Fingerboard Mastery, Book One

This in-depth scale and arpeggio text is core curriculum at the University of Southern California’s Studio Guitar Department, which is part of the prestigious Flora L. Thornton School of Music, located in Los Angeles, California. Using a comprehensive approach that includes three different organizational systems, it covers the technical foundation that is necessary for playing any style of music. The CAGED system (five positions), the Finger Stretch system (all twelve keys in one position) and the Three-Note Per String system (seven patterns) are examined. Although each of these three systems is examined, the CAGED system serves as the basis for much of the material covered in this book. Instead of traditional musical notation, the book uses fingerboard diagrams to focus on the visual aspect of the patterns. The goal is to present an approach to understanding and mastering the fingerboard by outlining the best and most practical elements of these different systems. Book One presents patterns for the major scale and its relative modes, the major pentatonic scale, the minor pentatonic scale, and the blues scale. Along with these scale forms, patterns for arpeggios that are for the most part diatonic to (in the key of) the major scale are presented. These include major, minor, diminished and augmented triads, and also major 7, dominant 7, minor 7, minor 7(5), and diminished 7 chords.