Some quick-and-dirty visual aids: minor pentatonic and CAGED

[spinland]

There is, by my estimate, a metric butt load of charts, tables, diagrams, and what-nots out there for just about any guitar topic you care to Google about. That being said, I have yet to find examples of such on some topics that speak to me, personally, and the way I visualize things. That's only to be expected, as we are all different.

Anyway, two concepts that are huge for me right now in my learning journey are getting down the minor pentatonic scales (especially blues notes) and leveraging the CAGED system to help me visualize moving chord shapes all over the fretboard. Again, there is a lot of very good stuff out there already but I'm weird, see things in a certain way, and needed something tailored to my quirks—so I made my own.

These charts might not be useful to anyone else because they're tailored specifically to my madness, but in the off chance they are I figured I'd share. The production quality isn't up to professional standards but these are quick-and-dirty charts to sit on my music stand and give me what I need with a quick glance.

Enjoy. :side:

Mark

[daryl]

Quick and dirty???? I think your bar is too high! Nice work.

[spinland]

Thanks for the kind words, Daryl. I used to do data visualization for a living (still do some related consulting for my former employer now and then) and so I guess my bar is, indeed, rather high. :silly:

Mark

[thereshopeyet]

Mark

Not sure about dirty .... maybe colourful

Gosh, I've been reviewing Pentatonics, Neil's AGS Pentatonics section is cool and how he numbers them and point's out the way the patterns overlap.
At this point I understand them again.
Just need to work on them now.

Thereshopeyet

:cheer:

[wiley]

[spinland]

Hi, wiley! Thanks for looking!

Yeah, I understand what you're saying. Part of these being quick-and-dirty is there are no legends to explain what's going on; these were total projections of my own twisted brain.

The CAGED color-coded shapes are the main five, not including the "F shape" and the "B shape" because those are (as you noted) just shifted E and A shapes. If you look at any major key fretboard as a unit you'll see only those five shapes. The fretboards traveling vertically are just quick-reference to show the five basic shapes as they shift (and wrap around) the fretboard for each key. In general my charts pre-suppose you already have a working understanding of the shapes and forms, they are just instant-glance cheats for me, constructed so as to resonate with how I visualize things, and I went all the way across the seven major keys because there was room on the page and I was on a roll. :side:

Mark

[michelew]

Hey Mark. I used your pentatonic charts today including the Blues notes and found them useful. Thanks for that.

M

[tombo1230]

Hey Mark,
You have done a terrific job with these charts. They make a lot of sense to me.
They are probably the best and clearest versions I have seen anywhere.

Cheers,


Tom N.

[khoffm]

Hey Mark,
Your Brain is really helping my Brain! Could you also make a Major Pentatonic Chart that's color-coded like this?

It would be very useful as well.

Thank you,
Kurt