ABC Exercise

The point of this exercise is to learn where the notes ABC can be played on the guitar. Obviously, the exercise can be adapted to other sets of notes. You can also build up the scale of Am in all the positions by adding a note at a time.

|-5-7-8-||----------||-------||--------||-------||-------|

|-------||-10-12-13-||-------||--------||-------||-------|

|-------||----------||-2-4-5-||--------||-------||-------|

|-------||----------||-------||-7-9-10-||-------||-------|

|-------||----------||-------||--------||-0-2-3-||-------|

|-------||----------||-------||--------||-------||-5-7-8-|

On the lower strings, the octave is two strings and two frets across. On the D and G strings, the shape is a fret longer. It's a very familiar shape if you play the bigger power chords (Root, 5th and 8ve).

|---||---||---||-3-|
|---||---||-3-||---|
|---||-2-||---||-0-|
|-2-||---||-0-||---|
|---||-0-||---||---|
|-0-||---||---||---|

Use the shape as a guide post to learning the location of the A-notes.

|-------||--------||----------||-------||-------||-5-7-8-|

|-------||--------||-10-12-13-||-------||-------||-------|

|-------||--------||----------||-------||-2-4-5-||-------|

|-------||-7-9-10-||----------||-------||-------||-------|

|-------||--------||----------||-0-2-3-||-------||-------|

|-5-7-8-||--------||----------||-------||-------||-------|

Another octave shape should be familiar from the C major chord. In that, your first and third fingers are playing two C's an octave apart

|---||---||-3-|
|---||-1-||---|
|-2-||---||---|
|---||---||-5-|
|---||-3-||---|
|-5-||---||---|
A    C    G

Try adapting the ABC exercise to go through the above pattern of octaves.