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Chord Shapes with Intervals

chord shape interval The key to chord mastery is knowing the intervals that make up the chords and applying that knowledge to the fretboard.

The diagram at right shows an F major chord and the intervals that make it up. The basic chord shape can be played on any other fret to produce a chord with a different root note, i.e. C, or D.

The Trick
Here is the trick that makes the F.I.N. System such a powerful tool. As long as you know the root note of a chord shape you can know all the other notes in the chord shape. And, as long as you know the intervals that make up a chord you can play that chord anywhere on the neck without knowing all the notes that make it up.

interval distance neck Learn This and You’re Done
There are three things to learn that will give you mastery of the fretboard. They are:

1) Learn every note on the fretboard.

2) Learn to identify interval distance between notes on the fretboard.

3) Learn the chord formulas.

Fretboard Intervals
The diagram at right shows the guitar neck with the intervals of the major scale. If you have a photographic memory, now’s the time to use it. If not, don’t worry. There is a way to use landmark chords to identify intervals. By only knowing a few intervals, you can extrapolate the others.


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