Blog
Understand more, memorize less. This is where I work on Fret Science in public: what's new on the site, what I'm building and measuring, and the ideas behind the method. Updated when I have something worth sharing.
· Announcement
Every course now comes with 30 days of the practice tools
If you own Improv 101 or Complete Scale Fluency, you now get 30 days of every practice tool on the site, the Practice Planner included. The 30 days start when you press Start, and past buyers qualify too.
· Announcement
The Practice Planner: what to practice today, and how it's going
The Practice Planner keeps a list of the exact things you're working on, tells you each day which of them are due, and shows you whether they're getting better. It's open to Silver members and up.
· YouTube
New video: Billy Strings' teacher's killer scale exercise
The video on Robb Cappelletto's six-position scale exercise is out. It teaches the exercise the way Robb laid it out, then rebuilds the same shapes from building blocks that work from any root, on any string, and in the modes.
· Work in progress
Behind the scenes on the Robb Cappelletto video
A look at the Final Cut Pro timeline for the upcoming video on Robb Cappelletto's six-position scale exercise: how the edit is put together, and what's left before it goes live.
· Announcement
The Complete Scale Fluency Course Guide is in print
The Complete Scale Fluency Course Guide is now a spiral-bound color book, for anyone who has the course and wants a copy to write in and keep on the music stand.
· Lesson
I took a master class with Billy Strings' teacher. Here's his killer scale exercise.
In August I took a fretboard geometry master class with Robb Cappelletto, Billy Strings' teacher. His six-position scale exercise covers the whole neck, and the new written lesson rebuilds every shape in it from three building blocks.
· Announcement
The Timing Game: a score for your sense of time
A metronome that clicks on every beat keeps time for you. The new Timing Game takes clicks away and measures how steady you stay without them, so you can see whether your internal time is improving.
· Update
What's new on the site, October 2026
Signing in is now one step, the practice tools share one layout, the Jam Track Player's chart follows the music, and several smaller changes came straight from your suggestions.
· Announcement
Complete Scale Fluency is finished
The last lesson came out on Saturday, October 10, so all seven modules of Complete Scale Fluency are now on the site, along with the finished Course Guide as a PDF and an EPUB in right- and left-handed editions.
· Work in progress
Measuring the Vibrato of Nine Guitar Heroes
How wide, how fast, and how long before it starts? I pitch-tracked 150 vibratos by nine guitarists, from Angus Young and David Gilmour to B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan, using isolated guitar tracks, and tested the claim that bend vibrato only goes below the bent pitch. A first look, with a lot of caveats.
· Personal
Eight Nights, 2,300 Miles, and a Very Loud Guitar Camp in Tennessee
A road trip from Massachusetts to the Woodshed Guitar Experience in Crossville, by way of Cleveland, Nashville, and the Martin factory. What I saw, who I met, and what I brought back for Fret Science.
· YouTube
Three robust shortcuts that can save you years
The conventional wisdom is that there are no shortcuts to becoming a good musician. On guitar, that is patently false. In this video, I share three…
· YouTube
Every scale, everywhere, all at once
I've been working on the idea for this video for a few months. It started as a reaction to one of Rick Beato's livestreamed "the ultimate guitar fretboard…
· YouTube
How to improvise over chord changes by finding only one note by name
Improvising solos over chord changes can be intimidating—but it doesn't have to be! If you can find one note by name, anywhere on the fretboard, you can…
· YouTube
Pentatonic gear shifts
This technique was an epiphany. Once I figured out that you could shift pentatonic scale shapes up or down in response to chord changes, my melodic soloing…
· Announcement
Fret Science: Improv 101
A high level overview and detailed syllabus for the Fret Science: Improv 101 course
· Announcement
An invitation to join me on Patreon
As a way of releasing content much more frequently, and as a way to make motivate myself to make more progress on the future Fret Science book, I'm…
· YouTube
Cowboy chord superpowers
Cowboy chords, often criticized by experienced guitarists, can unlock hundreds of chord variations across the fretboard by mastering just five of them. These chords are essential for AC/DC’s rhythm guitar sound, effective capo usage, and quick learning of triads across the fretboard. Check out the video for more details.
· YouTube
The Big Picture
The Fret Science method connects music theory concepts like CAGED, 3NPS, pentatonic scales, triads, and major scale modes to master the fretboard. This approach provides a big picture view, enabling improvisation by visualizing the notes as a palette of sounds. Watch the video for a concise explanation.
· Lesson
The Dickey Betts hexatonic scale
Jack Ruch is one of my favorite guitar YouTubers because of his beautifully lyrical phrasing and excellent teaching style. He recently released a tribute to…
· YouTube
How to memorize the fretboard
Why do so many guitar players resist learning the notes on the fretboard? This is my most complex set of animations so far, built in service of the simplest…
· YouTube
Instant harmony: just add thirds
Instantly create harmonized solo guitar lines with parallel 3rds and 6ths
· YouTube
Intervals: guitar's "secret decoder ring"
New video! Intervals give you the keys to unlocking the fretboard. Learn a simple method for identifying the interval between any two notes on the fretboard, and see how to use that knowledge to better understand (and modify) any chord voicing.
· YouTube
3nps: an essential tool for all guitarists
The three-notes-per-string system is by far one of the best ways to navigate the fretboard both vertically and horizontally. It's easy to learn, and with this method, there's 85% less memorization.
· YouTube
The modes explained clearly
What are the major scale modes? How do they relate to the pentatonic scale? What on earth is "brightness ordering"? All this and more are explained herein!
· YouTube
The modes are hidden in plain sight -- expanded
If you already know the pentatonic scale anywhere on the fretboard, you can instantly access the major scale modes by understanding how the modes relate to the pentatonic scale and to each other. This is a significantly expanded and improved version of an approach described in a previous video.
· YouTube
The CAGED System (and Triads) Simplified
This ~16 minute video deconstructs the CAGED system using easy-to-understand animated building blocks (over 150 animations!), starting with triads, adding on pentatonic scales, and finishing with the major scale modes. This is everything you need to unlock the fretboard and get started improvising.
· YouTube
The rectangle and the stack: the video
The thumbnail is a teeny bit hyperbolic, but it's not clickbait! The rectangle and the stack are the easiest way to make the most of the pentatonic scale.
· YouTube
Master the modes tonight
Learn the simple five-string pattern that completely unlocks the modes across the entire fretboard.
· YouTube
Learn the best way to visualize chords and scales and move them across the fretboard
How does the quirky tuning of the G and B strings affect scales and chords? Learn to traverse "the warp" and use the circle of fifths to navigate the fretboard with 80% less memorization. See how it applies to triads, the pentatonic scale, and soloing in the blues.
· YouTube
Learn the modes in minutes!
Our first YouTube video! If you already know the pentatonic scale anywhere on the fretboard, you can instantly access the modes by understanding how the modes relate to the pentatonic scale and to each other.
· Essay
Cognitive science for guitar nerds, part 1: the magical number 7 +/- 2
Guitarists can learn some valuable lessons from the field of cognitive science. Understanding of the limitations of working memory in the human brain is one of them.
· Lesson
More yummy harmonies: spread thirds
Make beautiful fingerpicked harmonies just like The Beatles did.
· Lesson
MmmMMmm: easy delicious harmonies with 3rds and 6ths in all seven diatonic modes
This mental model will have you playing beautiful harmonized licks instantly.
· Lesson
Learn the blues scale across the fretboard in under a minute
If you know the right way of thinking about the penatonic scale, learning the blues scale couldn't be easier.
· Lesson
The rectangle and the stack: reimagining the pentatonic scale
A new way to visualize and navigate pentatonic scales across the entire fretboard, with 85% less memorization than the CAGED system.
· Lesson
A hierarchy of notes
Many guitarists learn and memorize diatonic scales, pentatonic scales, and triad arpeggios as three separate concepts, but they are intimately related, and it’s beneficial to learn each as an overlay on the next.
· Lesson
Break into the box
"The Rectangle" is a handy place to access all seven diatonic modes in a four-fret span on just two strings.
· Lesson
Hiding in plain sight
The link between pentatonic scales and the diatonic modes has been staring you in the face all along. And it’s both the key to quickly pivoting from one scale to another and an easy way to add color to your pentatonic soloing.
· Lesson
Learn to go from 3nps to “in-position” scales in 1 minute
If you know 3nps, now you also know your "in-position" scales.
· Lesson
3nps: One pattern to rule them all
"The modes" are all explained by a simple repeating fretboard pattern that you can learn in minutes.
· Lesson
Triad geometry
Triad geometry is surprisingly simple. Here's a way to learn all your triads by learning 3 basic shapes and some simple transformation rules.
· Essay
If you only understand something one way…
How being able to reconstruct scales from a few basic patterns can become your superpower.
· Lesson
The geometry of standard tuning
Understand and visualize the ways that geometric patterns move around the guitar fretboard in standard tuning.
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