How do you see the fretboard when playing?

guitarjack66

Probably one for our more experienced players here but all are welcome to chip in.

I've heard good players and professionals describe different ways of how they see the guitar fretboard when playing. Some say shapes,some say they simply see the notes or chords and I've even heard some use the term colours. As a rookie I just see learned shapes but still find myself not able to see a 'bigger picture.' Can anybody offer insight into this? Cheers.

fastonebaz

I see shapes.  And also I can hear intervals in my mind and translate that through my fingers to the right shape move

Tannin

For me, it's not visual. I don't see it, I feel it - "feel" as in the kinesthetic sense, the sense you use to (e.g.) know when your arms are in front of you or by your side. It's all about what's under the finger and what I have to stretch for.  

axisus

In terms of improv I see box shapes. I always have to start in the same box, which I think of as position 1. I only use one scale and some of my boxes have missing info! 

EricTheWeary

I think basic shapes for me. If you said play a C major pentatonic around the neck I could do that and if you stopped me and said what’s that note my answer would be ‘erm, the fourth’ as I don’t have instant recall of note names in every position (unlikely to ever do so now!)but am okay at shapes/scales. 

JMS96

I see cowboy chords all the way up the neck. C, G, A, E and D up all the frets.

Josh_Cosku

I am trying to see all chords shapes (CAGED) at the position that I am playing with basic extension. Visualing some scales at the position for also connecting chords. 

digitalkettle

Chords and intervals connected by this:

...
---ef-g-- \ 2 lots of -xx-x-
---bC-d-- /
--f-g-a-  \
--C-d-e-  | 3 lots of -x-x-x-
--g-a-b-  /
--d-ef--  \ 2 lots of -x-xx-
--a-bC--  /
--ef-g--  \ 2 lots of -xx-x-
--bC-d--  /
-f-g-a--  \
-C-d-e--  | 3 lots of -x-x-x-
-g-a-b--  /
...

Well, that's what it would look like on an infinite fretboard tuned in 4ths...obviously, in the real world, you have to step around the G-B string transitions 

Danny1969

I don't see it in shapes, I never did as a kid when learning guitar. Because there was no tab, no cage system or nothing to tell you where the notes were you had to use your brain and it's actually a far quicker method of learning the fretboard. To the extent I don't remember really spending much time learning it. A few weeks at best and I got it straight away because I could see the math. 

So I knew the names of the open strings ... that's the beginning 

Next I realised starting on the top E string  the 7th fret is an octave of the string before it. Except the B string, it's 8th fret. 

The 12th fret is the octave, that was obvious 

Then I applied this simple rule, all notes have sharps except B and E and so just filled in the gaps. 

That's how I teach it to my students and most of them grasp it within a couple of weeks. I firmly believe you can over complicate things in an effort to make learning easier when really it just takes a bit of common sense. 

roberty

I will see chord shapes if there are changes to track, otherwise I just think in terms of melody and intervals. By learning to play melodies by ear you also learn to play the melodies in your head

ArchtopDave

I've learnt to know the notes of all the frets including an understanding that a note on the same string/fret can have different names depending on it's relationship to the underlying harmonic content of the music. I do use chord shapes and scalar patterns as well, but knowing the individual fretted notes is the most important thing to me.

I well remember in the early days of having lessons, that I was simply trying to improvise using A minor pentatonic whilst my teacher played some chords for me to play over. I knew the pattern at 5th fret level. I knew that I was perfectly capable of playing the pattern fretting with fingers 1,3, and 4.
Whilst improvising, I managed to fret the 7th fret on the D string with my middle finger, and became completely lost because the pattern I'd learnt didn't involve the middle finger. Panicking, I played the fret above with my third finger (it sounded horrid), so I then played the fret below with my index finger (again it sounded horrid). I just had to stop, and go back and restart on the bottom string playing A at the 5th fret. It taught me that I needed to know the fretboard properly.

CoffeeAndTV

Sounds and intervals for me. 

kelpbeds

One of my favourite questions! I think very much intervallically. So over say Am7, I find an A on the fretboard (you need to know all the notes on the fretboard, that is a must) then visualise the intervals from that root note. So I can immediately see where the b3, 5 and b7 is and from there I might add in the 2 and the 6. This is very much the method that Tom Quayle uses when playing. This allows me to target the notes I want to hear precisely and also means I don't need to learn tons of scales I just need to understand the intervallic structure of any given scale to play it. It is a very powerful and musical method. 

Roland

Most of my rhythm playing uses partial chords. The chord shape depends on which notes I want in the chord, and the fretboard position is determined by the key. If the song has a bass riff then I might use a bass note or strings 5 or 6. If the bass player is mainly playing the root then I’ll avoid it. 

Consequently I often think in chord shapes and intervals when composing solos. The rest of my soloing is either a memorised sequence of notes, remember I play pop covers, or it’s based on sounds I want to hear at a particular moment. Nowadays my fingers know how to find those sounds without me having to think about it. 

djspecialist

You position your laptop or mobile device so that it's in front of you while playing, and then open the browser app.

Oh ... you mean the *actual fretboard* ...

Lestratcaster

In intervals and chord shapes. As I know all the notes well across the fretboard I can link scales and chords pretty easily as I know how far apart certain frets are to make an interval (e.g major thirds).
I started out on acoustic and know chords really well so that helps with the CAGED system.

greejn

Chord arpeggios mainly.

guitarjack66

Very interesting answers so far,thank you all. 
I am quite good with notes on the fretboard as I have some mnemonics and patterns for the octaves that help. I also know scales going up and down strings but not across as well. I am not sure how we classify vertical and horizontal on the fretboard but I have no problem going per string but still struggle in the way we do pentatonics,across as I call it.

hollywoodrox

guitarjack66 said:

Very interesting answers so far,thank you all. 
I am quite good with notes on the fretboard as I have some mnemonics and patterns for the octaves that help. I also know scales going up and down strings but not across as well. I am not sure how we classify vertical and horizontal on the fretboard but I have no problem going per string but still struggle in the way we do pentatonics,across as I call it.

Would you call it linear going across 

kelpbeds

guitarjack66 said:

Very interesting answers so far,thank you all. 
I am quite good with notes on the fretboard as I have some mnemonics and patterns for the octaves that help. I also know scales going up and down strings but not across as well. I am not sure how we classify vertical and horizontal on the fretboard but I have no problem going per string but still struggle in the way we do pentatonics,across as I call it.

This is a bit of an issue in the guitar world. Lots of people do things differently as you can see from the responses to your question, and they will often tell you that their's is the best method - even thought it may well not be. It's also very true for technique, which can vary wildly between guitarists.
You need to look at the systems and decide which is the most efficient and easy to manage over a range of applications.
 I could present a very strong argument for the system I use but others would disagree.
Slightly different in the classical world where things are taught a lot more uniformly. 

guitarjack66

hollywoodrox said:

guitarjack66 said:

Very interesting answers so far,thank you all. 
I am quite good with notes on the fretboard as I have some mnemonics and patterns for the octaves that help. I also know scales going up and down strings but not across as well. I am not sure how we classify vertical and horizontal on the fretboard but I have no problem going per string but still struggle in the way we do pentatonics,across as I call it.

Would you call it linear going across 

I suppose you could call it linear. Do we class it as horizontal going from the tuning pegs up to the sound hole as we are playing it?