Hey @JakeEstner , thanks a lot! 
This is a sheet of mine, which I use for my students. It’s a part of a fretboard navigation Workshop.
For a while, I thought of making a book, at the moment I use single pdf in lists in a software named Trello.
Feel free to use it as you like! If you want to use authors name: Sebastian Albert.
Thanks again and greets from Hamburg!
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I use this for students too. I wish you could automate copying a board—it’s the only part of my system that’s not automated and it can’t be done from a phone.
For later courses I switched from Kanban style in Trello to simple checkboxes in Google Sheets.
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I think in terms of pentatonic shapes for better or worse. Lol
I can add notes to them like a 2 or 6 of a mode to the minor shapes.
Or a 4 or 7 of some sort to the major
That’s an over simplification
This dictates that I also know intervals as well as note names.
I also see mode shapes all over the neck in 3nps shapes. Fairly new to me
I can build arpeggios
Have played with chord scale thinking.
As In seeing the chord, scale and arpeggio all in a position.
If I want to I can go off the grid and create musical ideas with the ears only but if you break them down they can still be described in context of one of the above concepts.
But in general, arps n pentatonic shapes are the basis of my improv.
Note, Im not great at it but that wasn’t the question
If asked which method to try I would say spend time with them all eventually.
For me each has added a bit to the big picture.
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Sounds great, thanks!
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You are absolutely right that one can adjust for the B string (and I’ll upload that picture), but my personal problem is that I don’t want to have the irregular patterns in the middle of the fretboard for the benefit of having two E strings. For example, I look at a grand barre chord, and it’s something like 1, 5, 1, 3, 5, 1, and do I really need three root notes, particularly when hooked up to all kinds of digital effects? No, I limit myself to four strings for a chord (in practice), so 4ths is OK for my needs. But I must say, it’s certainly not for everybody!
Standard:
vs. 4ths,
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Hi patternblue. I’ve been looking at this pic for quite the time now trying to understand it but I’m not getting there.
1.) What do you mean by ‘‘seeing them as ONE pattern’’ ? The first 3 patterns are w-w (whole step-whole step), 4 and 5 are H-W (half step-whole step) and nr 6 and 7 (?) are W-H (whole step-half step).
Are you saying you look at the first 7 as one pattern?
2.) If the first pattern is the deep E string and the pattern nr 6 is the high E string and you’re playing on a 6-string guitar, where do you play pattern number 7? (2–3-4) Where do you repeat it?
3.) ‘‘I hope everyone finds this helpful because it blew my mind when I first saw it.’’ In what way does seeing this 7-pattern 3nps (one big pattern) help you? In what kind of scenarios do you find you using it most?
I’m not trying to be rude at all. Just trying to understand both how it works and it what ways it’s best to utilize this 
I’ve been looking at this and trying to make sense of it = Major Scale Patterns - 3 Notes Per String & More
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ahaha I’m actually dying
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I’m talking about the whole visual shape. The 3nps system has 7 huge shapes, whereas my diagram is just one picture. Easier to memorize one thing instead of 7 things, right?
You can’t play the 2-3-4 row because your guitar has run out of strings. Your only option is to move horizontally (I think I posted a diagram of a horizontal shape in another thread)… or you can move downwards.
Say you want to play a random Dorian scale somewhere on the fretboard. For example, F# Dorian. I would just pick a random F# on the fretboard (like say A-string, 9th fret). Then I play through the shape starting from the 2-3-4 row… Or I might start from 11th fret on G string and move downwards instead.
Of course, you have to adjust for the damn G-B string border, which means you still have to memorize 7 different transitions when crossing over that border. Or you can just do what I do now - switch to P4 tuning 
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I can’t understand why you advocate 4ths and yet also advocate “modes,” e.g., saying “F# dorian” is massive unnecessary complexity. I think it’s much easier to think of the problem as “2=F#,” and still focus on where the 1 is in terms of navigation.
http://www.simplifyingtheory.com/modes-ionian-dorian-phrygian-lydian-mixolydian-aeolian-locrian/
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You can just replace “dorian” with “2” if you like. I just happen to think “2” sounds Dorian to me. Putting names and sound associations makes it easier to remember instead of just “2”.
So you can just quote this instead:
“Say you want to play a random ‘2’ scale somewhere on the fretboard. For example, ‘F# - 2’. I would just pick a random F# on the fretboard (like say A-string, 9th fret). Then I play through the shape starting from the 2-3-4 row… Or I might start from 11th fret on G string and move downwards instead.”
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Perfect, for a minute I was worried that you memorized lots of “modes,” but it is obvious that you don’t!
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I’ve “memorized” them, in the sense that I can play any mode I want: just play the shape but emphasize note “2” if I want the “dorian” sound, or emphasize the note “5” if I want a “Mixolydian” sound, etc.
If you mean the mode scale formulas, I’ve memorized those too. But yeah the shape is more helpful imo. You get a visual and tactile sense of when something is gonna sound Mixolydian as soon as your fingers move over the red shape in my diagram. It’s a good way to link all the senses together: how the modes look, feel, and sound.
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I’ve made huge gains with a system that starts with a nine-note symmetrical pattern, is copied and linked to itself, and mutates one note at a time to cover the whole fretboard in any key. I shared it with my students:
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This is based on physical facts - print it up and give it a try.
The Bi-Directional Linear Method - this method works on instruments laid in rows no matter whether they are on a flat or curved? surface. I saw this first on the piano then the guitar. One thing though this not a super imposition(on my part) these are indisputable facts.
I won’t write the piano but if you are interested I will try and post a video of it because it correlates exactly to the guitar.
First this:
1X34 12X4 1X2X4 4X2X1
-------><------ --------><--------
In relative space they are the same these two physical facts. Since I don’t want to blow your mind to much I will start with the most obvious: (I will use modes as the names from the major scale degrees) in the order of how far away the symmetries exist intervalically speaking
(Lowest string- first note going up) (Highest string - THIRD note going down)
Lochrian ------><----- Ionian
(7th degree) (1st/8th degree) Zero intervals in between
Phrygian --------><-----Mixolydian
(3rd degree) (5th degree) One interval in between
Dorian ---------><-----Aeolian
(2nd degree) (6th degree) Two intervals in between
a la "Blue Jay Way"
Lydian
-----------><----------- Perfect symmetry(up and down)
(4th degree)
forever<–ION(@) DOR(#) PH() LY(!) MYX() AEO(#) LOCH(@)–>forever
forever<-LY(!) MYX() AEO(#) LOCH(@) ION(@) DOR(#) PH() LY(!)>…
This works EXACTLY the same on the keyboard.
First try Lochrian<—>Ionian then Myxolydian >< and rest will follow.
btw this understanding works with Anything in terms of relationship in major melodic and hungarian minor(the one with three adjacent notes) seven note scales because of their relative symmetry within themselves(I think?).
Melodic minor uses 1X34<>1X24 as the midpoint but think Bidirectionally as 1x24 is 1x34 backwards(42X1) the (7th degree mode of melodic minor is in absolute symmetry and 6th and 2nd have relative symmetry an interval apart, the same goes for the rest as for the major scale).
The hungarian minor works the same way since the 7th degree is the absolute symmetry point.
It works in a different way with harmonic minor with the 3rd degree by itself and the symmetries on both side.
Stay tuned I might post more
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I suspect that great musicians reason in terms of the sound that they want, and then their fingers do the right thing to make said sound. I know this holds for sure for top classical pianists because I have enjoyed chances to question quite a few of them, and they HEAR the note in their mind just before their ear picks it up.
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No this is Art as teaching. The reasons for this are many(that is to say the resistance to expressing process). It’s not necessarily the particular ideas that are important as much as the search itself.
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thank you for this thread. it was tremendously helpful to go through for me
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This is wonderful!
I can now start to see how the shapes kind of jigsaw together, rather than thinking of five-fret-wide boxes that run across the strings but never up and down them…
I’ve tuned up my 7 string in 4ths to make learning the fit between them a bit easier, as (to may way of thinking at least), accounting for the G/B switch on a 6 will be a cinch later rather than building in this oddity (it can be argued) from the off.
Thank-you so much for posting this.
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That’s one of the patterns that @patternblue and I illustrated earlier in the thread. I refer to it as the “open” pattern as it forces the hand to open a bit.
The 3x3 shape connects in useful ways with itself and the “closed” 3x4 shape.
Helped me a lot too.