A Neck Pattern is a notation used to express musical scales for the guitar. Pipes ( | ) are used to denote frets and some symbols are used to express frets that are struck and frets that are not. The low E [string is at the top of the chart, and the high E string is at the bottom. For example, the major scale, expressed with O representing used frets and - representing unused frets looks like this:
- | O | - | O |
O | O | - | O |
O | - | O | O |
O | - | O | O |
- | O | - | O |
O | O | - | - |
Sometimes, people will use the letter 'R' to denote the root note of a scale. If this is done for the major scale, it will look like this:
- | R | - | O |
O | O | - | O |
O | - | O | R |
O | - | O | O |
- | O | - | O |
O | R | - | - |
And finally, some people will number the notes in the scale, like this:
- | R | - | 2 |
3 | 4 | - | 5 |
6 | - | 7 | R |
2 | - | 3 | 4 |
- | 6 | - | 5 |
7 | R | - | - |
These can be used to express chord patterns as well. For example, the barre chord pattern is:
X | - | - |
- | - | X |
- | - | X |
- | X | - |
X | - | - |
X | - | - |