Guitar Scale Fingering
A guitar scale fingering places the notes of one scale in a single position, usually one finger per fret, on a standard-tuned six-string neck. This chart draws major, minor, pentatonic, and blues patterns in every key, and each dot can show a finger, a note name, or a scale degree.
Map any scale onto the guitar fretboard by position: fingers 1-4, root markers, and the positions that cover the whole scale — for classical and any six-string guitar.
Processed entirely in your browser — nothing you enter here is ever uploaded.
Result
About this tool
Guitarists learn scales as positions: the index finger anchors a fret, each finger owns the next fret, and the scale falls under the hand as a repeatable box. The same C major scale lives in several overlapping positions along the neck.
This tool draws the whole neck up to the 12th fret, shades the chosen position window, and numbers every scale note inside it: 1 is the index finger, 4 the little finger, 0 an open string. Notes outside the window stay as small ghost dots so you can see how the boxes connect.
Positions marked with a check contain every note of the scale within the four-fret window — those are the patterns worth memorizing first. The default position is picked so the root sits under your hand on the sixth or fifth string.
Labels switch between fingers, note names, and scale degrees, which makes the chart work both as a practice map and as a fretboard-theory reference. Everything runs locally in the browser in standard tuning.
Example. C major in a one-finger-per-fret position places the scale's pitch classes on frets 0 through 12 of an EADGBE board.
Limit. The diagram stops at fret 12, and position numbers stop at 9.
Frequently asked questions
What does one finger per fret mean?
The index finger anchors the position, and each of the next three frets belongs to the next finger: index 1, middle 2, ring 3, pinky 4. A note two frets above the index is finger 3, not a stretch with finger 2.
Which positions show the whole scale?
The position list marks the ones that contain every note of the scale inside the four-fret window. Other positions still draw the notes that fall there, but they are not a complete pattern by themselves.
What tuning does the diagram use?
Standard tuning, low to high: E A D G B E. The chart does not retune the strings. Drop D and other tunings would move the same finger patterns onto different notes.
How is a pentatonic pattern different from the major scale?
The minor pentatonic has five notes and drops the half steps of the full minor scale. Major and the three minor forms (natural, harmonic, melodic) keep seven notes. Blues adds one blue note to the minor pentatonic.
Can I see note names instead of finger numbers?
Yes. The display control switches every dot between finger numbers, note names, and scale degrees. The frets and the root marker stay put; only the label changes.