the accompanying video. Here’ s the memory device: All Dreadnoughts Echo Amazingly. Try playing the notes as you say it. So A, D, E, A.
Again, you’ ll see me spontaneously access white and chromatic notes all up and down the 5 th string if you watch the accompanying video.
Let’ s talk scales for a moment. This simple closed-voicing 4 fret scale can be played, based on its root on the 6 th string, as … an A Major scale, with A – string 6, fret 5, as its starting note. Have a look.
Let’ s try a minor pentatonic scale. How about a D minor pentatonic, based on string 5? Well, where’ s D on string 5? It’ s also one of our oases – D is on the 5 th fret. Here it is.
As you may have gathered, an individual note only appears once on each string between frets 0 and 11, or frets 1 and 12. So the key is to use today’ s process to quickly find that one appearance, and to use it to make real music.
In the accompanying video, I walk you through accessing capo positions, bar chords and scales, all leveraging this system. Here’ s a glimpse:
Let’ s say you want to play a song using the capo. Instead of blindly placing it on the neck, you can leverage this system of locations and be deliberate. Let’ s say you’ re playing a song in F Major, but you don’ t want to have to leverage an F chord right at the nut where the most pressure is required.
Now, where’ s F on the 6 th string? Well, since our lowest marker on the 6 th string is the open E, the F directly above it would have to be on … fret 1, right? So we could place the capo on fret 1 and play which shape? E! We now have access to the key of F because this mapping system and our capo got us there.
If you wanted to play an A Flat Major bar chord, we know that the 6 th string marker closest to A flat is the 5 th fret A. Just below A is A flat – on the 4 th fret. So we can place this Bar chord shape on the 4 th fret and own an A flat Major bar chord.
But what if we want to play this scale somewhere else? Let’ s say we want to play the same scale shape as a D scale? Well, the 12 th fret marker on the 6 th string is E, and 2 frets below that, on fret 10, is … D. This scale can be anchored on the 10 th fret for a D Major scale.
What about a Major pentatonic scale? How about B Major? Well, B is one of our oases – and we can find it on string 6, fret 7. Here’ s a B Major pentatonic scale.
As you can see, once you know your starting point and you know the scale forms, the scales practically play themselves. This could be a great exercise for you – choose a key, and see how quickly you can access one of the scales, based on this mapping system.
Ok, so we’ ve mapped out specific markers on strings 6 and 5 so we don’ t get lost in the desert, and we’ ve used these markers to claim capo positions, we’ ve been more deliberate about bar chord placement, and we’ ve scratched the surface for where scales can appear. As you can see, we’ ve got a great thing going.
Now it’ s your turn to apply these concepts. Will you?
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David Harsh David Harsh is a nationally touring worship leader, songwriter and performing artist. He is passionate about equipping guitarists to discover their potential. Learn more and join now at www. GuitarSuccess4U. com
62 March 2026 Subscribe for Free...