So the FordScales concept has its patterns, but it also comprises insights about, and research into, solfege, which I try to leverage as much as possible…
tagged on origin of the phrase - was something arbitrarily constructed/composed by me for the sake of the other discussion
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For the adventurous, here are some blues scales, min and major versions…
(b5) 5 . . b7 .
R . . b3 . 4
Eb E . . G .
A . . C . D
. 5 . 6 . .
R . 2 (b3) 3 .
. E . F# . .
A . B C C# .
All other blues scale patterns may be derived by rotating the notes through the cell.
(b5) 5 . . b7 .
R . . b3 . 4
4 (b5) 5 . . b7
. R . . b3 .
. 4 (b5) 5 . .
b7 . R . . b3
etc.
Borrowing a subject from the “Fretboard Visualization” thread, and @patternblue…
So yeah, within the chromatic system, given a root note and the structure of the “In Sen,” I immediately have 12 patterns in mind for the same, because musically, it’s all one pattern. And, those twelve patterns each fit on two strings.
For example, here is the pattern @patternblue expressed on the Fretboard Visualization thread, expressed in the key of C, within the FordScales chromatic…
1 b2 4 5 b7 (Insen)
Expressed on root C…
. . F . G .
. Bb . C Db .
And similar to as illustrated by @patternblue on the other thread…
F Insen…
b7 . 1 b2 . .
. 4 . 5 . .
Gb Insen…
. b7 . 1 b2 .
. . 4 . 5 .
G Insen…
. . b7 . 1 b2
. . . 4 . 5
There is obviously a lot more repetition of similarity with the pentatonics as one rotates them around the chromatic cell. Here is one more, wrapped to Ab…
Ab Insen Scale
5 . . b7 . 1
b2 . . . 4 .
Don’t know if any of that is interesting, but it took me many a mile in its general application.
Fwiw, despite “unsupported file type” message, the link for the Confirmation FordScales arrangement seems to work, but one’ll need to “open in…” gp7.x.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4365jimLkwTNG5nVDB6bjV6ZjVsZUhTNXpacVc3U2MyS1JZ
Let me know if there is some other problem?
Not quite ready to pay SoundSlice to host premium content constructed in a different app. 
They let you post publicly for the world for free, but not with any control of origin domains and visibility. Five dollars a month for that!
So enough whining about tools for now, here is how the key of C major/A minor lays on the fretboard starting on the fifth fret, sixth string, FordScales Chromatic position…
. E F . G .
A . B C . D
. E F . G .
A . B C . D
. E F . G .
A . B C . D
And for comparison and contrast, here is C (ascending) melodic minor/B altered…
Eb . F . G .
A . B C . D
Eb . F . G .
A . B C . D
Eb . F . G .
A . B C . D
And C harmonic minor…
Eb . F . G Ab
. . B C . D
Eb . F . G Ab
. . B C . D
Eb . F . G Ab
. . B C . D
Happy Labor Day weekend to folks here in the states. Pleasant Sunday to all!
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Hey there @AGTG, I think I answered your latter question, but not the first.
The FordScales Open/Closed patterns are moveable, and intersect with the FordScales Chromatic pattern, and themselves.
The open and closed refer to the general spread of the hand while playing, the closed pattern occupying four frets (at least referencing diatonic major), and the open pattern occupies five (again referencing major).
The Berklee positions I originally learned are based around stretching from the pinky or from the index finger to reach notes outside of the boxes. The ring and middle are thought to stay together in their diagrams… That led to exploration of wider voicings more akin to what I perceived my primary music hero, Allan Holdsworth, doing in performance. The moveable FordScales Open/Closed patterns have some of the advantages of three note per string playing, and one may find utility in being able to identify a handy pattern anywhere they happen to be on the neck.
The FordScales Open/Closed Patterns don’t imply any particular fingering per se, just general open and closed hand moments. Sliding, bending, stretching… All of the guitarisms we enjoy are viable within the frameworks.
Here is an example of the open pattern joining with itself. One may see why I moved on to other visualizations after playing with them for awhile. I think @patternblue did too albeit perhaps more akin to Goodrick’s “Moveable Mini Positions” from The Advancing Guitarist?
4 5 6
1 2 3
4 5 6 7
1 2 3
5 6 7
And lets say one needed to play a whole-step up with a chord change, one may find a pattern within reach quickly, the O’s represent the pattern immediately above, with the pattern for the change overlaying it with X’s. The O’s in parenthesis represent tones not present after the change.
X (O) X X O
X (O) X X O
(O) X X X O
(O) X X X
O O O
Folks have found it all very powerful, but please be careful and prefer slides and position shifts to stretches if one is not used to playing in the wider stretch realm. If one is playing scales up and down, there may be more hand friendly, perhaps easier, ways. On the other hand, if one is improvising melodies on the fly the patterns become more—please excuse the pun—handy.
Since I brought it up in @tommo’s thread on ascending…
. E . F# . G#
A . B . C# D
. E . F# . G#
A . B . C# D
. E . F# . G#
A . B . C# D
…FordScales Chromatic Approach, A Major. Starting in 5th position, ending on the first string 16th fret.
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…which of course, is enharmonically equivalent to, D Lydian, and the five other remaining related modes of the A Major scale.
Patternwise, take the major scale by the same name and raise the fourth to derive the Lydian mode in parallel. In terms of the 12 notes of the FordScales Chromatic Approach, the musical structure for Lydian may start on any tone, and wraps around as necessary, but is always the same.
The physical shapes the scale makes on the fretboard within each key and the virtual bounds of the 6nps chromatic scale are relatively memorable, and consistent through the octaves.
Happy Friday all!
For @BullseyeBrewtality, with regard to Zakk Wylde playing in two keys A Minor and F Minor:
I’ve posted the FordScales Chromatic A Minor pattern before. Here goes again. Bear in mind that the A I’m starting on is at the fifth fret on the low E string. Also I’ve graphically illustrated the shift between the G and B strings.
A Natural Minor
. E F . G .
A . B C . D
. E F . G .
A . B C . D
. E F . G .
A . B C . D
F Natural Minor
Eb . F . G Ab
. Bb . C Db .
Eb . F . G Ab
. Bb . C Db .
Eb . F . G Ab
. Bb . C Db .
The other “positions” may be found by starting the chromatic scale reference point from a different starting “A” note.
Two keys, two patterns, but really, it’s just one melodic pattern laying differently within an arbitrarily located chromatic scale (starting on A alternating with Eb, six chromatic notes per string).
Have a great weekend everyone!!!
Peace out,
Daniel
*Re “warp refraction principle,” Wikipedia article mentions Finn’s book in 1999, but he was writing about it in the Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine in at least January 1996.
Just started reading about FordScales today on this thread, maybe im just mentally exhausted, but is this the correct thread to start on? Not really sure Im understanding the concept
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Your Ford Scale system looks cool, but I am not well read in music like you are, so I just do things from first principle. You already know this, but if one just takes a guitar and tunes it in 4ths, and then uses “relative do” (1=root, 2=second, etc.), then there are very simple repeated patterns, where you definitely show many of them. I actually tune in 4ths because I am not smart enough to memorize more than one scale or deal with the B string, I need translational invariance 
. I have to sacrifice certain things—for example, no bar chords (as I can’t finger them!)—but I can’t do that anyway, as it sounds terrible on my amp given my distortion and effects. (Indeed, I rarely play more than 4 notes per chord, so 4ths work well for me.) I navigate with many tricks, but the orange boxes are probably the most important.
I’m looking forward to learning more about your system, it might have things that I can use to help me navigate even faster! (The diagram has the thickest string on the bottom, and the thinnest string on the top; I might have drawn it upside-down from standard practice, I’m not very well read and don’t know what the usual convention is. The nut is to the left, the bridge is to the right.)
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@carranoj25, thanks for your interest. As I’d not really released much about the system until I shared on the CTC site, yes, this is as good a starting point as any.
Some things that FordScales II in particular can help with include learning the notes on the neck extremely quickly, and it can significantly reduce complexity in sight-reading. If one has run up against the frustration of reading through a Charlie Parker transcription while making fingering decisions on the guitar, FordScales II may help, as it’s helped me.
FordScales I is more helpful to others than it ultimately has been for me; the two patterns of FordScales I were kind of an answer to others that had presented three or more patterns. Depending on what you are looking for, either system might be of interest.
Happy to answer specific questions.
Hi @kgk, thanks for sharing.
First of all Finn’s “warp refraction principle” is basically about viewing the guitar in fourths without needing to retune in fourths. There are good reasons to not retune, and at some point I chose to stay with standard tuning. Both the FordScales I, A and B patterns, and the FordScales II chromatic scale, shift up a fret on the B and E strings.
Regardless of tuning, the FordScales II chromatic scale suggests two string scale patterns akin to Goodrick’s “Move-able mini positions,” statically organized relative to the note A. Both FordScales I & II are compatible with fourths tuning.
Ultimately one doesn’t want to be limited by scale “patterns” when improvising. Practicing within the bounds of the FordScales II chromatic scale system can benefit folks playing standard tuning and those playing in fourths, with insights unique to the imposed limitations. If one learns a melody in 12-keys, sequencing the melodic structure through the bounds of FordScales II chromatic, the insights gained are potentially different than what one learns trying the same with systems that use 5 to 7 different positions.
I guess I just dont really understand how the patterns work. But Im already pretty solid with the notes on the fretboard. But Id like to expand my knowledge of the fretboard for when I improvise
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Once one knows all of the notes, one knows the notes. If one is exploring improvisation in all possible keys, FordScales II can help with which notes.
Take an example like improvising over Mile’s “So What.” Because of the transposing nature of the guitar fretboard, when improvising in two keys, a half step apart, the natural tendency is to shift an entire pattern a fret up or a fret down. That’s a perfectly fine approach…
On the other hand, when limiting note choices, as I do in FordScales II, two keys, a half step apart, lay differently on the neck. The difference provides a “texture” to the assimilation process, and affords the confidence of not needing to shift position to play in all keys. Instead of one scale pattern that shifts up and down the neck, one ends up with a scale pattern that may be played 12 different ways, in one place. I find an advantage in having everything under my fingers, in one place, as one would playing piano.
Another use case is with arpeggios. Many study arpeggios as something separate from scales. Some will use arpeggios derived from favorite chordal fingerings, and others simply use shapes that ease the arpeggio execution, separate from the known scale fingerings. Again, those are perfectly fine approaches…
The FordScales II approach is to introduce arpeggios (that conform to the guides of the chromatic scale pattern), and to fill in with the other scale notes. Targeting chord tones first, and then filling in with color.
I suspect you are not alone in asking what’s the point. At some point I probably need to do some video explanation. Those who have run into the headache of permutation explosion dealing with the Berklee scale patterns and other similar position based approaches, they may be in a better position to appreciate the approach. You may or may not be in that camp.
As for the FordScales I stuff, it’s a super quick way to apprehend the modes anywhere on the neck using a couple of different patterns, where often more are encouraged.
I’ve probably talked this out at this point. Hopefully some of this was interesting.
Yes, I looked up the “warp refraction principle,” and laughed about the completely obvious concept that underpins it! But the reason I tune differently in 4ths is that I don’t have to change the shape of any fingerings according to their actual strings; the same shape just moves around (obvious, I know). Less memorization suits me, but others may differ. I agree 4ths are a fringe tuning and nobody really cares about them, although there are moments of hope like Alan Holdsworth saying that if he learned guitar again it would have been in 4ths.
Indeed, I have a specific note (from reading), and my finger needs to land it on a string, immediately. I agree that the pattern should never choose the note, but the desired note can sometimes use the pattern to quickly land upon the right place, until the piece is fully memorized, that is. This is useful in particular for figuring out faster fingering, e.g., what’s the best way to play that sheet music?
Note that the minimal setup that I have closely matches the notational powers of sheet music, and that is not an accident (as I am oriented around reading).
Anyway, keep up your work, I look forward to learning more! 
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Then you understand the utility of the limitation FordScales II imposes, for the sight reader.
And so we’re clear, I recognize that folks like Tom Quayle use fourths tuning to great effect. I just chose to embrace Finn’s “warp refraction” principle to stay on the beaten path with regard to the rock guitar canon.
These systems were devised in the course of the exploration of the complexities of jazz performance. I teach using FordScales II because it’s a handy way of organizing guitar theoretical concepts across the board. Really though, the systems came about to reduce decisions in improvisation down to the essential musical ones. I completely eliminate fuss over where to place a given note, and practice is always fun and fruitful for me since I adopted the system.