The BEST and SIMPLEST Exercises to Teach Yourself Music Theory (Use ONLY the FRETBOARD!)

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Published May 28, 2026

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In today's guitar lesson, we learn the best and simplest exercises to teach yourself music theory by only using the fretboard. Here, I go over how to let the fretboard and guitar actually teach us all about basic music theory including the major key including the notes, the chords, triads, and the arpeggios. By memorizing the bass notes and how to identify octaves, we can find any note within a memorized scale pattern. Furthermore, we can identify the scale degrees and roman numerals which will give us more insight into music theory.

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Video Chapters:
00:00 Lesson Introduction
00:57 Do You Need Traditional Music Theory?
01:41 Ground Rules: What Do You Need to Memorize?
02:24 Memorize the Bass Notes (All 12)
03:22 Memorize the Octave Shapes
04:21 Pick a Key (G Major Scale Exercise)
06:52 Guitar Takes a Big Leap Ahead
08:20 Scale Degrees (Whole Steps and Half Steps)
09:52 Checking Which Note You're Playing
10:52 What About a Different Key? (E Major Scale Exercise)
13:34 5 Positions of the Major Scale (and Key)
14:53 Common Chord Progression (I V vi IV)
16:55 First, Use Good Scale over Everything
17:57 What is a Major Chord? (G Major Arpeggio Exercise)
19:39 Playing Arpeggios Over Different Chords (Arpeggio Exercise)
20:50 The Minor vi Chord Arpeggio
22:54 The IV Chord Arpeggio
23:56 Play in Any Key
24:54 Playthrough of Exercise and Improvisation