The Desktop Fretboard - Great for Beginner/Intermediate Students.
Updated: Sep 22, 2021
Another one from my old website. This took me some time to come up with. It had been floating in the recesses of my mind for a long time before I finally got down to making it. The following problem was holding me back. The frets on the guitar get smaller as we climb the neck, so how to make grid cards that worked all the way up?
Durrr .. I kicked myself when I finally thought about things properly. The solution was easy .. stretch out the neck to make all the frets even. Yes I felt silly!
Anyway, this has had a lot of great use in lessons over the years. Whether it's chords or scales, everything translates well into this format. Grab the relevant card, drop it onto the desktop fretboard, and by sliding it up and down we can see which notes make things up in every key easily.
Up close on the cards, the degrees of the scale involved (eg. root, 3rd, 7th) are clearly shown, a wealth of information literally at your fingertips!
Here's an example of the Desktop Fretboard in use, demonstrating the way the 5 major chord shapes link together in the CAGED system. PSGT was my old website (Paul Swanson Guitar Tuition) and the currently downloadable PDF still bears that logo.
If you would like your own Desktop Fretboard at home, I've made my original templates for both fretboard and my complete collection of cards available here to download.
Old Swanner.
What they never told you about changing chords on guitar
