The question dreaded by parents everywhere is also one that many guitarists would like to know the answer to: Are we there yet? In other words, just how much of this theory crap am I supposed to learn?

Great question. For only $44.95 (plus shipping and handling)  a lot of people would be glad to tell you the answer.

For what it’s worth, my answer to this particular question is… it depends. How’s that for evasive?

If you’re a 3 chord wonder who uses guitar playing as a way to meet chicks at the local watering hole then you’re probably already there. On the other hand if you want to push yourself into the realm of the musical giants then you have a lifelong journey ahead of you. The good news is that now you have a map!

Since everyone has different goals for guitar education the Guitar Matrix™ aims to provide you with the tools you need to help you learn and apply all of the theory you need. Whatever that looks like for you.

Watch for the beginnings of arpeggio madness over the weekend.

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team

Well that’s another notch in the belt. All of the pentatonic patterns can be found in the Scale Geometry 2 unit under the Fretboard Geometry menu.

Memorizing these scale shapes are an absolute must for any serious guitarist. Not only do they provide rails to ride on for soloing over blues, rock and jazz chord changes, they also make a great way to add some two-handed flash to your playing. Try tapping with your right hand one scale shape higher than your left hand position. Noodling around with this technique can produce some surprising and dramatic results.

Next up: Arpeggio Geometry 1. If you think an arpeggio is an Italian harmonica then this upcoming unit is for you!

Until then…

Happy picking

The Guitar Matrix™ team

Scale Geometry 2 covers the 5 uber shapes of the pentatonic scale.

What are pentatonic scales you ask? Well without them you could pretty much delete the blues, rock and jazz sections of your local record store (they do still have record stores… don’t they?).

Learn these and you can motor through all of the pentatonic modes in every key. Yes. Really!

Check out Scale Geometry 2/ Pentatonic Shape 1 for the goods. Pattern one is live and the rest are on the way.

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team.

I had to laugh today when I stumbled on a website claiming that you could play like a pro in an hour – for a price of course.

Man, I wish they had that when I was putting in 8 to 10 hour days in music school. Who knew it was that easy? Maybe the same outfit has a One Hour Diet plan? Or maybe One Hour Brain Surgery lessons? What about One Hour Cantonese? OK, I think I’ve beat that one to death.

If you want to learn guitar in an hour then the Guitar Matrix™ is definitely NOT for you! On the other hand if you’re ready to take your playing to the next level and your willing to put in a reasonable amount of solid effort I know you’ll find some really serious and valuable information here, guaranteed!

The price is right too. For the foreseeable future we will be ad and donation supported. We’ll have some goodies for download in the near future as well, stay tuned…

We look forward to hearing from you and using your feedback to make the Guitar Matrix™ a better place to hang out and learn guitar. If there’s something you’re dying to see on the site let us know!

Happy picking

The Guitar Matrix™ team

The rest of the diatonic scale shapes are now posted in the Fretboard Geometry/ Scale Geometry I section.

I will be creating a series of exercises focused on mastering these shapes over the next little while.

These shapes form the backbone of the Guitar Matrix™ Fretboard Melodics, Fretboard Harmony and Fretboard Superposition modules so… get practicing!

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team

I’ve posted the first and second of the Diatonic Shape series.

These five simple patterns are the most important scale shapes, period. Learning these five simple shapes will help you cover the fretboard fingerings for all the diatonic modes (stay tuned if you don’t know what a mode is!), in all 12 musical keys!

Not only that, these shapes will help you build balance and strength in your fretboard hand and practicing them regularly with a metronome will give you a huge boost in right/left hand coordination.

Check them out here…

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team

Finally got the CSS fix in for the multilevel menus. All seems to be well now.

I ran into problems when I started packing things into sub-menus. Menu items were disappearing and the sub-menus weren’t displaying properly. Many thanks to Patrick Griffiths and Dan Webb for the great info on the Son of Suckerfish menus that are used by the WordPress theme we are using, and the original Suckerfish Dropdowns article published on A List Apart.

Man, what would I do with out Google? Sobering thought…

The latest addition to the site is a Fretboard Geometry section called Octave Geometry.

This section outlines an easily mastered visualization/ memorization technique that you can use to locate a given note anywhere on the fretboard quickly and easily. It’s an important lesson becuase it serves as a basis for the upcoming diatonic scale pattern lessons.

As usual, please feel free to comment on content, wishes, typos etc.

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team

The first module of Fretboard Geometry is alive and well!

FG Module One deals with the absolute basics. This is the stuff that must be mastered before delving deeper into the timeless magic of Fretboard Geometry.

Each section has vivid fretboard, keyboard and standard notation diagrams that can help you really plug in to where the strings vibrate in the musical universe.

I’ve even noted the frequency range for the audio tweak heads among you (you know who you are…) and supplied references to orchestral instruments in a similar range.

There are also self-test questions courtesy of Reality Check and some exercises in The Wood Shed.

Note: Shouldn’t be too long before the Reality check quizes are up. It is a long weekend after all. And it’s not as if we have lives or anything…

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team

We’re almost ready to launch the Reality Check engine for the site! Reality Check is a Flash based multiple choice quiz that gives you a chance to test your understanding of a module unit. Each module will finish with a summary, a Reality Check and a set of suggested exercises to apply the material. We hope to have it live by the end of the week for the first module units.

Happy picking!

The Guitar Matrix™ team