Commonalities: The Big Picture

The Commonality Patterns comprise four of the five Diatonic Zones, omitting the V Zone. But even so, all the note positions of the every key are included. In other words, the entire fretboard can be distilled down to two fingering patterns, each one occurring in two positions per key.

The diagram shows all four positions of the patterns. The top grid shows the II and VI Zones — the bottom grid shows the III and VII Zones. They are separated in the diagram for clarity, since   they overlap. Notice the dotted lines indicating the Axis frets.

Play the green arpeggio paths first as ascending lines. The blue and purple paths represent isolated 3rds. See how the junctures between the patterns, on the 6th and 1st string (the highest fret position of one pattern to the lowest fret position of the next), are always either a whole-step or a major 3rd, i.e.; I to II, II to III, IV to VI, and V to VII. This will help navigating between the Zones.

The diagram below shows the background Zones of the Commonalities. The starred note positions correlate with those omitted from the Commonalities. The IV is left out of the VI and VII Zones, while the VII is left out of the II and III Zones.

Commonalities: VI and II Zone

Like the previous examples, these patterns each comprise the same interval relationships and geometry in two separate zones. Again, one zone omits the IV and the other omits the VII and in doing so eliminates the notes which are not common to both zones:

Play the green paths as shown in the notation below for the key of A:

There are may ways to apply these patterns. Experiment with rhythmic variations and breaking the sequence up into ascending and descending melodic ideas, juxtapose different chords, etc.

More Commonalities: Two For the Price of One

You are looking at the common notes of the VII and III zones. The starred note positions are the IV (C) and VII (F#) of the Key of G. Notice that when these stars are excluded, both zones are geometrically identical:

 When the C and the F# are removed the remaining notes follow the same geometry even though they are in different places within the key. Notice the grey ellipses which indicate the 'half-step cluster' positions ...

There are many ways this patten can be brought into your repertoire. Consider that you can use precisely the same fingerings in both positions and never go outside the key. That's two notes for the price of one.

Using scale degrees, you can move the pattern to any position. There will always be two patterns in any key in the same relative positions as dictated by the ket degrees.