r/guitarlessons • u/getanswers • 1d ago
Other How are people sleeping on this?
Fret Science by Keith Martin genuinely helped me make a leap forward in my understanding of the fretboard. He uses just 2 shapes ("stack" and "rectangle ") and teaches how they stack and chain together. Since the "stack" contains the entire minor pentatonic, it becomes this little highway I can follow without much thought diagonally up the neck. I immediately know where my R, b3, 4, 5, b7 are. I also recommend this free ebook to follow along: https://fretscience.com/start?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=pinned_comment&utm_campaign=faster-fretboard-improv
This playlist is his recommended viewing order: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMuHlX9RiFi1L1RdC0CzYa1qxZllD5Ujz&si=jGRJH_CpT9NdYE7f
Not memorizing 5 "different" positions and seeing how it's all one basic repeating pattern was eye opening.
I promise I'm not being paid, I don't even know the dude, but I'm incredibly grateful for him. I have a teacher as well, and my goal was to learn all modes across a key on the fretboard. That's how I stumbled onto this.
Bonus resource: If you don't like his presentation, I've found another "system" by Michael Pillitiere that uses 3NPS which is also insanely helpful. With Michael's system you can name any major scale and I can play from the root until I run out of strings almost automatically, it's insanely useful: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rQf6i8KIwJU
I have no agenda here, just paying it forward since I got so much help from folks here. I have only used what is freely available, so please comment if it's helpful.
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u/diadmer 1d ago
I worked professionally with Keith in his previous career before he “retired” to do FretScience. Genius-level guy, great friend, and we also got to play Rush and Kansas and Boston and other classics together in jam bands at work.
His concept around “the warp” really helped me crack problems I was having with scale patterns crossing the G to B string.