The Chord and Scale Charts

The chord and scale charts are the reference half of Jamtrackers, reachable from the Chords and Scales menu. Both work the same way: pick a root note, then pick a type, and you get the full chart.

For chords, that means every fingering the database knows, drawn with fret positions and muted strings marked. Most chords have several playable shapes, and choosing between them is a real decision — a low, open shape rings full, while the same chord as a barre higher up is tighter and moves, since one barre shape learned is twelve chords learned. The practical rule is to pick the shape closest to the chord you're coming from, because less hand movement means cleaner changes at speed.

Am

A minor, with every fingering. Compare the open shape against the barres further up the neck.

For scales, you get the notes drawn across the whole fretboard with the root positions marked, so you can see the shape rather than memorise a list of notes.

If you learn only one scale, make it the minor pentatonic. Five notes, one box shape that sits under the hand, and the backbone of blues, rock, and most guitar soloing of the last seventy years.

A Minor Pentatonic

A minor pentatonic. The box at the fifth fret is the one to learn first.

Now the part that makes these more than a reference book, and the thing most people miss.

Scroll to the bottom of any chord page and there's a feed headed Practice this Chord: real backing tracks whose transcribed changes actually contain that chord. Do the same on any scale page and you'll find Practice this Scale — tracks our analysis recommends that scale for.

That closes the loop the whole site is built around. Look up a shape, then immediately play it over a real band, in context, without going to search for something suitable. Learning a chord in isolation and learning it inside music are different skills, and only the second one survives contact with playing.

So the habit worth building is this: never leave a chart without playing something from the feed underneath it. Look up the A minor pentatonic above, then drop straight into a track from Practice this Scale and use it.

Start with one note — the root — played in time and left to ring. Then two. Then a short phrase, then silence while the band answers. Space is what makes a solo sound deliberate rather than nervous. Running a box up and down teaches your fingers a shape; it doesn't teach you music.

A slow blues in A minor — the kind of track that turns up under Practice this Scale for A minor pentatonic.