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Ask Alex about... Guitar Tuning and the Fretboard
 Key ideas:The correlation between the strings of the guitar is a key point to understand the fretboard.
Any change in tuning produces a completely different note array.
The most useful guitar tuning system to know is the standard one: six strings tuned at the interval of a perfect fourth from each other, except for the second and third strings, which are tuned a major third apart.
This system seems to be asymmetrical, on the surface, causing much confusion among guitarists.
If we take the strings' tuning E A D G B E (which spans 2 octaves) and rearrange it into one octave we get E G A B D E: a simple minor pentatonic scale!!!
There is a deep symmetry beneath the standard tuning system:
Number the open strings, E A D G B E, like this: 6 5 4 3 2 1.
Rearrange these numbers to get the pentatonic scale in order.
The result is 6 3 5 2 4 1: skip 2 up, 1 down, 2 up, 1 down, 2 up.
Perfect symmetry!
This pattern is the underlying principle of fretboard organization.
The blues is uniquely suited to the guitar given that its underlying structure is pentatonic.
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Guitar Tuning and the Fretborad
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