Guitar Cheat Sheet
21. Jan 09 | Guitar | 4 Comments »I finally managed to put together my cheat sheet for guitar.
I have been studying the CAGED method in these past weeks and wanted to put all the basic findings on one sheet of paper.
Guitar Cheat Sheet
Feel free to download it, use it, share it with your friends or put it on your website.
Download: pdf | jpg
What is on the guitar cheat sheet?
First I must mention the fretboard where you can check all the whole notes (C D E F G A B) and where the patterns fit on the fretboard.
As you might know the CAGED method consists of five patterns and with help of these five patterns you can play all the scales and chords. On the cheat sheet you can find all five patterns, on each pattern a root note [0] and pentatonic scale [ ].
I made this little table Fret|Scale|Chord to faster find on which fret is a particular scale or major chord.
On the bottom you can find all four basic chords you have to know on the guitar. These are major, minor, augmented and diminished chords. I made sure that the number of frets is the same on all chords so you will know where to move your fingers.
I have double checked the sheet for mistakes and I hope that I have fixed all of them. But if you spot something please write it in the comments.
Once again feel free to download it, use it, share it with your friends or put it on your website.
UPDATE 22 June 09 – I have updated the cheat sheet as I have found a small error at C diminished chord. It’s all fixed now and I invite you to download the new version – 1.1.
I think it would be cool and give a better readable printout if you create and alternative version which uses BOLD-Face for the letters and numbers.
Good point. I’ll try to make it pop up ;)
Hey Maja.
You’ve done some insanely brilliant work on the cheat sheet, and some solid advice on learning the fretboard. I’m going to apply myself to it in a few days time.
I’ve been meaning to learn the CAGED method for a while now, and with your cheat sheet, the time is ripe. However, there’s not quite enough advice here on getting started with the method, and I think you’re in a great position to do a complete beginners guide to the method. Perhaps it could fit on one explanatory page that accompanies the cheat sheet?
For instance: I understand that in the patterns, the root chords are in pink, but what are the x’s in brackets, are those optional notes? Above you said ‘[ ]‘ is the pentatonic scale. How is it used? In the first pattern, I played from the lower root note (on the A string) working my way up the bracketed notes, and it sounded cool, but then tried it elsewhere, and it sounded pretty lame :(.
So how is it used, and what are the x’s without brackets? To know where to play an A pattern, does one find an A on the fretboard, bar with the finger, and place the fingers on the root and where an x is?
So many questions…
Thanks again
Hi Dave!
Thanks for downloading my guitar cheat sheet and posting your questions!
First some explanation on patterns:
[0] in pink are root notes
[x] are notes of pentatonic scale
x are notes in major scale
How to play them?
You can take any pattern to any position on the freatboard and it should sound good – the only difference between them will be in the key you will be playing.
For example Pattern 1 (C) in root position will give you C Major. The same pattern two frets higher will give you D Major, next two frets higher the key will be E Major.
When you will know the Pattern 1 (C) by heart and you will know where the root notes are (pink ones in the pattern) you can easily go to G Major by moving your hand on 7th fret and playing the pattern from root note to root note.
The same is true for all patterns. So in short you can play any Major or Major Pentatonic scale with any pattern. The only difference is where on the freatboard you position your hand (root note will always tell you the key you are in).
For example you can play E Major / Pentatonic in the following positions:
Pattern 1 (C) – 4th fret
Pattern 2 (A) – 6th fret
Pattern 3 (G) – 9th fret
Pattern 4 (E) – 11th fret
Pattern 5 (D) – 1st fret
First try to play one note after another until you memorize the pattern and then apply some rhythm to it to make it more fun.