10-Minute Daily Practice Routine for Learning Every Major and Minor Chord and All the Notes of the Fretboard

Video Cliffs:

0:00 – Intro/Explanation of the Routine

11:53 – Musical Demonstration in “C Major”

17:36 – Musical Demonstration in “G Major”

21:10 – How to Use this Routine to Memorize Every Note on the Fretboard

Lessons on where the chord shapes comes from:

The Ultimate Goal

You want to have the ability to instantaneously “know” every single major and minor chord, all up and down the neck of the guitar just as well as you “know” an open G major chord or D major chord when you see it. I’m not just talking about barre chords either, although that is certainly part of it. I’m talking about every single possible CAGED variation of every single major and minor chord.

You also want to instantaneously “know” every single note on the fretboard without even needing to think about it.

Do This for 10-Minutes per Day, and I GUARANTEE you will see MASSIVE Results

The routine is very simple…

You simply take a look at the circle of fifths:

and you create a chord progression in which all of the chords are part of the same key. Ideally, you would want to include the I chord, IV chord, V chord and vi chord of the key since those are the 4 most commonly found chords used in any key.

So let’s say that you start with the key of C major, and you create a chord progression that uses the I, IV, V and vi chord, which is:

I chord – C major

IV chord – F major

V chord – G major

vi chord – A minor

Let’s say that your chord progression is simply:

C major – F major – G major – A minor

Now you simply put on a metronome, and you play each chord on the “1 count” of the metronome, and you hold that chord for 1 measure (that’s 4 “clicks” on the metronome set to a 4/4 time signature).

You then switch to the next chord for the next measure (set of 4 clicks).

You do this for all 4 chords…

So you have:

Strum C major – 2 – 3 – 4

Strum F major – 2 – 3 – 4

Strum G major – 2 – 3 – 4

Strum A minor – 2 – 3 – 4

Simple right?

Well, if you are only playing open chords, which you are probably already very familiar with, then yes, this exercise is extremely simple…probably even pointless.

However, the goal here is to get you to INSTANTLY recognize any and every major or minor chord on the neck of the guitar just as quickly as you recognize that this is a G major chord:

What you are going to do is to play the same chord progression, only you are going to play it in every position of the neck using CAGED shapes and/or arpeggio shapes. You can play any chord progression in several different areas of the fretboard by using the movable major/minor chord shapes.

Here are some examples using fretboard diagrams as to how you might go about playing the:

C major – F major – G major – A minor

chord progression in various different fretboard locations:

C major

F major

G major

A minor

Now moving away from open position…

C major

F major

G major

A minor

Now moving up even further…

C major



F major



G major



A minor

Moving up yet again…

C major

F major

G major

A minor

You can keep going until you either run out of room on the guitar, or your fingers become too fat for the small frets…whichever comes first.

So long as you know your major and minor chord shapes, you can create chord progressions anywhere on the neck of the guitar as you see in the above examples. If you don’t know your major and minor chord shapes, then refer to the lessons that I linked you to right below the video cliffs above.

I made another lesson on this concept, but it doesn’t go into as much detail as this lesson. If you would like to take a look at it, you can find it here: How to Play Chord Progressions in Several Different Ways Using the CAGED Shapes.

Stick to the High 4 Strings

I personally like to stick to the higher 4 strings when I’m playing major or minor chords that are not in open position. This is mainly for 2 reasons:

1.) Some of the CAGED shapes are pretty tough to play as full chords. Therefore, I just play “pieces” of them.

2.) The shapes have a much greater feeling of “flow” between each other when you are only using the upper 3 – 4 strings.

How This will Help you to Memorize Every Note on the Fretboard

The primary purpose of doing this exercise is to get you to become 100% familiar with every single variation of all 12 major and minor chords, all up and down the neck of the guitar.

However, while you’re at it, you might as well take it one small step further and simply recognize where the root is located within each chord shape.

This will help you to “know” the notes of the fretboard on the upper strings instantaneously.

Sticking to just the upper 3 to 4 strings of each chord shape, Simply recognize where the root is located:

C-Shape (root circled):

A-Shape (root circled):

G-Shape (root circled):

E-Shape (root circled):

D-Shape (root circled):

Am-Shape (root circled):

Em-Shape (root circled):

Dm-Shape (root circled):

Most intermediate guitarists already “know” the notes on the low E-string and A-string, so familiarizing yourself with the location of the root within each CAGED shape will mainly help you out with learning the high 4 strings of the guitar.

If you want to tweak this routine such that you use the full chord shapes, which span all 6-strings, that’s fine too. From my experience though, most guitarists struggle with note memorization on the high 4 strings, and not so much the low 2 strings.

The “Rules”

Really there are no rules, because you are free to tweak this exercise in any way you want. However, I will give you some guidelines that will result in maximum efficiency and retention:

1.) Do this practice routine every single day for 10-minutes per day (15-minutes maximum).

2.) Only do this routine for maximum 5 keys per day.

3.) Make sure that over the course of 1 week, you are giving equal attention to all 12 keys

4.) As you play each chord, say the chord name out loud or in your head (ie. Say or think “F major” when you strum the F major chord, or “A minor” when you strum the A minor chord). The goal here is to instantly recognize any major or minor chord, anywhere on the fretboard just as well as you know your open chords.

5.) When you play each chord, look at your fingers and “feel” where the root(s) is located within the shape. This will help you to make the connection of where the note ‘F’ is located within the F major chord, or the note ‘G’ is located within the G major chord. Since over the course of 1-week, you will be playing every single variation of every single major and minor chord, all up and down the neck of the guitar, you will learn every single note of the fretboard.

6.) Stick to the upper 4 strings for the chord shapes.

7.) Work your way around the circle of fifths, and use the I, IV, V, and vi chord of each key.

8.) Practice to a metronome so that you are forced to think relatively quickly. This is training. Think of it like going to the gym to get stronger.

Why This Routine is Ideal for REALLY Learning the Fretboard

A lot of other practice routines that you see on YouTube involve simply memorizing the notes of the fretboard using various different systems. However, what many of those systems lack is the actual application to music.

You see, when you create a 4-chord progression in a key, you are replicating something that you would actually use in real music. Music is usually written in a key, and a key involves a set of chords…the most commonly used chords in a key are the I, IV, V and vi chords. Therefore, why not get yourself in the habit of playing the chord combinations that you will actually see and use over and over again throughout your life?

So this routine has multiple benefits…

1.) You become familiar with which chords are in which key.

2.) You become familiar with “shifting” chord progressions away from the open position, yet still confining the progressions to a 4 to 5-fret region of the fretboard.

3.) You become familiar with which keys are more closely related to each other due to shared chords. For example, you will realize that the key of C major and G major are much more closely related than C major and B major. The keys of C major and G major share many of the same chords, whereas C major and B major don’t have any chords in common.

4.) You learn the “flow” between common chord movements. For instance, you will recognize common movements such as I to IV …or IV to V ….or V to I ….or I to vi. Every time you do this routine, you will make many connections in your head like this. So the next time you are soloing over a rhythm that is G major to C major to D major (or any other I – IV – V progression for that matter), you will begin to instantly see the chord shape “shifting” into the next nearby shape in whatever position you happen to be playing in.

5.) This routine will cause you to NATURALLY memorize all of the notes on the fretboard.

Do this routine every day, and I promise you will see MASSIVE results. The longer you continue to do this, the more ingrained into your head it will become.

Try it out, and let me know how it goes in the comments below.

As always, have fun!