While it’s technically illegal for men to gather in groups in 2023, XY Crew invites Testicular-Americans to join other XY Chromosome types to exercise this denied human right.
Men gathering in groups sounds boring and/or dangerous unless they’re doing something useful, then, it’s been known to produce some of the most beautiful things humans groups can produce.
Over the course of 10 years and 3 days, I’ve produced the following method of guitar to coordinate human groups like the XY Crew to make music together.
If you’re a pro player, this will be an interesting 15 minute warmup.
If you’re a dad who knows a couple of cowboy chords, some power chords, and maybe part of a scale, this lesson is designed to help you maximize and expand what you already know so you can teach your kid how to sound better faster.
You’ll also hopefully be able to pick up any intonated guitar and intuitively jam with another person in any key.
Millions of dads get screwed over the Holidays. Millions of guitars get purchased, only to collect dust in closets. The next time the XY Crew gets together, I hope someone brings a couple of guitars and this group will use this lesson to have a shared musical language.
Many years ago, hillbilly gospel engineers in Nashville distilled many complex musical ideas into an easy to understand numbering system. This popular innovation unleashed tons of human genius on the world.
Nowhere more so than the guitar.
Beginners find the guitar’s user interface poorly designed for actual human hands; music theory seems unnecessarily complex, academic, cumbersome, and not immediately actionable.
In other words, the guitar has a horseshit user interface and a bullshit user manual.
We’re going to address that.
Guitar is a physical instrument used to solve multidimensional, emotional, geometry problems.
It’s also a piece of wood that sounds cool when you drop it. Getting it to sound cool consistently, without dropping or smashing it, can take years of practice and theoretical knowledge.
The precise language of music theory often combines poorly with actual guitar physics and practice. This lesson is a really good set of hacks designed to screw the theory in favor of exploiting the physics and geometry.
Not Really Music Theory
This method is not really music theory. These are not real chords or scales. Instead, it’s a simplified, practical guide to the user interface for a guitar.
It’s a ‘how to’ designed to help you get the most out of a piece of wood with some strings on it.
If you know that a “Key” is a group of notes, chords, and scales that sound natural together, you’ve got all you need to get started.
The two wheels below introduce a number of complex, interrelated topics that you don’t really need to understand, unless you’re a nerd who likes that kinda’ stuff.
The fretboard diagrams will help us navigate several common keys and highlight what legit guitar players actually do in those keys to sound good with minimum effort.
You can basically ignore the theory wheels if you want. We’re focused on the physics, geometry, and ergonomics of consonant sounding, easy-to-play guitar.
If you already know a common chord progression by number ex. I, IV, V or I, V, vi, IV you can skip the Dreaded Theory Section and skip straight to the “Not Really Chords”.
The Dreaded Theory Section
Feel free to ignore this section and come back later if it interests you.
If for some reason you’re interested in a deep dive in the theory of this wheel, here’s one and another and another one if you’re a nerd and a masochist.
12:00 – These are the names of the “modes” of the Diatonic Scale, interesting but not necessary.
2:00 – Each of the pie slices in the wheel below represents a “key”
4:00 – Triangles, Dashes and a Degree symbol determine the “Quality” of that scale degrees’ chord. (Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor, Diminished)
5:00 – Solfege System – do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti do. Sing this to learn a mode: re, mi, fa, so la, ti, do, re on pitch and start again at mi through mi and repeat until you’ve been through fa, so, la and ti and you will understand and functionally learn the modes.
It’s not necessary to learn guitar.
6:00 – These are other names for each scale degree
8:00 – Nashville Numbering System – The musical invention of hillbilly gospel engineers and can be used to describe harmonies or chord progressions such as:
| Nashville Numbering | Chord Progression in Key of G |
| I – IV – V | G major – C major – D major |
| I – V – vi – IV | G major – D major – E minor – C major |
| ii – V – I | A minor – C major – G major |
| vi – IV – I – V | E minor – C major – G major – D major |
| I – IV – vi – V | G major – C major – E minor – D major |
NOTE: Chord Progressions shown in the Key of G, for reasons.
9:00 – Different notation for how chords might be named at different relative scale degrees.
10:00 – Each of these wheels can be printed and colored as a rainbow wheel memorization tool.
None of this is necessary to learn the Not Real Chords or Not Real Scales, but this is a pretty easy way to organize and retain that information if you are a nerd.
Not Really Chords
Not Really Chords are the easiest shapes to make nice consonant sounds in a given Key.
Each Key has an accompanying Aaron Tomberlin video that these diagrams are based on. His is a very underrated series that dramatically improved my playing.
Not Really Chords sound good and are easy to play. Both are nice features in chords.
These shapes are not real chords; most omit a “third” note which you probably won’t miss.
If you’re generally aware of what a “key” is, and have selected a common chord progression, skip ahead to the finger boards.
You won’t necessarily need any of the theory from the wheels from here on out, but you may find the wheel below particularly interesting.
Wheel #2 organizes the keys into pie slices with the most common guitar keys from 1 O’Clock to 6 O’Clock positions.
It’s not necessary to know these, but again, it’s an interesting visualization for nerds.
You can also print and color it if you want to use it for memorization.
We’re going to start at the key of C at 1 O’Clock has an A minor (Am) in the sixth scale degree. This is often referred to as the “relative minor” but that doesn’t matter.
Fun Fact: if you’re playing guitar in the key of C, a kid can bang the white keys of a piano and you make music together.
Even More Fun Fact: they can do this with the Black keys too. It’s a little more diabolical, but just as much fun.
The Not Real Chords rely on two note “anchor-drones” that create shared harmony across the key and allow chord changes with very limited hand movement.
This makes them easy to play and sound as consonant as possible with the smallest expended effort, exploiting the guitar’s unique physics and geometry.
Now, try it for yourself:
First step, make a C “drone” with your first finger and pinky.
Get used to making the C drone shape on the two high strings, relax and add in the open G (third) string. Then alternate fretting notes with your second and third fingers on the corresponding frets.
You’ll find this is a very intuitive way to play. Try the C, F and G and then once you get comfortable, try the minor chords.
The bass note determines the chord and can also be used to drive simple melodies.
Key of C Chords + (Am and A Maj Pentatonic)
Aaron Tomberlin Key of C Video
These open chords are also the funnest way to practice hammer-ons and pull-offs because they make the most common professional sounding guitar flourishes.
Most of these chords can also be moved up the fretboard to create interesting and creative sounding open chords. See what positions sound consonant. Some are very pretty and can be used as creative alternates.
The combination of common and creative sounds is a fun-time double whammy.
If you already know some open chords and power chords, strap-in, and welcome to “Easy-to- Sound-Good-Having-Fun-Land,” population: You.
If you’re new to soloing, find a “C major” or “A minor” backing track on Youtube and prepare for the ride of your life.
The notes in these chords become the target notes of your solos, move the whole thing up past the twelfth fret, and you’re in a whole new octave of note opportunities.
Notes in the alternate chords you may have discovered give you command of the middle of the neck with no theory. The Backdoor Method at the bottom of this article is rocketsauce for this. As well, if you know basic Barre chords it will help, even if you can’t physically play them.
Beyond the Diatonic
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, find an “A Blues” jam track and switch between the C Major / A Minor Pentatonic (Left) and the A Major Pentatonic (Right).
Note how the differences between the A minor and the A major pentatonics create distinctive bluesy sounds. These shifts are idiosyncratic of hillbilly gospel engineers and their British Progeny.
Warning: One could easily screw off all day improvising between A Minor Pentatonic and A Major Pentatonic in the first 7 frets of the guitar.
It has been done.
The more you experiment, the more you’ll find interesting and common sounds you never knew how to access and that were just laying around.
Some of you just had your minds blown. Keep going, you’re going to find that you know a lot more guitar than you think you do.
Key of G Chords + (Em and E Maj Pentatonic)
Aaron Tomberlin Key of G video.
You were probably just about half way through writing your new hit song, “Every Rose Wishes You Were Here,” before realizing how common the Key of G is on guitar.
Fun Fact: You can just learn C and G and use a capo to get every key in the wheel. This is a very common practice amongst the folk hippies.
Root 6 Power Chord – Fry Pan – Little House – Trick
If you know what a Root 5 and a Root 6 Power Chord are, you’ll never need to learn pentatonic shapes to use their tasty goodness. These two tricks are the gateway 60s R&B and Hendrix-Ray-Vaughan level Screwaroundery.
Root 5 – Fry Pan – Knight’s Move Trick
If you’ve done the last few exercises, you’ve navigated the G major / E minor Pentatonic map all over the board with only a small handful of shapes.
E Blues Noodler
If you want to break way outside the diatonic and / or waste another full day having a blast, try using the Not Real Scales to jam to an “E Blues” or Jam track.
Key of E – Well Mostly
If you’d like to do a deep dive masterclass between E and A, I’d really recommend this Jody Worrell video on Allman Brother style double stops. Jam with him a few times and you’ll absolutely unleash the power of Not Real Chords and Not Real Scales.
We’re now really ready to dial into keys which are suited for rock but that will also still be effective on acoustic as well.
We’re going out of order from the chord wheel, but the order will make sense at the end. Technically speaking, we’re navigating parallel relative minor and major keys, but that’s just unnecessary nerd talk.
What’s actually important here is the drones for the next two keys are the B and E strings, which are shared notes in both keys.
The key of E is going to skip a iii chord (G#) but there are still plenty to work with.
Aaron Tomberlin Key of E Video.
The Key of B (Let There B-Rock!)
Aaron Tomberlin Key of B video
The Key of B is closely related to the Key of E on the circle, and is fun for making certain rock-type sounds.
It’s fun to switch soloing scales back and forth to either an E or B backing track. Sometimes it sounds retarded, sometimes it sounds really cool.
The Key of B, in particular, lends itself to a certain type of Rock and Pop guitar.
Those sounds produce different “modes” or modal effects. It’s up to your ear to decide if you like them or not. Judgy theory sticklers we are not.
Skip This Part If Your Brain is Overwhelmed with Useless Theory
The Key of B Maj and Key of Bm can be alternated over a B Blues backing track, just the way A Maj and Am and E Maj and Em were above.
B Minor is the relative minor to the Key of D Major.
You’ll recall there was a D Major chord in the Key of G near the beginning of this lesson. There’s also a D major chord in the A Blues jams we did.
We’ve semi-intuitively navigated several interrelated keys via natural progressions in open positions, ideally while noodling on rockstar pentatonics, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Go us!
Now we’re ready to navigate to the final key before modulating on the wheel back to the Key of G and learning the Backdoor Method.
By the time we’re done, we’ll have thoroughly explored each of the Major and Minor Pentatonics that comprise the Key of G, in totality.
G, Am, Bm, C, D and Em. The Key of D (Below) is the “Dominant” or “Fifth” or “V”position in the Key of G.
Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the Key of D and we’ll show you a tool to simply navigate any key using triads.
Key of D
Aaron Tomberlin Key of D video
We’ve been through every key we’re going to on this trip, but we’re about to show you the tension between the Fifth Chord (aka Dominant, V, Mixolydian) and the One Chord. (aka Tonic, I, or Ionian)
Put into plain English, the D chord makes your ear want to resolve to a G chord. Here’s a D to G triad exchange, a little weird at first, but opens you up to every key on the instrument with closed “Triad” shapes.
Warning: Triads are Real Chords
Triads are actual chords that have at least a Root, a Third, and a Fifth. As promised, none of that matters, what matters is that you only strum the three notes you’re fingering.
Practice switching from one “Inversion” to another, from Right to Left, or changing from triad to triad I, IV , V.
Here they are all together in “I, IV, V Exchanges” that’s not real music theory, we just made it up, but these shapes are useful for solo note targeting in key or for outlining a rhythm track.
These exchanges are killer practice and open up the fretboard to a novice player like nothing else. The three shown are in the Key of G, but if you commit them they can be moved to any key on demand.
These “exchange” shapes will be the same in every key.
Backdoor Method
The last thing I’ll show you comes from Texas Blues Alley, a great channel for info.
This takes the Frying Pan box and extends it from any Root 6 major chord. Like the Frying Pan Method, this shape can be applied to every root six major chord.
Try it at the 3rd fret (G), 8th fret (C ) and the 10th fret (D) to a G Major backing track.
Congratulations, if you’ve made it this far. We hope we’ve helped you connect stuff that you knew to some stuff that you didn’t in a way that sticks.
If you found this useful and would like to get a workbook with other keys, minor triads, and cooler chords, sign up to get updates on this blog (right sidebar) and we’ll send you one for New Year’s!
