FREE

LESSON
BOOK
The Ultimate Exercise
to Learn the Fretboard

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FREE LESSON BOOK: ULTIMATE EXERCISE TO LEARN THE FRETBOARD 2

The Ultimate Exercise for

Learning Your Fretboard

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the

fretboard? Hoping to find a way to make it
seem less intimidating? Join Scott Devine as
he demonstrates a simple exercise that will
completely change the way you look at your
fingerboard.

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FREE LESSON BOOK: ULTIMATE EXERCISE TO LEARN THE FRETBOARD 3

The Circle of Fourths

You’ve likely seen or heard about the Circle of Fifths somewhere along your
playing path; it’s a common way to organize all the pitches as a sequence of
perfect fifths as you go clockwise around the circle. But, if we go counter-
clockwise around the same circle, we find the notes are organized by fourths,
and we can refer to the same circle as the Circle of Fourths:

In this lesson, we’ll move counter-clockwise around the circle—it more closely
represents how chord progressions tend to move in real music. So starting on C,
we have the following sequence of 12 notes:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

C -> F -> Bb -> Eb -> Ab -> Db -> Gb -> B -> E -> A-> D -> G
continued

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FREE LESSON BOOK: ULTIMATE EXERCISE TO LEARN THE FRETBOARD 4

It’s important that you memorize this sequence! And if it seems a bit
intimidating trying to memorize these 12 notes in this specific order,
here’s a simple fretboard shape that makes it much easier:

G 5
11 D 4 9 7
10 A 3 8 1 6
E 2 12

OK. It looks worse than it is! But as you play it, you’ll find it’s quite
easy. Let’s break it down a little more—play the root on the third
string. Next, move down two frets and play across the strings low
to high:

G 5
D 4
A 3 1
E 2

Then, move to the fourth fret, the second fret, then the open
strings, playing only the third then second strings:

G
11 D 9 7
10 A 8 6
E

Finally, play the final note on the third fret, fourth string:

G
D
A
E 12

Note: This pattern around the cycle is the same starting on any root
note played starting on the third string.

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FREE LESSON BOOK: ULTIMATE EXERCISE TO LEARN THE FRETBOARD 5

We’ll start by playing major triads—three-note chords consisting of the root, third
and fifth—around the circle of fourths within the first five frets of the fretboard.
Our goal is to move seamlessly from one triad type to the next nearest note on the
next triad, then the next triad, etc. And, we’ll break the exercise into three steps:

Step One
In Step 1, we’ll start from the lowest note possible within a triad, play all the way
up to the highest note of that same triad and then back down again, all within the
first five frets of the fretboard (we’ll avoid using open strings throughout).

It’s important to note that the lowest and highest notes possible within the triad
in a limited area of the fretboard may not necessarily be the root note of the triad.
For example, the C Major Triad consists of the notes C–E–G (red circles). But there
are other triad notes available (green circles) within the first five frets, too:

G R
D 3 5
A R
E 5

So to play all the triad notes within the first five frets, we have:

C
œ œ œ
? 44 œ œ œ œ Ó
œ ˙
5

¤
2 5 5 2
3 3
3 3

(For the exercises, there is no tempo indicated. Choose a target tempo you’re
comfortable with and work your way up to it. Take it slow and easy, and play
at your own pace. If this exercise takes a long time, that’s natural—you’re likely
thinking in a way you’ve never thought before.)

continued

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FREE LESSON BOOK: ULTIMATE EXERCISE TO LEARN THE FRETBOARD 6

Now, let’s play this over the entire circle of fourths:

Exercise No. 1
C F

? 44 °™™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
¢œ
Ó œ œ œ Œ
˙ œ œ œ
°™ 5 2 5 2

¤ ¢™ 3 3
2 5 5 2 3 3
3 3 3
3 1 5 5 1

7 Bb Eb
? œ œ bœ œ œ Ó b œ œ bœ œ bœ Ó
œ bœ bœ ˙ œ bœ bœ ˙
3 3
3 3 1 5 5 1
1 5 5 1 1 1
1 1 3 3

13 Ab Db
? œ bœ bœ œ bœ bœ œ Ó b œ œ bœ œ bœ Ó
bœ b˙ œ bœ bœ ˙
1 5 1 1
1 1 3 3
3 3 4 4
4 4 1 4 4 1

19 Gb B
? b œ bœ bœ bœ bœ Ó #œ œ #œ
bœ bœ bœ b˙ #œ œ #œ #œ œ
#˙
Ó
3 4
4 4 1 4 4 1
1 4 4 1 2 2
2 2 2 2

25 E A
? œ #œ œ #œ œ Ó œ œ œ Ó
#œ œ œ #˙ œ #œ #œ ˙ ˙
1 4 1 2
2 2 2 2
2 2 4 4
4 4 5 5

D G C

™™ ü w
31
? #œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ
†
œ Ó œ Ó
#œ œ œ #˙ œ œ œ ˙
2 4 ™ü
2 5
5
4 4
5
5 2 3
2 5
5 5
5 2
3
™† 3

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Step Two
In Step 2, start from the highest note possible within a triad, and play all the way
down to the lowest note of that same triad and then back up again, all within the
first five frets of the fretboard—essentially the reverse of the previous exercise:

Exercise No. 2
C F
? 44 °™™ œ œ œ
œ œ ˙ œ œ œ ˙
œ œ œ
¢
œ Ó
œ œ œ œ œ œ
°™ 5 5 5 2 2 5

¤ ¢™
5 2 2 5 3 3
3 3 3 3
3 5 1 5

7 Bb Eb
? bœ œ œ bœ œ œ b˙
Ó
bœ œ bœ b œ œ b˙ Ó
œ bœ bœ œ bœ
3 3 3 3
3 3 5 1 1 5
5 1 1 5 1 1
1 3

13 Ab Db
? œ bœ bœ œ b œ bœ ˙ Ó bœ œ bœ
b œ œ b˙ Ó
bœ œ bœ œ bœ
5 1 1 5 1 1
1 1 3 3
3 3 4 4
4 4 1 4

19 Gb B
? bœ bœ bœ bœ b œ bœ b˙ Ó
nœ #œ
#œ œ #œ #œ
˙
Ó
bœ bœ #œ œ
3 3 4 4
4 4 4 1 1 4
4 1 1 4 2 2
2 2

25 E A
? œ #œ œ #œ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙
œ #œ œ œ Ó #œ œ #œ œ Ó
4 1 1 4 2 2
2 2 2 2
2 2 4 4
4 5

D G C

™™ ü
31
? œ #œ œ #œ ˙ œ œ ˙ w
œ #œ œ œ Ó œ œ œ œ œ œ Ó †
2 2 4 4 ™ü 5
4
5
5 2 5
5
4 5
5 2
3
2 5
5
™†
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Step Three
In Step 3, we again limit ourselves to the first five frets, and also play only four
notes of each triad. But here, instead of going from the lowest note to the highest
note and back (or vice-versa), our goal is to move to the closest available note of
the next triad in the circle of fourths, then play that new triad starting on that note.
Continuing through the cycle, cross each string moving up and down in pitch until
you’ve run out of available notes—then switch direction! Note that some triads will
have ascending and descending notes.

This exercise will get you looking at the fretboard in a way you’ve likely never done
before. It’s an exercise that will require a lot of time and patience—it may make you
feel like a “beginner”, even if you’re not!

Exercise No. 3
C F Bb Eb
? 4 °™™ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ
4¢ œ œ œ œ bœ
œ œ bœ
*cont. sim. on repeat
°™ 2 5 2 3

¤ ¢™
2 5 3 1 5 5
3 5 1 1
3 1
*Picking up where measure 12 left off, continue again around the circle of fourths
a second time–the arrangement of the notes in each triad will be be different!

5 Ab Db Gb B
? bœ œ bœ œ œ
œ bœ œ bœ bœ bœ bœ œ nœ #œ #œ

1 4

¤
1 3 3 1 4
3 3 4 4 1 1 2
4 2

™™ ü w
9 E A D G C
? #œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ
œ #œ œ #œ œ #œ œ œ œ †
1 2 ™ü
¤
2
2
4 5
4
2 4
5
5 2 3
2 5
5
™† 3

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Homework
Picking up where Exercise 3 leaves off, continue again around the circle of fourths
a second time. Note that you’ll be starting the sequence on a different note this
time—resulting in a completely new arrangement of notes in each triad around the
circle.

More Homework!
Once you’ve mastered these exercises with the major triads, repeat them using
minor triads!

Even More Homework!!

The 3 Steps we’ve looked at cover only the first five frets of the fretboard.
It’s strongly recommended that you continue working through these exercises by
moving up the fretboard: concentrate on frets 5–9, then move to frets 8–12. (Frets
12–16 are a repeat of frets 1–5, just an octave up.) Start with major triads, then
move to minor triads.

“If we think about working through these exercises

like this, it’s going to give you this amazing
foundation to build on top of.”

“Triads are the true foundation of everything we work

on [as bass players], because we are chord players,
too ... we’re using the information from the chords,
but we’re playing them one note at a time!”

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