Fingerboard Geometry Volume One: Basic Intervals & Arpeggios: A Practical Guide to Guitar Fretboard Theory and Logic

This book helps guitarists decode guitar logic using a systematic approach. It defines intervals and breaks them down into practical shapes. These shapes can be assembled into arpeggios, chords, or scales. This allows the student to transpose these patterns to other keys and apply them in various musical settings. The over 200 exercises provided are accompanied by video clips available online. Diagrams, tablature, and standard notation are included. This book is recommended for players with some musical experience and is not intended for beginners.This book is for guitarists that want to...Make sense of “shapes” on the fingerboard.Understand intervals on the guitar.Comprehend chord construction.Discover arpeggio fingerings.Grasp key signatures and the Circle of Fifths.Navigate arpeggios within a key.Negotiate chord/arpeggio transposition.Decode fretboard logic.Become well-rounded musicians.Take the guesswork out of playing!From the Author's Preface:On my first attempt at this book some years ago, I set out to write one comprehensive guide to fretboard logic. I wrote many pages and realized that a single book would be overwhelming for most people. Now, I aim to explain fingerboard geometry in a multi-volume work so that students can digest smaller pieces.My students often complain that guitar logic is more complex than logic on the piano, which has a very linear visual layout. Although it may be elusive, there is a logic for intervals, chords, scales and arpeggios on the guitar. My goal in this first volume is to explain the layout of intervals and arpeggios systematically. This will facilitate the exploration of other concepts on guitar. Future volumes will look at scales, chords and the CAGED system.Maybe you have just been playing “shapes” on the guitar and not truly understanding what you are doing. Playing by ear is excellent, and I encourage this, but I hope you get more out of the instrument by gaining a deeper understanding of its arrangement. Comprehending underlying intervals within familiar patterns will help you move these sounds to multiple keys and locations on the fingerboard.Exercises have been provided at the end of each section. Please work through the examples slowly. Try to grasp the theory of the lessons. Do more than just read the tab and think you have absorbed the concept. Tablature has been provided so that you can check your answers. You will gain more from this book if you try each exercise and then use the notation to check your work.Some might find these exercises challenging at first. I suggest spending five or ten minutes a day with them to start. Once you begin seeing results, you may find your newfound fingerboard visualization skills fuel a desire to spend more time with the examples.I wrote this book because I would like to have known these concepts earlier in my playing career. Also, after the last twenty years of teaching, many of my students with playing experience often need to gain this fundamental fretboard knowledge. I hope this book provides insight into the guitar and helps you down the road with your musical journey.Kimberly Allison Read more