Fretboard, CAGED, and Theory on Guitar: Notes, Triads, Modes
The fretboard stops being a maze once you see the patterns: notes and octaves, intervals, CAGED chord shapes, and triads. The guides in this section give simple anchor points and exercises, without extra theory.
Then come keys and transposing, working out chords by ear, and modes. For practice, use the notes trainer in Riffonic: it names a note, you find it on the fretboard and check yourself.
Fretboard & CAGED
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How to Learn the Notes on the Fretboard
Why you don't need to memorize all 72 notes at once, and which system of landmarks actually makes fast note-finding possible.
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What the CAGED System Actually Is
How the five open chords C, A, G, E, and D turn into a map of the whole neck, and why it's not new theory but a new look at shapes you already know.
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How to Play One Chord in Different Places on the Neck
Why a chord needs more than one version, and how to pick a convenient position instead of relying on a single memorized shape.
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How to Connect Chords and Scales on the Same Part of the Neck
Why a chord and a scale in the same key are the same map of the fretboard, once you know exactly where they overlap.
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How to Stop Looking at the Fretboard While Playing
The same idea as playing chords blind, but for single notes and solos - why you need a physical, not visual, anchor.
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How to Find Any Note on the Fretboard Quickly
Measuring your actual note-finding speed, and three concrete tricks that raise it without more memorizing.
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Guitar Intervals: A Simple Explanation Without the Extra Theory
How chromatic distance and note-letter spelling together define an interval, and why intervals make chords and scales easier to understand.
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Guitar Triads: How They Unlock the Whole Neck
The three notes that make up any major or minor chord, and why it helps to see them separately from the familiar six-string shapes.
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Triad Inversions: How to Play One Chord Across the Whole Neck
What changes, and what doesn't, when a chord's lowest note is the third or the fifth instead of the root.
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How to Find the Key of a Song on Guitar
A practical way to find the key from the chords and from the note where a song feels "resolved", with no ear-training required.
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How to Figure Out Chords From a Song by Ear
A practical process: use the bass and key as clues, then check chord candidates against the recording.
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How to Transpose a Song Into a Different Key
What 'shifting a song into a different key' actually means, and how to recalculate the chords without losing the progression.
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How to Connect CAGED, Triads, and the Pentatonic Into One Fretboard System
Three separately covered topics actually describe the same five neck zones from three different angles.
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How to Use Modes on Guitar Without Memorizing Seven Boxes
A mode isn't a new fingering, it's the same major scale with a different sense of "home". One shape, seven possible centers.
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The Dorian Mode: How to Actually Use It in Solos
One note separates the Dorian mode from the natural minor - and it's exactly what gives Dorian its characteristic, less "heavy" sound.
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The Mixolydian Mode: How to Use It Over Dominant Chords
The major scale with one flattened note - exactly the note that's physically present in a dominant seventh chord but missing from a plain major.
Try it in practice
Open notes and exercises