music +a Greek philosopher and mathematician named Pythagoras laid the foundations of Western music by studying the properties of vibrating strings.
Today, @@ -3118,10 +3125,10 @@
Musical staff notation is not as well suited to guitar as it is to other instruments like piano, -in part because on guitar +in part because on guitar the exact same pitch can be found at multiple places on the fretboard.
-On a fretboard, +
On a fretboard, intervals are the same shape in every key, but notes are hard to identify. On a piano keyboard, @@ -3169,7 +3176,7 @@
Contemporary neuroscience research and the “old masters” seem to agree that +
Contemporary neuroscience research and the “old masters” seem to agree that the slower we practice, the faster we advance.
@@ -3203,7 +3210,7 @@Varying rhythm, dynamics, accents, +
Varying rhythm, dynamics, accents, and articulation keeps practice interesting, helps to solve technical problems, @@ -3230,7 +3237,7 @@
The headings throughout the text are written as an outline, intended to be readable on their own, -as a summary of the text. +as a summary of the text. This makes it easy to take in an overview by quickly skimming tables of contents and chapter texts.
In addition to this book, supplementary tools and materials are available on the Fretboard Foundation website.
- -For example, there are software applications that provide interactive, playable, -editable, and audible fretboard diagrams for exploring the ideas in this book in an experiential way.
+The Fretboard Foundation website offers a variety of additional resources, +including self-paced courses, free tutorial videos and articles, private lessons, +and software applications for exploring the ideas in this book in an experiential way.
-See fretboardfoundation.com/tools for details.
+See fretboardfoundation.com for more information.
@@ -5638,7 +5644,7 @@Identical notes on neighoring strings
+Identical notes on neighboring strings
Jason Grimes has been playing guitar off and on for over 30 years. +
Jason Grimes has been playing guitar for over 30 years. He’s self-taught and likes to do things his own way. He enjoys improvising, studying, and analyzing things from multiple perspectives.
@@ -19885,9 +19891,9 @@He is a software developer by profession. -He considers himself fortunate to be able to do music for love and +He considers himself fortunate to be able to play music for love and not money. -His aim is to condense, clarify, and share freely +His aim is to condense, clarify, and share the things he’s learned about music that might be useful to others.