These exercises teach small chord shapes, great for comping and lead. Mastering them will likely take over a year, but you'll KNOW the neck when you're done! I've written a book in notation, TAB, and chord names, that these exercises are extracted from, but I've chosen not to include the book here - for your benefit. Students, I've noticed, simply read through what the book, defeating its purpose. The point of these exercises isn't to develop you're reading skills; it's to develop you're fret board knowledge. They assume you know basic music theory.
First, play these intervals horizontally, up the neck, in the key of C (I C, ii Dm, iii Em, IV F, V G, vi Am, vii Bdim). Begin with the lowest note on string six, moving up the neck until you need to begin on the next string set.
Second, do the same, but stay within one position (within five frets). You'll harmonize the C scale with the given interval, playing the neck vertically.
Each exercise names the strings to the left of the colon : and the fret numbers to the right. So 65:10 refers to string 6 fret 1 and string 5 open. This method of notation is economical and causes you directly to think the neck (without intermediary notation that represents note names that, in turn, represents positions on the neck).
Before beginning, you need to memorize the note names on strings 6-1. It's not hard to do if you know the open string names (6E, 5A, 4D, 3G, 2B, 1E) and remember that between E and F, and between B and C is only one fret (two frets lie between all other notes). So, on string 6 we have: 0E 1F 3G 5A 7B 8C 10D 12E 13F 15G.
Understand that the shapes between string sets change because of the change in tuning between strings three and two. Between each other string is an interval of a fourth (E to A, A to D, D to G, B to E); but strings three and two are a third apart (G to B). So the shape of a major triad, for example, is the same between string sets 654 and 543, but it changes on 432 and changes again on 321.
Diads - two notes played together
Major Thirds (for degrees I, IV, V)
Strings: 65:32 54:32 43:32 32:55 21:65
Minor Thirds (for degrees ii, iii, vi, vii)
Strings: 65:53 54:53 43:75 32:43 21:31
Major Sixths (for degrees I, ii, IV, V) Think of sixths as inverted thirds.
Strings: 64:32 53:32 42:33 31:55
Minor Sixths (for degrees iii, vi, vii)
Strings: 64:53 53:75 42:76 31:21
Octaves (for each degree)
Strings: 64:13 53:24 42:25 31:25
Strings: 63:52 52:31 41:31
Major Tenths (for degrees I, IV, V) Tenths are thirds, but the third is an octave higher.
Strings: 63:12 52:35 41:35
Minor Tenths (for degrees ii, iii, vi, vii)
Strings: 63:55 52:23 41:23
Major Thirteenths (for degrees I, ii, IV, V) Thirteenths are sixths, but the sixth is an octave higher.
Strings: 62:13 51:35
Minor Thirteenths (for degrees iii, vi, vii)
Strings: 62:56 51:56
Triads
Major (for degrees I, IV, V)
Strings: 654:875 543:875 432:321 321:553
Minor (for degrees ii, iii, vi)
Strings: 654:532 543:532 432:755 321:765
Diminished(for degree vii)
Strings: 654:753 543:14,12,10 432:976 321:431
Root, third and seventh
Major 7:
Strings: 654:879 543:324 432:325 321:557
Minor 7:
Strings: 654:535 543:535 432:758 321:213
Dominant 7: (for degree V)
Strings: 654:323 543:10,9,10 432:546 321:001
Triad Inversions
Third, Fifth, Root
Major:
Strings: 654:533 543:755 432:756 321:988
Minor:
Strings: 654:322 543:322 432:323 321:555
Diminished:
Strings: 654:10,8,9 543:534 432:12,10,12 321:767
Fifth, Root, Third
Major:
Strings: 654:332 543:332 432:555 321:565
Minor:
Strings: 654:553 543:775 432:776 321:453
Diminished:
Strings: 654:120 543:897 432:343 321:10,12,10
Third, Root, Seventh
Major:
Strings: 642:535 531:757
Minor:
Strings: 642:323 531:323
Dominant:
Strings: 642:756 531:201
Inversion Exercise
Play each chord in all inversions, up the neck, one string set at a time. For example, begin with the C chord. The lowest string set and inversion is 654:332; the next chord is 654:875; then 654:12,10,10. After playing the C chord inversions up the neck, on all strings sets, begin the same for the Dm chord.
Open Voicings
Don't include the open strings, to get useful jazzy chords. Include them and you'll get inspired to write a song. Notice that many of the intervals are simply pieces of chords you already know
Strings: 653 (Root, fifth, third)
Open Strings: 1, 2, 4
Major: (frets) 354
Minor: 575
Diminished: 787
Strings: 542 (Root, fifth, third)
Open Strings: 1, 3, 5
Major: 355
Minor: 576
Diminished: 233
Strings: 652 (Root, third, fifth)
Open Strings: 1, 3, 4
Major: 323
Minor: 535
Diminished: 756
Strings: 541 (Root, third, fifth)
Open Strings: 2, 3
Major: 323
Minor: 535
Diminished: 201 (14, 12, 13)
Strings: 631 (Root, third, seventh)
Open Strings: 2, 4 (fifth string muted)
Major 7: 341
Minor 7: 553
Strings: 643 (Root, seventh, third)
Open Strings: 1, 2, 5
Major 7: 122
Minor 7: 555
Dominant 7: 334
Strings: 532 (Root, seventh, third)
Open Strings: 1, 4
Major 7: 345
Minor 7: 556
Strings: 531 (Root, seventh, fifth - with no third, the chord is neither major nor minor)
Open Strings: 2, 4
Major 7: 343
Flat 7: 555
Flat 7, flat 5: 221
Quartals 7th chords
Strings: 6432 (Root, seventh, third, fifth)
Major 7: 8998
Minor 7: 5555
Dominant 7: 3343
Minor 7 b5: 7776
Strings: 5321 (Root, seventh, third, fifth)
Major 7: 3453
Minor 7: 5565
Dominant 7: 10,10,12,10
Minor 7 b5: 2231
Additional Exercies
I. Forming Chords, stacking from a choice of only two notes.
- Harmonize the C major scale with seventh chords. Use only a given set of four strings, and stay in one position (plus a couple more frets, when necessary). But the lowest note in each chord must be a C or B; this requires inverting chords. Do this for each four-string-set, and in each position where a C or B note can be the lowest in the chord.
- Repeat Exercise One, but make the lowest note in each chord either an E or F.
- Repeat Exercise one, but make the lowest note in each chord either a G or A.
- Play seventh chords up the neck that are a third apart, in C. Move only one note for each chord change. Ex.: CM7 (C, E, G, B) to Em7 (E, G, B, D) requires moving only the C note to a D note. Then moving from Em7 to G7 also requires moving only one note (E to F).
- Play the inversions but using only strings 6, 4 and 2.
- Repeat Exercise Five, using only strings 5, 3 and 1.
III. Rather than stacking thirds, to build chords, as these exercises have done, stack fourths, fifths, or sevenths.
IV. Chord Extensions, on the C chord.
On each triad, add extensions, from lowest to highest. So on a C7 chord, add degree b9, then drop the b9 and add 9, then #9, then 11, then #11, then b7 (an octave higher than the existing b7), then b13, then 13.
Do the same, but begin with a Major 7 triad (R, 3, 7).
Do the same, but begin with a Major 6 triad.
Do the same, but begin with a minor 6 triad.
Do the same, but begin with a minor b7 triad.
Do the same, but begin with a minor M7 triad.