The small triangle on the top strings that turns into triads, double stops and lead lines.
The D shape is the compact triangle on the top four strings, roots on strings 4 and 2. As a full grip it is fiddly, but as a triad and lead position it is where melodies live. It hands off to the C shape, and the loop starts over.
The grip never changes, only the address. Where the D shape starts, key by key: C at fret 10, Db at fret 11, D at open, Eb at fret 1, E at fret 2, F at fret 3, F# at fret 4, G at fret 5, Ab at fret 6, A at fret 7, Bb at fret 8, B at fret 9. Roots on strings 4 and 2, and the root squares are what you find first.
The explorer below opens with the D shape isolated. Change the key and watch the grip move; switch layers to see the arpeggio, pentatonic and scale living inside the same box. The shape trainer further down deals you random grips to name, which is the fastest way to make this automatic.
Every open major chord on a guitar is one of five shapes. C, A, G, E and D. Slide any of them up the neck with a barre and it becomes a new chord, so one shape gives you twelve chords.
The part most players never get told. For any single key, the five shapes appear up the neck in a fixed order. C, then A, then G, then E, then D. After D the loop starts again at fret 12. Each shape ends where the next one begins, and the notes they share are the doorways between them.
Inside each grip lives a triad, an arpeggio, a pentatonic box and a full scale position. That is why these five shapes work as a skeleton key for the whole fretboard, and it is exactly what the explorer below lets you see, layer by layer.
Every shape also has a minor twin. Flatten one note, the 3rd, and C becomes Cm, A becomes Am, and the same loop keeps working. The explorer’s Minor switch flips every layer, so the famous minor pentatonic boxes live here too.
The five open grips. Squares mark the roots.
Pick a key and a tonality. Then walk the layers the way the workout does: roots first, then grips, then arpeggios, then scales. Click any shape to isolate its box, and hover any dot to see what it is. The Minor switch turns the pentatonic layer into the classic minor pentatonic boxes.
A grip appears somewhere on the neck, stripped of its colour. Name the shape. This is the skill that makes the whole system automatic, so chase a streak. Start with major, then try Mixed, where major and minor grips arrive shuffled and the only reliable clue is the root pattern.
Which shape is this?
Tip. Look at where the roots sit. Keys C A G E D answer, space deals the next one.
The fastest way to memorise a block is to rebuild it from its roots. You get a shape, a key and the root squares, nothing else. Tap the frets where the rest of the notes live. Right notes snap into place, wrong notes count as misses, and a perfect build means no misses and no peeking.
Five stages, same order as the layers above. Work one key per day and tick the drills as they get solid. When a key feels easy in major, run the same stages again with the explorer switched to minor. Your progress saves in this browser.
The explorer above shows you the system. The Pro pack is the printed companion you play from. Every shape in all 24 keys, drawn for paper, one key a day for a month.
The five shapes, the full key-of-C map, the roots and the 15-minute workout as print-ready sheets. Free. Leave your email and we'll send it to your inbox.
Every key lays the five shapes out differently, and every page below opens the explorer already set. Working in one key? Send someone the exact view with the copy-link button above.