Paul Swanson Guitar Tuition
Professional guitar tuition for all levels in Leamington Spa and Warwick
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Demystifying
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Desktop Fretboard
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Designed as a tool to assist with the discussion, application and visualisation of theory for guitarists, the desktop fretboard is now an invaluable part of my teaching practice.
It is effectively a stretched guitar neck printed onto card, and affixed to a piece of wood for strength. The stretching makes each fret spacing the same width, compared to a real guitar, upon which the frets become gradually closer as we move up the neck.
With the fret spacings evened out in this way, it becomes possible to mask out similar patterns at any position on the fretboard. This has great benefits for students of any level in terms of understanding how the guitar functions, and in visualising the myriad patterns that make up the chord and scale patterns all over the guitar neck.
Dropping a scale or chord card over the desktop fretboard at any position shows the pertinent pattern while masking out unrelated notes. For example, here is the “E shaped” C major scale starting on the bottom string fret 8.
Eh? What do you mean “E shaped C major scale??
Ah good question .. Let’s drop on top the “E shaped major chord” card with the root note laid over the C on the 6th string.
The chord card is showing a C major chord played using an E shape fingering. Google the “CAGED system” if this all sounds completely Greek to you. The chord formula is shown in the title box ie. major chord = 1st (root), 3rd and 5th of major scale, and the chord card shows which of these is which in the pattern.
By comparing back to the E shape C major scale it soon becomes clear how things fit together on the guitar fretboard. Understanding is then strengthened further by trying the same thing over different chords and scales using the same two cards but in varying positions on the desktop fretboard. First with the more familiar chords A, D, G etc., and then the scarier looking, but no more complex Bb, C# , F# and so on.
If this still sounds confusing, perhaps the following video sequence may help. Here you’ll see me demonstrating the CAGED system by fitting together the 5 chord shapes C, A, G, E and D to give 5 different fingerings for a C major chord.
Learning the guitar is all about taking what seems impossible, getting it to a stage where it feels achievable, and steadily working toward making it feel easy. Anyone can do this, to any level they want, with a combination of desire, commitment, patience and naturally, good instruction.
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