Post by JamesP on Apr 14, 2019 11:54:22 GMT -5
Guitar: Fretboard Notes
I guess I am like a lot of people who learned to play guitar from a book. Chords were all they had and nowhere did the books discuss the notes needed to make a chord (i.e. A, B, C, etc). No mention of triads, 7ths, 9ths, diminished, etc. Then, as I progressed and played with more experienced guitar players, I picked up on flatpicking, moving up the neck but again, just "where" the notes were, not "what" they were. I found that as long as I stayed within the chord shape the notes were correct.
But, somewhere the lightbulb over my head went off and I realized my playing was limited by my lack of knowledge as to where each note was on my guitar fretboard. To add color to my playing, I needed to know just where each chromatic note is on the guitar neck, and how it repeats along the neck.
When I sat down to try to memorize that guitar neck, it seemed even more daunting than what I remembered from school days in the band. I could read music ( a little) so I wasn't starting off completely cold. But as I looked at that fretboard with its 21 or 24 frets and 6 strings, that meant I'd have to memorize over 100 notes and their positions on the guitar. Overwhelming!
Then I started looking further and noted that as long as I concentrated on the major notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G) and using the high E string as a starting point, it wasn't too hard. There are the dots that give reference. So...
Starting with E which is the open string, learn F (1st Fret); G (3rd Fret); A (5th Fret); B (7th Fret); C (8th Fret); D (10th Fret) and back to E at the 12th fret. So everything reepeats beginning with 12 fret along with the notes from the all open strings. All you have to learn is the first 12 frets and then repeat above the 12th fret.
Another interesting thing is that the low E string is exactly the same as the high E. So now you know 2 strings completely.
I guess I am like a lot of people who learned to play guitar from a book. Chords were all they had and nowhere did the books discuss the notes needed to make a chord (i.e. A, B, C, etc). No mention of triads, 7ths, 9ths, diminished, etc. Then, as I progressed and played with more experienced guitar players, I picked up on flatpicking, moving up the neck but again, just "where" the notes were, not "what" they were. I found that as long as I stayed within the chord shape the notes were correct.
But, somewhere the lightbulb over my head went off and I realized my playing was limited by my lack of knowledge as to where each note was on my guitar fretboard. To add color to my playing, I needed to know just where each chromatic note is on the guitar neck, and how it repeats along the neck.
When I sat down to try to memorize that guitar neck, it seemed even more daunting than what I remembered from school days in the band. I could read music ( a little) so I wasn't starting off completely cold. But as I looked at that fretboard with its 21 or 24 frets and 6 strings, that meant I'd have to memorize over 100 notes and their positions on the guitar. Overwhelming!
Then I started looking further and noted that as long as I concentrated on the major notes (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G) and using the high E string as a starting point, it wasn't too hard. There are the dots that give reference. So...
Starting with E which is the open string, learn F (1st Fret); G (3rd Fret); A (5th Fret); B (7th Fret); C (8th Fret); D (10th Fret) and back to E at the 12th fret. So everything reepeats beginning with 12 fret along with the notes from the all open strings. All you have to learn is the first 12 frets and then repeat above the 12th fret.
Another interesting thing is that the low E string is exactly the same as the high E. So now you know 2 strings completely.