The Guitar Fretboard's Mind-Blowing Mathematics

The guitar fretboard is filled with secret patterns ... that are hiding in plain sight. In this video, I show you how to uncover them so you can master the instrument.

And ... you'll see how the guitar offers a glimpse into the higher dimensions. (For real.)

If you'd like to see more videos like this, please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE. And if you know someone who needs to see this, be sure to SHARE it with them. I want to know what you think, so please COMMENT.

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[juanmedina]

I have been playing guitar for over 30 years now and nobody has ever explained it this way to me. I feel like my minds eye has been opened wide and now I can see all the patterns in my head without even looking at a guitar fretboard. For the people who find this complicated and confusing, just remember that our brains are wired a certain way to help us learn and in my case, I’m a pattern type of person and I have always seen this pattern on my feet board but the only thing I needed to know open my mind was the key to decipher it’s meaning. Thank you so much for this gift. I will like, subscribe, and share.

[buddyboy]

i’ve playing guitar for 52 years (really) and i have a degree in music theory and composition. i was mesmerized and lost at the same time. MIND BLOWN. Better watch it again.

[DANTHETUBEMAN]

Thank you. you took something complicated, the guitar fret board notes, and make it Extremely Complicated.

[TheKingG]

This has changed my life completely, I am now a mathmusician

[namvet]

I am glad a number of people interested in guitar found this helpful. I viewed it as a colorful way to make learning guitar more confusing. Thanks for your efforts, Mike.

[Joehawk]

Bro.. 🤜🏼🤛🏼
You win the best fretboard theory video I have ever seen. Its been 36 years of picking random covers out by ear.. I’m turning myself into a music theory, geek to figure it out. Now I love music theory, the traditional method, or the active listening method, I have never thought to related to a Taurus, my mind is blown.

[sharonemanuel-ip]

Thanks for this incredible lecture! I grew up playing the classical guitar and have just picked up the electric guitar, where for the first time I'm conscious of the patterns to learning scales and using movable chords. It's made me more excited about this beautiful instrument. Your explanations have only helped me process and brought me clarity to what I've been observing.

[daedalusjones]

I find that what helps me most with the guitar is to simply view the neck and fretboard as a piece of lumber with strings stretched over it.

[Thomas-ybnq]

Wow, this is what I was looking for. I am a beginner playing the guitar, and also an electronic engineer for 40 years. Everything in electronics is mathematically based, this is the only way to really understand the mysteries of electronics. I knew the guitar fret board had to have a mathematical definition on how the fret notes are positioned on the neck. I feel a lot better now knowing there is some method to the madness. I'm still studying this video as I still have a few things to comprehend, nevertheless this video is a wonderful insight on this subject. Thanks so much for the details, I needed it.

[Drometheus]

I’ve been recently sorting through the joys of music theory and I found this video most insightful!! Thank you and keep up the fantastic work. This is the depiction of the higher dimensions we engage with as music lovers. Awesome content!

[drbocca]

Mike, you are the Christopher Nolan of music theory videos! For a second, you brought me to a musical tesseract and unlocked a new dimension! Thank you for this mind-blowing mathematical lecture in musical physics.

[evanwilliamson]

Here is how you make this practical: LEARN YOUR GOD DAMN INTERVALS!!! There is no way around it. No matter how much of a revelation you think this video is, it will not provide any shortcuts to understanding the fretboard. You simply have to spend lots of time and brain power drilling the patterns of the fretboard into your brain, both visually and aurally. Even though it takes time, learning your intervals, especially learning to hear your intervals, will pay dividends for as long as you listen to, play, and internalize music. If this is new territory for you, start out with octaves! Memorize the main shapes used to play octaves between the following pairs of strings: E-D; A-G; D-B; G-E; E-G; A-B; and D-E! Start with that and don't move on until you have them under your fingers and can move them around all over the place. Then do (in approximately this order): fifths/fourths, major/minor thirds, half/whole steps between different strings (I'm assuming you have a handle on those when played on the same string), tritones, major/minor sevenths, and major/minor sixths, before moving on to larger intervals like ninths, tenths, etc. That said, just getting comfortable within an octave takes a long time (months, if not years if you're being truly rigorous with yourself), and I cannot overstate how far that alone will get you. It will take you very, very far.

If you're not yet sold on committing time to this, I will say that for me the primary benefits have been: Being able to play melodies/motifs/other musical ideas by ear, instantly. It also allows me to improvise in a way in which I'm not guessing what notes will come out of the instrument-- I know exactly what I'm going to play before I play it, which means being able to fluidly convert my internal musical ideas into awesome lines in real time. To me, it is one of the most satisfying forms of self expression that being a musician can provide.

One thing that this video overlooks (among others), is the exception to the rule which is the B string. You have to learn the patterns on and between each string, and that means learning the shapes for the normal strings, as well as intimately understanding the way in which those shapes change when the B string is involved. That is why I believe this level of abstraction can be detrimental, because it overlooks the fact that the guitar (typically) only has 6 strings (as opposed to an arbitrarily large number) and that it is not completely tuned in perfect fourths.

I will say, the math behind music is absolutely incredible, and this video doesn't begin to scratch the surface of it. I would recommend someone like 3blue1brown for that. For the physics of music, checkout Science and Music by James Jeans if you really want a revelation.

[brianbergmusic]

At around minute 7, I was feeling the tug to disagree because of the major-3rd interval between the 4th and 5th strings of any standard tuning (regardless of how high or low you have 'standard' tuning). You do explain the semitone shift a minute later, but I feel that it is understated, as the results have big consequences, and those consequences are *enormous blessings to fingerstyle players* . I wonder if I'm unique in that I see chords and CAGED system patterns -- not a Cartesian coordinate system.

I still like this video because it explains note relationships perfectly well but only while strings are *tuned fourths apart* . Food for thought.

[circulodetas]

I´m really happy that this was not the first video I've encountered when learning guitar.

[justinreed]

I have been playing for 20 years have a degree in jazz and followed what you were saying but it infinitely made guitar more complicated 😂. Scales and modes/ recognizing intervals works just fine for me

[kmwwrench]

Holy moly. Three of my favorite subjects in one video: music, math and color theory. My brain is doing back flips!

[davedonner]

My engineer mind LOVES this! After years of playing, last year I stumbled onto seeing the circle of 4ths or 5ths going across the strings at a given fret, and suddenly could know where the notes were within a key, relative to the root. Your observations gave me more insight into the repeating nature of the patterns for all the notes in a key... and merging that with my knowledge of the CAGED patterns... the light bulb is flickering on... THANK YOU!

[paulmitchell]

Muscle memory, intervals, chord shapes and good ears.

[levous]

This is not necessarily helpful for teaching guitar but in revealing geometry behind music theory it’s pretty spectacular. The animations are incredible! I’ve always been intrigued by the mathematical foundation of music but I have a hard time articulating it to others. This video will be mucho shared

[jamesfarrington]

I studied with Pat Martino in 1982 for 6 lessons. He was pointing these concepts back then. Good stuff.