Fretboard - Notes or Position?

[Admin]

I learned to play guitar by position on the fretboard. The only thing I really knew was the position of a chord so I would take the chords and pick out the notes by ear. I really didn't learn the notes of the fretboard until late in life.

How about you? Did you learn where certain notes were located on the fretboard or did you simply learn the position by ear?

[jaked]

I learned all the open chords by name and shape, the Cowboy Chords, and for 7 or 8 years, that I pretty much all I did. Then I learned to move the shapes to make new chords. Figuring out the movable chords led me to needing to know the notes on the fret board and at first, I really only learned the notes 6th and 5th string. Playing lead guitar required I learn all of the notes on the fretboard, the music scale, intervals, modes, etc.

It was a slow process because when I was learning, the internet didn't really exist, at least not for stuff like learning guitar. Towards the late '90s I could find Guitar TAB on Harmony Central and OLGA, and I would print the songs off and play them out of a 3 ring binder. But you can't learn stuff that way. My buddy Marty, who played out every week, would answer questions, but in his smart ass way.

I'd say, "Marty, can you show me a B?" And he would play the open B string and smile. If I said, "I want to learn those barre chords." He's say, "You don't need to know that for what you're wanting to do." Or, "You would have to learn a bunch of other stuff before you learn to that." He was wrong about what I wanted to do.

So I took it upon myself. It just took a really long time!

[jaked]

As far as my ear is concerned, now when I am playing single notes, I think I gravitate to the right notes. My ear is getting a lot better.
For example, I put some new pickups in a telecaster this weekend. When I re-strung it, I tuned it by ear as close as I could. When I hooked it up to the tuner, I was within a half step of all six strings.
So the "ear" is coming along without much intentional effort on my part. Just a natural part of playing.

[slapjaw]

Funny I do the same thing when I change strings. Tune it up by ear and then the trusty tuner. I can hear clear chords and notes, but I know some guys who can pick out distorted notes.

[Admin]

Great input Jake and Slappy. I use to be fairly good at tuning quickly by ear...but the older I get the more tone deaf I think I become. Now I use my keyboard to tune to since I don't have one of those gadgets known as a tuner.

[saguitar]

I started out like most everyone in the bottom 3-4 frets, just chunking along with records as best I could. And yes, we had records back then. These days when I look at the fretboard I see the names of the notes, I've just got 'em memorized. I also see scales and patterns all over the place. I guess it just comes in time, and practice.

As far as tuning up, I've never had a great ear, and I bought a Conn Strobotuner way back when they first came out. I still got that one, and it still works fine. But I use a Boss TU-3 most of the time on my workbench. Although I don't have a super ear, I have found that even when I'm tuning to the tuner, as I get close to the correct pitch, my ear tells me I'm getting more "Right," or something like that. It's just as I home in on the pitch, it sounds more "correct." I guess that over a lot of time, my sensitivity to perfect pitch has gotten better. Now I'm not saying that I have perfect pitch, because I don't, but I'm getting to the point that I can hear better. I dunno, does any of that make sense to youse guys?

[muddylives]

I guess that almost all of us started out learning basic chords before we thought about notes.

[steve]

A few years ago I started to learn the notes on each string and where they are located. For example, I'd find every G I could on each string and just play them up and down then take another note and do the same until I got most of them lodged in my mind and combined that with muscle memory. It was a tad boring but it seems to have paid off in that I play over the fretboard more than I did.

[saguitar]

Knowledge is Power.