Physical Construction of the Guitar
Notice that the guitar has six strings, with
the bottom four strings tuned a Perfect 4th apart:
The top two strings are also tuned a Perfect
4th apart:
The second and third strings are tuned a Major
3rd apart:
This isolated difference in tuning (between the 2nd and 3rd
strings) is what creates one of the principal difficulties with respect to visualizing
the transposition of chords and lines.
The Symmetric Guitar
What I mean is this: if ALL of the strings of the guitar were
tuned to a perfect 4th apart, then any chord (or scale) shape that you wanted
to transpose up a 4th would look identical to the original shape, except that
it would be located on the next higher set of strings. Take a look at Example
4:
(This is an arbitrary shape; don't worry about what the actual name of this
chord is,
the overall concept is what's really important here)
Now, I'm certainly NOT advocating that you start tuning your
guitar differently (although, I've heard that Stanley Jordan, among others,
tunes his guitar this way). This is just a perception that is necessary for
you to comprehend before continuing, so make sure that you're clear on the idea
of this imaginary SYMMETRIC GUITAR before you read on.