Jaden Kim teaches the Cloud exercise, a method for visualizing the guitar neck as half-step intervals. Using one finger per fret across all six strings, you play up and down the neck, with a shortened pattern between the G and B strings. Practice it daily starting on the fifth fret to internalize how half steps work.
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Hello. Welcome to my dojo. You can leave the door open. My name is Jojo, and I will be your sensei. Which doesn't mean master, by the way. It just means one who has gone before. Today, we'll be doing the first lesson in the series, where my goal is to help you discover your own voice and express yourself creatively. If you're familiar with my channel, you know that I have a lot of videos teaching you how to play pop popular songs. That was me giving you a fish. And today I would like to start the journey of teaching you to fish for yourself. So make sure your guitar is in tune, and let us begin. The first exercise we're going to learn about is called the Cloud. The purpose is to help you visualize the neck of your guitar in an unbroken chain of half steps. I've done this exercise from David Read at Improvise For Real. Their channel is amazing, and I highly recommend that all of you go check it out. The link will be in the bio. The half step is the most basic unit we have in our musical system. It's the distance from one fret in this case, I'm on my fifth fret, to the fret on either side of it. So from the fifth to the sixth, from the fifth to the fourth, those are both half steps. The first one is a half step going up because we're going to a higher note. The second, with the half step going down, it's also the distance between any two piano keys or any two adjacent piano keys. So like, for example, from C to C sharp, C sharp to D, any piano keys that are right next to each other. That's a half step. It could be from a black to a white or a white to a white. And then it's also probably the shortest distance you can really sing with your voice once you sing between that. Duh. It's kind of just between picking one of those two notes, at least in our musical system. Okay, now let's get into the exercise. Before we begin, I want to note that this might be a little bit uncomfortable for some of your hands, but I don't want you to worry about it too much because this is primarily for visualization. So a lot of this is not how we would actually like play, but it's very important for us to be able to visualize. So we're going to put our index finger on our fifth fret, and then we're just going to lay our other fingers on one fret at a time. Each finger gets its own fret. So Index on fifth, middle on sixth, ring on seventh, pinky on eighth. And this is where it can get a little bit uncomfortable. I want you to stretch your pinky for one more note. So the whole first line is going to sound like this. Pinky on 5, middle on 6, ring on 7, pinky on 8, and pinky on 9. Those are all half steps. And then the next note that we're going to play is on the fifth fret of our A string back to our index finger. So that whole thing sounds, looks and sounds like this. This 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Back to 5. But now we've jumped up to a thinner string. And so if you. If you didn't notice that distance from our index finger on the A string to our pinky on the ninth fret is a half step. Even though we're switching the strings. Pinky on the ninth fret, index finger on the fifth fret of your A string. You can test it by going fifth fret on the A string, fourth fret on the A string, fifth fret on the A string, ninth fret of the E string. Those are the same notes. Cool. Let's keep going. So fifth fret of the A string. Now we're going to do the exact same thing now. 6th fret of the A string, middle finger, 7th fret of the A string, ring finger, 8th fret of the A string. Pinky. And the pinky's going to play one more note to the ninth fret, and then we're going to go to our D string. Are you seeing it? It's the same pattern. So I'm going to start from the E string one more time. 5, 6, 7, 8. Pinky plays again. 9, 5. On the A string. Now. 6, 7, 8, 9. Pinky plays two in a row. Now. D string. 5, 6, 7, eight. Pinky plays one more nine. Now we're on our G string. 5, 6, 7th, 8. And here's where things get interesting. If you weren't aware, your second and third string, your second and third thinnest strings, the relationship between those two is different than all the rest of your strings. So in this case, we don't actually have to play five notes on the G string. We can just play fifth fret of G string, sixth fret, six, seventh fret, eighth fret with your pinky. And then when you go to your B string, you'll be there. That's the half step up the G. And your B strings are tuned basically one fret closer together than your other strings are. So what would happen if we did do our pinky twice in a row on the G string, it would sound like this fifth fret. Six fret G strings, seventh fret, G string, eighth fret, G string, ninth fret. So, duh. And when I go back to the fifth fret of my B string, duh, that's the same note, okay? So now B string is going to be just exactly the same as all the other ones. So now we're gonna go five, six. I'm on my B string, by the way. Seven, eight. Pinky plays nine. Also pink plays two in a row. And then our E string. Does that make sense? So everything is exactly the same where you play basically five notes on the string, one note for each finger, and the pinky gets two notes all the way until you go between your third thinnest and your second thinnest string, your G string and your B string. Okay? And to go down, it's the exact same thing, but in reverse. So let's say we wanted to go down. Let's put our Pinky on our 8th fret or our high E string. 8, 7, 6. Now our index finger is on 5. So my hand is flying off like this. But what I want, just to show you guys. But what would actually be more helpful is to keep your fingers hovering over the frets that they're assigned to. Remember, each finger gets its own fret. So we're gonna go to do a half step downwards, AKA going lower. To get from this to. From this fifth fret, we're gonna have to put our pinky on the ninth fret. And then the. And then you're gonna slide your whole hand down 1. Let me repeat that index on the fifth fret of your high E string. And then your pinky is. You're gonna. Your hand is in this position where it's covering these four frets. You're gonna go from pinky or you're gonna go from your index on the 5th to Pinky on the 9th. So if you notice, what happens to your hand is that you're going from index to pinky. And in the process, your whole hand is shifting one to the right, one fret to the right, index on fifth to pinky on ninth. And then your pinky, just like before, is going to play two notes in a row. Pinky also plays eighth and then seventh for ring, sixth for middle, five for index. And now when we keep going down, remember what's going to happen? We're between our second and third thinnest strings. So even though we just did that thing where we have to jump over one fret to the right. This time, it's just the span of your hand. It's index on your fifth fret to pinky on eighth, ring on seventh, middle on sixth, index on fifth. Now we're back to where we're going to have to do that little jump. So I'm on the fifth fret of my G string, trying to go down a half step. So we're gonna go from index on 5th to pinky on 9th, index on 5th to Pinky on 9th. Do you see that motion? If you keep one finger per fret, you're gonna watch your hand go covering these four frets, going from five to eight. And then your pinky is gonna slide, and your whole hand is gonna follow with it. And then you're gonna slide your pinky down, and it's going to play two notes in a row. So once again on the G string, index plays fifth fret. Pinky plays ninth fret. Pinky pays eighth fret, seven, ring, six, middle five. Do it again. Pinky on the ninth fret, pinky on the eighth fret. Keep going down. Each finger gets its own fret going from the A string. So a string, fifth fret, index finger, pinky on the ninth, pinky on the eighth, and so on until we finish. Hope that was clear. So I'm going to go through the whole exercise one time just to make sure that you guys know what it sounds and looks like in its entirety. Really, it's just repeating the same thing over and over and over again, except for between your second and third thinnest strings. So I'll go slow, but if you have to go slower than this when you're first learning, there's no shame on that. Just do it right. So, 5, 6, 7, 8. My pinky plays nine. Back to index on the fifth of our a string. Now, same thing. Literally the exact same fingering. We're just up a different set of strings. Now I'm on my D string, fifth fret, G string, fifth fret. And remember, the G string is only going to play four notes. And then we're going to switch to our B string. Now I'm going to go back down. So I'm on my eighth fret of my high E string, just taking off my fingers one at a time. Now we're going to do that little jump. Whole hand shifts back. Now I'm going from my B string to my G string. I don't have to do the jump. I don't have to do that one fret, shift to the right. Pinky on the 8th. 7, 6, 5. Now I'm back to doing the jump. Pinky jumps over to the ninth. Pinky also plays eight. And remember, Pinky plays two notes in a row. Got it. So we did this exercise starting on the fifth fret. But what I want you guys to realize is that it doesn't actually matter where you start. This exercise works on any fret. If I wanted to, I could do it on the eighth fret. And it's still the same unbroken chain of half steps. It all works the same. So once you get it down on the fifth fret, experiment. Try it some other places. If you feel like you've really got this down, I want you to test yourself by doing this. What we want to do is imagine a note and be able to move a half step up or a half step down any wherever the note is going to be. And we have two options for each. So let's say, for example, I wanted to go to the seventh fret on my D string. Sounds like this. Make sure you play that with me. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to. And you can start with any finger on it because you're gonna have to shift your hand around anyways. So let's go index to middle. That's. That's a half step up, okay? And then back to index. And if I wanted to play that as a half step up, but I wanted to switch strings, here's what I would have to do. I'd have to put my pinky on the note. Okay? My pinky is now on the note seventh fret, D string, okay? And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do that the reverse of that jump that we did earlier. So I'm gonna go pinky to index, and my hand is going to shift one fret to the left. So my pinky is on the seventh fret of my D string, and my index finger is ending up on the third fret of my G string. Does that make sense? Those are two ways of getting the same note. And now we're going to do the same thing going downwards. So let's say I have my index finger on the seventh fret of my D string again, and I want to go down a half step, AKA a lower note. So I'm gonna go index. And you could even just play the same finger goes down one fret and then it comes back. That's how you play a half step down. You could Start on any finger that I could even put my pinky on there. And then go to my ring and then back to my pinky. What if I wanted to play it on a different string? AKA because we're going downwards now we want to go to a three thicker string. So now I'm going to go index. You have to start on your index. If you're going to go down a half step and, and go to a. A thicker string. So we're going to go index to pinky. And our hand is going to shift one fret to the right. Pinky is going to end up on the 11th fret. So, ninth fret, index finger, make sure you can visualize this 1, 2, 3, 4, this, the span of fres from 7, 8, 9, 10. And then your pinky is going to shift the hand over to where it's 11. Now the span is like 11, 10, 9, 8. So index on the 7th to pinky on the 9th. A string and take that and try it all over the neck. When you're doing the last exercise where you're playing it up two different ways and then down two different ways, make sure that you also try ones that are starting on your G and your B strings, because remember, those jumps are going to look different. So let's say I'm on my G string and I'm on my seventh fret. G string, okay? Say I have my index finger there. If I want to go up a half step on the same string, easy. I just go index. Add my middle on one more fret, take it off, go to index. Okay? But if I want to go to a different string, what I have to do is I have to start on my pinky. So now I'm going to go pinky to index. And before we had to do that jump. But because we're between our G, our third and second thinnest strings, there's no jump. It's just the span of your hand, which means four frets. So pinky on the seventh fret to index on the fourth fret. That's the same as pinky on the seventh fret, Pinky on the eighth fret. Those are the same notes. And then to go down, it's just the same as any of the other strings. It's like, you know, you could start with your index on the seventh, index on the sixth, index on the seventh, and then in the or pinky on the 11th, because we're gonna have to do that hand shift. And then same for the B string, but it's just in reverse. So let's say I started on my seven, seven fret, B string. If I wanted to go down a half step on the same string, easy. I just index, index again, back to the original. And then if I want to go down in a different string, it's also very easy. It's just a span of my hand because we're between our second and third thinnest strings. Index on the seventh, Pinky on the 10th, back to the index, and then to go upwards, it's the same as any other string. So index on the 7th, index on the 8th, index on the 7th is our original note. But if I want to go to a higher string and I want to go upwards, I can't start on my index finger because we have to move this way on the fretboard. So I'm going to move my pinky onto the note. Now my pinky is playing the seventh fret. And to play that note up a half step on a different string, AKA going to the high E string, it's going to lead us to my index finger on the third fret. Pinky on seventh fret, index on third fret. Got it. Okay. I hope that that wasn't too long or confusing, but this is truly the place to start because, like I mentioned this, these half steps are the building blocks. These are literally the atoms of our musical system. And to get a really good understanding of what we're going to be doing in the future, you gotta have these down cold. So what I would recommend for you to do is just take the next few days, take a week, and just run through that cloud exercise, start, choose a different fret each time. Once you get it on the fifth fret and you understand the principle of it, and try starting on different frets, just going from the low E all the way to the high E. And then make sure you come back down. And then if you feel comfortable, do that exercise where you play. You choose a random note. Literally, you could close your eyes and say, this one. Okay, I'm gonna go. I'm on my 11th fret of my G string, by the way. Up a half step on the same string, back to the original, up a half step on a different string. I'm gonna have to swish my pinky back to the original, down a half step on the same string. Okay, I just go down one fret, back to the original. And then if I want to go down a half step on the on. On a different string, I have to switch to my index finger and I'm going to go from. In the case of my G string going downwards, I'm going to go from 11 to my third fret, or not third fret, but 12, 13, 14, 15th fret on my D string and then back up to the original. This is the first step on our journey, so be patient with it, take time and look out for the next video when I come out with the next step. Thank you for watching and best of luck on your journey.
