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Have you ever heard the saying, ‘It’s not what you look at; it’s what you see’?
Even the most simple and familiar chord shape we can think of — a shape we may have played hundreds (or thousands) of times — contains treasures of insight that we may be taking for granted! The catch is that we can’t learn this passively — we need to explore.
Consider the humble open C major chord (Figure 1).
We can make this a movable shape by barring the open string notes (Figure 2).
If we move that up a whole step, now we’re playing D major and…
The open D chord has entered the chat. 👀
The top three notes of this ‘C shape’ are the same as the top three notes of the open D major chord (Figure 3). And now we see it: The ‘C shape’ contains a ‘D shape’.
The same principle applies to scale patterns. Take this basic minor pentatonic scale pattern with the root on the 5th string (Figure 4).
This pattern contains a minor barre chord with its root on the fifth string (Figure 5).
But this pattern also contains the ‘C shape’ (Figure 6). And it also contains this ‘D shape’ (Figure 7).
In fact, the ‘C shape’ and ‘D shape’ both represent the relative major of this minor scale pattern.
Ok, here is yet another useful shape nested within the ‘C shape’ — an octave.
Most guitarists learn the note names on the 6th and 5th strings for practical reasons. And by using octaves, we can find the matching note names on the 4th and 3rd strings (Figure 8).
But how well do you know the note names up and down the 2nd string?
Roots of our ‘C shape’ and ‘D shape’ form an octave (Figure 9). Unlike the previous octave shape, this octave shape is played towards the headstock of the guitar. We can use this octave shape to easily find the note names of the 2nd string if we already know the note names on the 5th string.
And like these, there are countless more examples.
Wherever you previously perceived a shape as an isolated unit, try now to uncover the connections within — connections to other positions, chords, or scales across the fretboard.
So the next time you look at a fretboard, take some time to discover connections. Take some time to see.