There is no fourth shape. The entire major scale — and all seven modes — is three little three-note cells, dealt across the strings.
The whole idea. The major scale steps are T-T-S-T-T-T-S (tone/semitone). Play it three notes per string
and every string can only be one of three spacing shapes — the two gaps between three consecutive scale notes are
always (T,T), (T,S) or (S,T). Learn those three cells, learn the order they chain in, and the fretboard stops being 84
scale-boxes and becomes one connected map you slide anywhere.
01The three cells
Each drawn on a single string. Frets are relative — the shape is what matters. Tap any to hear it.
02The scale, built from cells
The full three-notes-per-string major scale, low-E on top, every string coloured by its cell. Change the root — the whole
shape just slides; the cell pattern never changes. Roots are ringed. Tap notes to hear; hit play to run the scale.
The point isn't to memorise a box — it's to chain the three cells until the neck feels continuous. Metronome slow, strict fingering.
BPM
1
Isolate each cell. On the A string, play T–T (frets 5·7·9), then T–S (5·7·8), then S–T (5·6·8). Ascending and descending. Say the name out loud each time. One note per click.
2
Lock the fingerings. T–T → fingers 1·2·4 (the stretch). T–S → 1·2·3. S–T → 1·2·4. No substitutions — that's where the muscle memory lives.
3
Chain up the scale. Play the whole shape low→high, naming the cell per string: T-T, T-T, S-T, S-T, T-S, T-S. Feel the shift happen at strings 4 and 2.
4
Descend. Same shape top→bottom. Most players climb fluently and fall apart coming down — even it out.
5
Transpose by sliding. Change the root above and move the identical shape. G→A is up two frets, nothing else changes. Run it in three keys a session.
6
Make it modal. Keep the exact shape, just treat a different note as home. Start/resolve on the 2nd degree = Dorian; the 5th = Mixolydian. Same fingering, different gravity — and this is where it feeds straight into the Halvorson wide-interval work: once the cells are automatic, you can leap between them instead of running them.
Fingerings generated and verified programmatically (3nps major, standard tuning) · low-E on top · cells classified by pitch-gap, tuning-independent.
Rebuild of three-cell-system-diagrams.html. House style: Oswald / Spectral / JetBrains Mono · rust/gold/green/rose/purple/blue.