The Ultimate Guitar
Cheat Sheet
Standard Tuning: ALL NOTES
Original Substitutions
You can move up and down and in between
the rungs to create the flow of the song till
you decide to release the tension and go
back to the tonic chord (I Chord).
Scales
• Pages 3-8 cover scale shapes using the root note of G as an example.
• All other scales will remain the same, just the positions will shift up or
down depending on the root note.
SAME AS G Minor Pent. w/ a C# Added.
You can turn this into a Harmonic Minor, F-> F# = Harmonic Minor Scale
Phrygian, or Dorian Scale w/ modification A#-> B = Phrygian Scale
D#-> E = Dorian Scale
This is just the Major Pent. Scale with 4th
and b7 (flat 7th) notes added. In the case of
G, it’s the addition of notes C, and F added.
Chord Shapes
• Pages 10-16 cover Diagrams w/ a fretboard to show all notes of that
specific chord.
• Each page has Major Chords, Minor Chords, Diminished Chords, and
Maj7 Chord notes mapped out.
• This is to just visualize what all individual notes make up each chord,
as well as to see where they are in relation to each other.
• You can use this to build arpeggios or unique chord voicings
• You can see chord shapes and patterns that exist
• The same patterns exist, just are shifted up or down depending on the root notes.
• A->B everything shifts up 1 full step
• B->C everything shifts up ½ step
• C->D everything shifts up 1 full step, etc…
A Chord
Shapes
B Chord
Shapes
C Chord
Shapes
D Chord
Shapes
E Chord
Shapes
F Chord
Shapes
G Chord
Shapes
Chords, Chord Progressions, etc.
• Pages 18-32 Cover:
• Keys
• Progression Building Formula
• Chord Shapes
• Positions of each Chord at different locations using different shapes
• Scales for each Chord shape
Progression Builder Formula If you want to increase tension, you can
replace ii, V, or vii chords with a
Seventh Chord variation of the chord.
(Ex. Key of C major, the V chord would
be a G Major, you could replace that
with a GMaj7…)
Dimished Chords^
A Major Chords
A Shape G Shape E Shape
D Shape C Shape
B Major Chords
A Shape G Shape E Shape
D Shape C Shape
C Major Chords
C Shape A Shape G Shape
E Shape D Shape
D Major Chords
D Shape C Shape A Shape
G Shape E Shape D Shape
E Major Chords
E Shape D Shape C Shape
A Shape G Shape E Shape
F Major Chords
E Shape D Shape C Shape
A Shape G Shape E Shape
G Major Chords
G Shape E Shape D Shape
C Shape A Shape
A Major Chords + Same as Am Pent w/ D# added
Scale Notes Major Pent Scale Blues Pent Scale Natural Minor Scale
Natural Minor Scale
Conversions
To make the
“Harmonic Minor
Scale” replace G’s
with G#
A Shape
To make the
“Phrygian Scale”
replace B’s with A#
To make the
“Dorian Scale”
replace F’s with F#
G Shape
E Shape
A Major Chords + Same as Am Pent w/ D# added
Scale Notes Major Pent Scale Blues Pent Scale Natural Minor Scale Natural Minor Scale
Conversions
To make the
“Harmonic Minor
Scale” replace G’s
with G#
D Shape To make the
“Phrygian Scale”
replace B’s with A#
To make the
“Dorian Scale”
replace F’s with F#
C Shape
Non-Barre Minor Chords
A Minor
You can do a minor Barre Chord starting on the E or the A for any chord (see prior diagram). For
this non-barre chord, root on the D string. Same pattern applies for all chords
Diminished Chords (Example is a Gdim)
Position 1, is rooted on the E string for any Dim Position 2, is rooted on the A string for any Dim
Chord Chord
Outlier Open Chord Positions for Dim Chords
E Dim A Dim
Position 1 Position 2
** These out outliers because the root note for both Position 1, and
Position 2, are open notes in standard tuning **
