About Fret Science

Fret Science was born out of thirty years of frustration. I could learn and play songs and solos by my favorite players from TAB, but I couldn’t tell you what chord I was playing unless it was a cowboy chord or a barre chord rooted on the 5th or 6th string. I played in over a dozen cover bands, but I wanted to be able to improvise. I longed to feel comfortable jamming freely with other players, but I hated memorization and repetitive practice. I read dozens of guitar books and watched hundreds of YouTube videos, but there didn’t seem to be any real shortcuts.

In 2018, deep in my 40s, I finally knuckled down and memorized the notes of the fretboard. I learned triads, arpeggios, and both the CAGED and 3nps visualization systems. Finally, my computer-science brain kicked into gear, and the decades I had spent working with data representations and algorithms started yielding a series of epiphanies.

And what I discovered astounded me. The guitar fretboard suddenly became much simpler, and it required much less memorization and repetitive practice. The CAGED and 3nps systems illuminated each other in interesting ways, and I gained a much deeper and more satisfying understanding of the classic guitar solos I had been studying.

Mission

The Fret Science mission is to teach the guitar differently — in a way that requires much less memorization — to enable players to grow their skills very quickly and enjoy making great music.

Although this material will be most valuable to intermediate guitarists who already know some of the basics, it is accessible to beginners, and it will without doubt give even the most advanced players the occasional “aha” moment.

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