Fourths Tuning — Scales and Arpeggios

The three stages

Stage 1 — Transfer your existing knowledge. Rather than treating the fourths fretboard as a blank slate, the book starts by showing you how to map what you already know from standard tuning directly onto fourths. The patterns change, but the underlying theory doesn’t — and understanding that connection means you’re improvising from day one rather than waiting until you’ve memorised a whole new set of shapes.

Stage 2 — Learn a system built for fourths tuning. Standard tuning scale systems are workarounds — they’re designed to accommodate the B string anomaly, not to take advantage of the symmetry that fourths tuning offers. The second section introduces a scale and arpeggio system designed specifically for the fourths fretboard, using that symmetry to give you complete coverage of the neck in any key with significantly less to memorise than an equivalent standard tuning system.

Stage 3 — Move beyond patterns entirely. The final section is where fourths tuning really comes into its own. With a consistent intervallic layout across all six strings, the fretboard becomes navigable by interval rather than by shape — a fundamentally freer and more musical way of playing that’s difficult to achieve in standard tuning but becomes surprisingly accessible in fourths. This section begins the transition from pattern-based thinking to genuine fretboard fluency.

Who it’s for

Guitarists making the transition from standard to fourths tuning who want a structured, efficient route back to fluency. Also valuable for anyone already in fourths tuning who has relied on transferred standard shapes and wants a system better suited to the tuning.

Also in the Fourths Tuning series

New to fourths tuning?