In this video I introduce root shapes, which are fundamental to the Guitar Notes Master method of learning the guitar fretboard. Root shapes are the shapes that relate notes on the fretboard with the same note name, so understanding them is the first step in being able to navigate the fretboard fluidly.

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Full Video Transcript

Hello. I’m Graham from Guitar Notes Master and this is the first in a series of short videos in which I’m going to demonstrate some of the principles of learning the guitar fretboard that are the foundation of the Guitar Notes Master method.

In this first video I’m going to talk about root shapes. Root shapes are the shapes that you can use to navigate from one note on the guitar fretboard to another note of the same name in a different octave. Knowing these shapes is really fundamental to actually understanding the guitar fretboard rather than just memorising “oh this note is here, and this note is here”.

If you’re used to the idea of learning the guitar fretboard by just thinking “oh I’ll learn the G string” today, then I hope this shows you a better way in which you can grow your knowledge organically by relating the notes you’re trying to find back to ones you might already know.

OK, let’s get started. There are five root patterns to learn, based on the positions of the root notes in the open major chords C, A, G, E and D.

Let’s start with a C major chord.

In the C chord shape, we have the root note C on the second and fifth strings here, which gives us the first root shape. Of course, this can be moved elsewhere on the fretboard, so for example we can start with the E on the fifth string seventh fret and use this root shape to find the E on the second string.

The second root shape is based on the A major chord.

Here we have the root note on the third and fifth strings. Again we can move it around the fretboard. Let’s play the shape starting with the C on the fifth string in order to find C on the third string.

I’m sure that you’ve got the idea now. Here’s the G major chord.

 But with the G chord, we actually have the root played on three strings, the first, third and sixth.

Let’s move it up to the A so you can see it better.

Now the E major chord.

Again, we have three root notes. This time on the first, fourth and sixth strings.

Let’s move the shape up to the G so you can see it better.

Finally, we have the D major chord.

The D major gives us roots on the second and fourth strings.

Here’s the pattern moved up to the F on the third fret of the fourth string.

The final point to make about the root shapes is that you can fit them together in the order C, A, G, E, D to find all of the notes of a given name on the fretboard. To show you what I mean, let’s start with the open B string and use the C shape to find the B on the fifth string.

Next we can use the A shape to find the B on the third string.

Then the G shape will give us Bs on the first and sixth strings.

The E shape gives us the B on the fourth string.

And finally, the D shape takes us back to the second string an octave higher than the open string. Of course, the D shape will then join back to the C shape so you can start with any of the shapes in the sequence depending on which note you want to start with.

OK, those are the five root shapes. I suggest you practice these and use them whenever you want to find notes in areas of the fretboard that you’re not familiar with by relating back to notes that you do already know.

I’ll be back in the next video with some more fretboard tips, but do check out my website www.guitarnotesmaster.com and take a look at my software application that will help you to learn notes, scales, chords and arpeggios on the guitar quickly and easily.