Learning hte fretboard

[girevik]

set the metronome to like 40 or 30 bpm start on C, play all the Cs on the E string, then A, D G,B e...in time with the click. then go around the circle of 5ths or 4ths. that's how i learned the neck a few years ago

 

 

One string at a time!

 

Clever idea, and much better for overall musicianship (especially improv) than practicing C major scale patterns in terms of neck positions.

[girevik]

Sure - I'd like that. I have various books of Bach for piano, but I think it will be labourious to figure out which ones are amenable for this. So if anyone has pointers to transcriptions of Bach that are "perfect for the job" .... please post pointers, would be muchy appreciated.! GaJ

 

 

Really? I have a book of his Inventions & Sinfonias myself and don't see any problem with learning either the right hand or the left hand part of Invention No. 1 in C Major on the guitar. Either part would be better than rote C major scale practice.

[jeremy_green]

Sure - I'd like that. I have various books of Bach for piano, but I think it will be labourious to figure out which ones are amenable for this. So if anyone has pointers to transcriptions of Bach that are "perfect for the job" .... please post pointers, would be muchy appreciated.! GaJ

 

 

If you are looking to "learn the fretboard" then any piece of music written for the treble clef will do the trick. Actually the more different pieces the better!

 

Look for piece of score where most of the notes reside in and around the staff with only a few low ledger lines. Then play it in second positions then fifth then ninth etc. All over the neck. Be careful NOT to memorize the piece so that you are really having to figure out the name and where it is.

 

A great trick to get more mileage and do some good work with your eyes is read the sheet music backwards as well. Start at the end and work back. Or read up and down using only two strings.

 

Good luck

 

If you do this every day as part of your practice you will know the neck in a short period of time.

[Jasco]

The book "For Guitar Players Only" by Tommy Tedesco has some great reading studies in it designed to improve your fretboard note awareness.

And it has a lot of funny stories too.

[PigWings_v2.0]

OK, here's pretty much what I did to learn the fretboard. Or at least become much more comfortable with it. I still have a lot to learn...



So here's all the notes for the E minor scale up to the 15th fret. They're also the exact same notes as G major.

I would practice the e minor scale up and down in the same position at the 12th fret. Then shift to the D at the 10th fret and play all the notes in the same position. Then to the C at the 8th fret and so on. Since frets 12 and up are just an octave up you use the same pattern for the upper notes.

Then try three note per string patterns up the fretboard to link all the positions together.

For pentatonic scales, just don't play every 2nd and 6th note of the scale. And if the key isn't E minor or G major just shift the root note accordingly.

Sight reading will definately help do the job as well. Basically, pratice every way you can think of. But when you're actually playing a solo you wanna be thinking melodies instead of patterns.

[John Freiberg]

A method I would recommend is learning to play the major scale up and down single strings using a fretboard map (showing only the notes in the key you are playing) as a visual aid. Begin with the C Major scale and then progress through the circle of 4ths. Vocalise the note names as you play - this really helps reinforce the note name you are playing, as well as the having the added benfit of aural/pitch training AND learning the notes in the context of a particular key.

 

The problem with trying to read music BEFORE you know the notes on the guitar is just that - you can be reading a G# note on the page and not know where it lies. I would recommend reading in conjunction with the method mentioned above.

 

Another important thing to remember when practicing positional scales is to play them slowly enough to sing the note names and scale degrees. Many guitarists, in an effort to develop speed, try to play scale "patterns" really fast and never take the time to learn the notes in the scale they are playing.

 

I hope this helps : )

[schiz]

try the guitar trainer, here's the link: http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id81_en.html

Until I seen that, I was convinced that the old Fretboard Warrior game I found a long time ago was the only online lesson thing out there! Preciate that!
I have found that my problem isnt knowing the notes, per se. But rather applying them as well as I know them. I pretty much taught myself where the notes were with a quote from an old friend, "There are no notes between E-F, or B-C." From there it is just knowing the strings.

[schiz]

OK, here's pretty much what I did to learn the fretboard. Or at least become much more comfortable with it. I still have a lot to learn... So here's all the notes for the E minor scale up to the 15th fret. They're also the exact same notes as G major. I would practice the e minor scale up and down in the same position at the 12th fret. Then shift to the D at the 10th fret and play all the notes in the same position. Then to the C at the 8th fret and so on. Since frets 12 and up are just an octave up you use the same pattern for the upper notes. Then try three note per string patterns up the fretboard to link all the positions together. For pentatonic scales, just don't play every 2nd and 6th note of the scale. And if the key isn't E minor or G major just shift the root note accordingly. Sight reading will definately help do the job as well. Basically, pratice every way you can think of. But when you're actually playing a solo you wanna be thinking melodies instead of patterns.

Another great idea... Man I got to come here more often...

[Lost_Cause]

Be careful NOT to memorize the piece so that you are really having to figure out the name and where it is.

 

 

I think this is the key (no pun intended) to this because I just went and played Invention #1 just to remind myself how it went and I know the melody all to well and would need to concentrate on reading the music and what notes I am playing rather than just playing the song by memory since I know it. I may have to find some different music that is a little less familiar. It is kind of a catch 22 this way though because it is like playing scales if you do not take the time to learn the fretboard and the notes on the page at the same time otherwise you are just playing the pattern. I can figure out the intervals with a little practice but knowing what it is depending on where you are on the fretboard while reading the music is the key.

 

After reading this and the arpeggio thread I think that I have some work to do.

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

[JoeFender]

try the guitar trainer, here's the link: http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id81_en.html

Nice! Guess I knew it better than I thought!

Anything similar for triads??

[schiz]

A method I would recommend is learning to play the major scale up and down single strings using a fretboard map (showing only the notes in the key you are playing) as a visual aid. Begin with the C Major scale and then progress through the circle of 4ths. Vocalise the note names as you play - this really helps reinforce the note name you are playing, as well as the having the added benfit of aural/pitch training AND learning the notes in the context of a particular key. The problem with trying to read music BEFORE you know the notes on the guitar is just that - you can be reading a G# note on the page and not know where it lies. I would recommend reading in conjunction with the method mentioned above. Another important thing to remember when practicing positional scales is to play them slowly enough to sing the note names and scale degrees. Many guitarists, in an effort to develop speed, try to play scale "patterns" really fast and never take the time to learn the notes in the scale they are playing. I hope this helps : )

You mean like this?

Begin with the C Major scale and then progress through the circle of 4ths .

Foreign language to me...

Note that I have only been playing for a little over a year. I fall into that class of folks that tried to self teach. That lasted about a year. That's when I came to the point where I had spent so much time, and money, in my new found love of guitar, that I decided to find a teacher. Which I have done, but as another thread suggested, my lessons lack structure and I am still not learning a whole lot. Hence, I am here...

[GreenAsJade]

The Guitar Trainer, mentioned above, is not bad, but it's not ideal either.

 

The problem is that really it's going the wrong direction. To be most useful, you need to be able to go from "find an Ab" to finding it, fast.

 

Also, as in another thread near here, sight reading is Good.

 

This is why http://www.guitargames.net/games/fretTester/game.php, which I just discovered today, is really good.

 

It is both sight reading and fretboard practice in one.

 

Shame that the "trial version" seems to stick with only the easy things :S

 

GaJ

[jonfinn]

Are there any good methods to learning all the notes on the fretboard

 

 

I have two questions:

 

1) What are you trying to do that makes you believe that learning the fretboard will help? Sight reading? Improv? what?

 

2) What is your definition of success with that task?

"I've learned the fretbaord when I can_______with my guitar."

[Jasco]

You come up with some great "questions as answers" posts Jon.

[GreenAsJade]

To answer Jon's question, for me:

 

1) What are you trying to do that makes you believe that learning the fretboard will help?

 

- Improvisation. If I know that it would be interesting to try out a Bb at this point, but I can't quickly find that note, I'm handicapped. Also, and possibly more frequently, "gee, that sounded good what I just did ... now... what did I just do, and how does it relate to what's going on in the music? Dang, I have no clue, because I don't know what notes I actually played".

 

- Jamming. Pretty similar I guess. Someone says, hey, can you ... and you can't because you can't quickly find the notes.

 

2) "I've learned the fretboard when I can think of, or be asked for, a note and play it with my guitar in any place on the fretboard, so I know what notes I'm playing when I solo, can use that knowledge to help more note selection, can tell someone else what I'm doing, and can respond to their input on what might be good to do."

 

Thats all

 

GaJ

[guitaruboy]

oh!
i recently had to learn the postions really fast. see i'm playing guitar in our schools rendition of the musical footloose.
so what i did was (since i'm more of a chord guy) was write in the notes in the book, then when i was trying to play the single note lines i looked at a diagram whenever i didn't know a notes spot
pretty soon i had all of them without trouble and now i'm working on sight reading from music better

[Rumble Bass]

I have two questions: 1) What are you trying to do that makes you believe that learning the fretboard will help? Sight reading? Improv? what? 2) What is your definition of success with that task? "I've learned the fretbaord when I can_______with my guitar."

 

 

I've been playing guitar for years and still struggle finding notes quickly onthe fretboard. I constantly find myself "counting" frets to find notes and its frustrating that I don't just know where notes are. I'm trapped in the "box" as I know the notes on the E strings so I default to those positions and would love to expand my range.

 

Definition of success is when I can play any note on the fretboard and say the name of it within 1 second.

 

Lots of great ideas on here. I like the sight reading suggestion. Need to find some music on line to try this out. Thanks.