Full transcript of “This Is How Simple The Fretboard Actually Is”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 What if I told you, if you can find one note on your guitar, I can show you where six different chords are in any key? And you don't have to memorize a bunch of music theory to do it, because there's actually a simple map hiding right here on the bottom two strings. And once you see this, you'll understand why certain chords seem to show up together over and over again in thousands of songs. More importantly, you'll be able to build your own chord progressions and move them into different keys as well. So, let me show you how ridiculously simple this actually is. Every major key has the same family: three major chords, three minor chords. And we give them numbers. Let's start in the key of G. So, the formula is: one major, two minor, three minor, four major, five major, six minor.
0:45 But I don't want you sitting here trying to memorize that like you're studying for a music theory exam, because there's a much easier way to actually visualize it on the guitar. So, watch this. Here is G. That's going to be our root note in the key of G, so that's going to be our one. Now, let's move up two frets. One, two. Right here, on the fifth fret, that's an A note. That's our two. And then another two frets, right here, that's B. That's our three. But I mainly want you to focus on the numbers more so than the letters, and you'll see why in a little bit. Now, here's where the map gets really easy, because if we come down to the A string, same fret as our original root, right here on the third fret, that's a C note right there. That's our four. And we move up two frets from there, that's a D note. That's our five.
1:32 And then two frets up above that, we have E, which is our six. So, these six notes right here, one, two, three, four, five, six, we're actually going to turn those into chords that we can use to create any kind of progression we want. And the chords will automatically work because these are all part of that chord family I was talking about. You don't even have to know the note names to start using this. You just need to know where the one is to start, and then just remember the other chords as their numbers. So, let's attach chords to these root notes. Remember with our formula, right? One, four, and five, which is right here. One, four, and five. Those are going to be made into major chords. And then two, three, and six - two, three, six - are going to be made into minor chords.
2:18 So, if I attach the appropriate barre chord shapes to these roots, we've got G major, A minor, B minor, C major, D major, E minor. And if barre chords aren't quite your thing yet, then just use power chords. Because the important thing I'm teaching you right now isn't a particular chord shape. It's the location. Now, let's simplify this even further. Out of these six chords, there are three that I want you to burn into your brain. That's the one, the four, and the five. So, in the key of G, that would be G for our one chord, C for our four chord, and then D for our five chord. These three chords alone - the one, the four, and the five - are absolute monsters in music. Blues,
3:07 rock, country, folk, pop. They're everywhere. And now, let me show you where this becomes insanely useful. This isn't just a trick for the key of G. This is an overall guitar trick. Let's now change to the key of A, all right? So, we're going to find our one, right? The root note for one happens to be right here, fifth fret on the low E string. That's our A note. That's our one. So, what do we do? For the map, right? Two frets up is our two. Two frets up is our three. Four is directly below the one. Two frets above that is our five, right? And then two frets above that, our six. We now have a chord family in the key of A, which gives us A major, B minor, C-sharp minor, D major, E major, F-sharp minor, right? Same fretboard relationship every time across all keys.
3:55 And this is the moment where your fretboard starts looking a whole lot less random. But now, let's take what we learned and actually make some music with this. Let's go back to G, right? Over here. Instead of me just giving you a progression to memorize, I'm just going to choose numbers off of the map. Let's try one, five, six. All right, let's turn those into barre chords. Cool. Sounds like kind of a surfy indie rock kind of chord progression. And once you start seeing music in numbers, you stop memorizing isolated chord progressions and you start recognizing the relationships, because the numbers stay the same across keys, but the note names themselves are what change.
4:45 So, just focus on the numbers more than the actual note names, because I can move the entire progression that I just played to any other key without having to relearn it with this method. But what if we want something a little darker, a little more brooding, a little sadder, more minor-key sounding, right? Here is where our six chord becomes really important. Now, in the key of G major, our six chord, as we know, is E minor. And E minor is what's called the relative minor. So, every major key has a relative minor. But again, you don't even need to memorize that term. Just remember that in any major key, the six can become your new home if you want it to sound minor, sound darker, right? So, instead of making the G sound like home, I'm going to start emphasizing the E minor. Then I can grab other chords from the same six-chord family.
5:30 So, let's try six, four, one, five. Let's try that real quick. So six four one five. And now you see how incredibly powerful this map is, because now this one map gives you access to both major- and minor-sounding chord progressions. And here's where this all starts connecting to lead guitar. Because if I can see where the root notes are, I can also see where the chords underneath my solo are coming from. So, let's say we're in the key of G. Let's pick some random chords. Let's say one, four, three six.
6:15 It sounds kind of interesting. So, let's put some rhythm to it. So, if I had something like that going, let's say I'm playing in this pentatonic pattern right here. And G major, E minor, right? Relatives. Since it's in the neighborhood of these chords, I can kind of outline them a little bit, right? I can do stuff like this. The idea is to outline chords within the pattern, and you'll be amazed at how much more interesting it sounds than just walking up and down the scale.
7:02 Remember, you find your root on the low E string. That's your one. From there, your two and your three are sitting two frets apart on the low E string. Your four is directly underneath your one on the A string, and then your five and six continue on in those two-fret increments. The one, four, and five are your major backbone, and the two, three, and six are minor. And if you want a minor sound, make the six chord your home base. Once you can see that, you don't just know a few chord progressions. You have a map that spans the entire fretboard and can work in any key. And this gets even more powerful when you start connecting the chord map to your scales, because if you see where the chords live, you can start seeing where your solos live, too. And that's exactly what I want to help you with next. You see, I've put together this free "Instantly Solo in Any Key" cheat sheet just for you. It'll show you a simple visual system for finding your soloing positions in every key,
7:51 so you can stop guessing, stop feeling trapped in one part of the neck, and start understanding how all of this actually connects. So, be sure to click here to grab your free copy, or check the link that I left for you in the description box. Or, if you're watching this on TV, scan the QR code with your phone. Because once you stop seeing the fretboard as a bunch of random chord names and start seeing the map underneath them, you don't just memorize songs anymore. You start understanding how they work and how to create them.
