Fretboard positions

Fretboard Position Map
Major · Pentatonic · Five Shapes

A shape's name is the solfège syllable of the note at string 6's starting fret. So in any key, each shape only occurs at a handful of frets — the start-fret buttons list exactly the ones that exist. Click any note to hear it.

C
Key do re mi fa sol la si
Scale
Shape
Start fret
Guitar fretboard diagram
Root note (do) Notes shared with the pentatonic scale (do re mi sol la) fa and si — only in the 7-note scale Same pitch outside this position

How to use it

A shape's name is the solfège syllable of the note at string 6's starting fret. String 6 open is E, which is mi in C major, so the Mi shape can only start at fret 0 or fret 12. The start-fret buttons above only list the frets where this actually happens in the current key.

Changing key shifts every shape together. Switch the key to D major and the Mi shape moves from fret 0 to fret 2 — the other shapes all shift by the same two frets.

The pentatonic scale is just the major scale with fa and si removed, leaving do re mi sol la. In 7-note mode those two notes are marked with hollow green circles so you can see at a glance what pentatonic drops. There are only five shapes — Do, Re, Mi, Sol, La — because Fa and Si's starting notes aren't in the pentatonic scale at all, so they can't anchor a shape.

A major scale's pentatonic and its relative minor's pentatonic are the exact same notes. C major pentatonic = A minor pentatonic — the only difference is which note you treat as home. For a minor-flavored solo, resolve to la.