You don't really own anything you can't 
carry on your back at a dead run.
Daniel Keys Moran
 

An ADVANCED guitar player is someone who knows how to find the KEY that is being played, the MAJOR CHORD PROGRESSION chord locations for that KEY and where the MAJOR SCALE is across the entire neck for that KEY.
 
Looking at the following image, you can see why so many people try to find methods for simplifying it.
 
 
After looking at the MAJOR SCALE for months on end looking for a better way for people to see the guitar neck,  I realized this : 
 
 
THERE ARE ONLY TWO SHAPES ON THE GUITAR
 
TWO IDENTICAL BOXES AND A SLANT
 
Look at the same notes with a little artwork on top of it.
 
 
 
 
BOX ONE is green with the root towards the top of the neck ( the fat string ).
 
SLANT is yellow and connects the FIRST BOX to the next SECOND BOX
 
BOX TWO is red and the root is on the small string at towards the bottom of the neck. 
 
You should practice learning where these shapes are related to the MAJOR CHORD PROGRESSION until you know it cold.
 
Once you have that, then you will want to start to understand what you are playing. 
 
BOX ONE has six notes and is dead simple to remember. Simply count ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX. now you can find them without looking them up.
 
SLANT only has two notes, the FOUR and the SEVEN. you should never have trouble finding them again.
 
BOX TWO is the most complicated but is still super easy. The notes are FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, ONE, TWO, THREE.
 
On each of the three pairs of strings, this pattern just repeats until you run out of neck in either direction like this:
 
BOX SLANT BOX - BOX SLANT BOX - BOX SLANT BOX 
 
 
When you start playing these shapes over the MAJOR CHORD PROGRESSION magic will start happening.