These are some fretboard ŌmapsĶ that I created to help myself learn where the notes are on the 5-string banjo. In particular, I wanted to learn how those notes fit into chords and scales of various types, and how the chords and scales relate to each other.
Here are some notes on music theory as it relates to the 5-string banjo that I have written up:
Practical Music Theory for the
Banjoist
The following links to an on-line book about music theory by Patrick Costello. It gives a good perspective on the subject, and is specific to 5-string banjo (though old timey rather than bluegrass.):
These on-line lessons offer a more technical detail:
All files were created with applications written in the Matlab programming and analysis environment, and the maps are stored as 22KB pdf files (youÕll need Acrobat reader to open them.)
Chord Maps:
These maps show the chord positions for the three
inversions of the major and minor chords, and how they relate to each
other. Which inversion is which
depends on how many strings you use; if you leave out the 4th
string, the 1st inversion becomes the second, for instance. The more important point is that the
major and minor chords with the same root differ only by one note. The second
map show how a major chord relates to its relative minor, and vice versa.
These maps show the different notes in various flavors
of chords that share the same root.
For example, the G map shows the notes of the G major (G), G dominant
7th (G7), G major 7th (Gmaj7), G minor (Gm), G minor 7th
(Gm7), G diminished (Gdim), G half-diminished 7th, and G augmented
(Gaug) chords. Of course, once
youÕve learned the chord shapes for these different flavors, you can transpose
them up and down the fretboard, but IÕve included the maps for the other root
notes as well.
These maps show chords formed from just the first two strings, and transitions between pairs of chords commonly encountered in the key of G. The notes exclusive to the first chord are in blue, to the second chord are in red, and the notes shared by the two chords are indicated in purple.
Major / Minor
G/Em C/Am D/Bm F/Dm A/C#m Bb/Gm E/F#m
Each of these maps shows one fretboard with all of the
notes in a particular major scale, which are the same notes in itÕs relative
minor. The other maps show the
notes of the diatonic chords of that scale; that is, the chords made up
entirely of scale notes. In each
case, the root is indicated in blue, the third in green and the 5th
in red.
Pentatonic Scales
These maps show pentatonic scales, and how they relate to each other. The first map shows the major and minor pentonic scales in G, C and D; together these notes make up the G major and minor scales. The second map shows the G blues scale in such a way as to emphasize its relationship to the G-major and minor scaleŅitÕs half way in between.
G Modes
Ionian Dorian Lydian Phrygian Mixolydian Aeolean
Locrian
These show the various modes with G as tonic. Play like a monk!
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