Where the five shapes live in Ab major, on an interactive map. Every grip, arpeggio, pentatonic box and scale position, already set to this key.
In Ab major the five grips tile the neck like this: the G shape at frets 1 to 4, then the E shape at frets 4 to 6, then the D shape at frets 6 to 9, then the C shape at frets 8 to 11, then the A shape at frets 11 to 13. Past fret 12 the loop starts again, one octave up. The order never changes, C, A, G, E, D. Only the starting door moves.
Ab is another all-barre key, one fret above G, and soul and gospel are full of it. If you can walk the loop cleanly here, no key on the neck can surprise you.
The explorer below is already set to Ab major. Work it the way the workout teaches: roots first, then grips, then arpeggios, then the scale. When the neck starts to look obvious, the shape trainer and block builder further down will make it stick, and the free starter pack at the bottom puts the printed sheets next to your guitar.
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.