Learning Notes on the Fretboard

nickp

dtr said:

Good shapes to know.  Obviously that pic is showing all the Es, but the shapes are the same whatever the note (shift everything up one fret and you'll have all Fs).

If you've got these shapes sorted, and know the notes on the 6th (& 1st) and 5th strings it gets a lot quicker to find your way around.

this.  with a metronome.  learn one note a week practice every day.  learn notes in the cycle of fifths (double benefit as you learn cycle of fifths as well).  metronome to stop hesitation.  learn all notes in all keys.  brilliant as it is often the relative position of the notes that's important.  to start with set the metronome and do a note every other click as it is important not to rehearse mistakes.  then you can speed up but don't go too fast too soon.

webrthomson

Fretboard Warrior is good for this, google this and download

I also find three note per string patterns helped as you can chain them together and move up and down the fret board more easily that say pentatonics.

Roland

There are many ways of learning, and different people find different methods useful. The common factor is to learn it in small chunks, and consolidate that learning with practice. 

You can navigate the fretboard in the same way as you navigate around town using landmarks, and gradually filling in the blanks. This helps you learn note names and locations, scales, and chords at the same time.

You will already know the open strings: E A D G B and E, so you also know the notes at the 12th fret. At the 5th fret are A D G C E and A, and at the 7th fret are B E A D F# and B. These are all easy to find because of the side markers and dots on the neck. This much you have to learn parrot fashion. To find everything else you can find it from what you've memorised.

When you come to learn scales the scale of C uses the notes C D E F G A B C. You can work out the different locations for these notes, and the differences sequences of locations you can use for easy playing.

The A minor (Am) scale is the "relative minor" of C. It uses the same notes, but in a different sequence: A B C D E F G A. Again you can work out the different locations which you can use. 

Now you can work through the major and minor scales in different keys. These use the same relative "shapes" of locations, but start at different points on the fret board. Depending on how much time you have you can learn around one per day. Don't try to cram in too much at once. The brain needs to digest what you've shown it. Both rote learning of the names and positions, and muscle memory of the fingering patterns, get processed overnight by your brain, and you can check them the following day.

After C and Am I'd learn G and Em. The reasons for this are that there are a lot of songs which use G and Em, and there's only one note difference between the notes in the scales of C and G. (That note's F# instead of F).

Next I'd go for A and F#m. It's got two more new notes (C# instead of C, and G# instead of G). The note positions will be easy to find because they are two frets up from the G major and E minor scales. It will also show you the difference between the A minor and A major scales.

usedtobe

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262014391306?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

zebedee11

One easy trick is to remember that the word BEAD is spelt starting at the 7th fret on the low (in terms of pitch) E string. It goes across the 7th frets of the E, A, D & G strings. Doesn't give you the whole fretboard but it is a very useful reference point. If you look you will find BEAD in other places like starting from 9th fret on the D string. BEAD will have a "step" in it where it crosses the G& B strings in accordance with the different interval between those two strings.

Another useful approach that takes more time is to learn arpeggios and say the notes/intervals out loud as you play them. The reason a lot of people don't know all the notes is because they don't think about what they are playing and just learn patterns.

andyp

Thanks again for all the useful tips everyone.

It's starting to come together a bit more now. Working on pretty simple 12 bar blues stuff and moving between different keys is helping me get my head around this better. I'm still going to try and learn the notes but think it will still take time and experience.

EricTheWeary

Glad Andy gave this another reply , I was trying to find it to get ideas for my son to learn the notes on his bass. Bit less complex than guitar but if he wants to play with others then he needs to be able to communicate basic stuff. Much as he can play some great stuff worked out from tab or YouTube at the moment he couldn't follow a basic chord chart.

 

I'd have to admit my knowledge of the fretboard isn't brilliant but having enough landmarks so you can at least work stuff out is a necessity to make music with anyone else. Although I still have arguments about if it's A# or Bb etc...

:-S

andyp

Happy to help.

Had a really useful hour long lesson tonight, it's all helping.

pintspiller

andyp said:

I'm basically just wanting to know what note I'm playing and where to go next to make it sound good.

Surely all you need to learn are the CAGED or mode shapes? Doodle about and come up with melodies and stuff.

viz

^ agreed, it all starts with the tune in your head not the name of a note on a fretboard.

andyp

I have a book with stuff on the CAGED system so I've got that to read through too.

I seem to have a lot of melodies in my head at the moment that I can't translate to the guitar. It all seems to be a natural part of the learning process I guess.