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Learn Guitar Trick #3 – Rotating Fingerboard Chord System

By Mike Hayes | December 16, 2009

It’s easy to learn chords on the guitar when you create string
grids; string grids usually consist of three strings as follows:

String grid 1 = strings 1, 2 and 3

String grid 2 = strings 2, 3 and 4

String grid 3 = strings 3, 4 and 5

String grid 4 = strings 4, 5 and 6

Now it’s time to put these strings grids to work to learn where
all our other duplicated major chords occur on the fretboard.

Rotating fingerboard system

I’m going to use a chromatic scale to create a rotating
fingerboard system for learning and remembering our chords.

We’re starting with a ‘D’ chromatic scale because that’s the
chord I’m using for my example, you can start on any note of the
chromatic scale.

The ‘D’ Chromatic scale – starting on the note ‘D’

D – D#/Eb – E – F – F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A – A#/Bb – B – C – C#/Db
- D

By applying a chromatic scale to our chord duplication system
concept we can play many chords without changing chord shape, you
can simply use whichever string grid suits your musical project.
To keep things simple I only use string grids 1 and 2.

Grid 1

D
–2—
-[3]–
–2—
–0—
–x—
–x—

Grid 2

D
–x—
–7—
-[7]—
–7—
–x—
–x—

Moving up one semitone we have D# or Eb chords

Grid 1

D# / Eb
–3—
-[4]–
–3—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Grid 2

D# / Eb
–x—
–8—
-[8]—
–8—
–x—
–x—

One semitone higher would produce the chord of E

Grid 1

E
–4—
-[5]–
–4—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Grid 2

E
–x—
–9—
-[9]—
–9—
–x—
–x—

Another semitone would create the chord of F

Grid 1

F
–5—
-[6]–
–5—
–x—
–x—
–x—

Grid 2

F
–x—
–10–
-[10]-
–10–
–x—
–x—

 

Don’t stop there, keep going as far as you can comfortably play
each chord shape on your guitar.

Study the keynotes indicated [ ] in each chord this is our
reference point, this is where each chord takes it’s name from.

Notice how the first D chord in grid one had the fourth string
open but once we started moving that shape around we only played
three strings.

All I’m doing with the chord shapes above is simply moving them
chromatically up one fret at a time through the D chromatic
scale.

By the way, if you need to find a Db / C# chord, simply move the
original D shape back one fret, remembering to only play three
strings if you are using the ‘grid one’ shape chord on your
guitar.

And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com

You’ll learn about hit song templates, easy chords,simple scales, red hot rhythms, and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.

From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System

Topics: Guitar Chords, Guitar Fretboard, Guitar Tips | No Comments »

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