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Fretboard Memorization


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Posted

I would pick a different scale each day for the beginning of my practice time and just improvise melodies and try to visualise the notes I was playing and how they lay on the fretboard in the particular key/scale. I'd slowely run each scale in a position up and down saying and thinking the note names without actually looking at the fretboard most of the time. I'd also practice playing a note, then moving to the notes around in by half steps, whole steps, up or down a string or two, and so on. This helps learning where in proximity other notes are from a particular one. Reading through a lot of music also helps in visualising how things lay on the fretboard a lot as well.

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Posted

If you're just looking to memorize pentatonic minor or something, you can start with those "box" patterns. They help you learn chunks of the scale, and when you put them all together, you've got the whole thing. And learn the notes up and down each string, and then each pair of strings. That way you're learning it horizontally and vertically. Then learn where the octaves of notes lay across that scale pattern, and practice playing through the notes in each octave, so if you're playing something in one place on the neck, and you want to continue that idea someplace else, you can just go there and know what the notes are.

It'd probably be best to get fairly familiar with the scale in a single key, and once you've got it half learned in that key, start learning it in other keys. That way you're learning the scale in relation to itself, not just that such-and-such is on the fifth fret, and such-and-such is on the twelfth fret, etc. Also, it's boring to practice in the same key for too long. Switch keys and what you're playing will take on a new character and lead you in new directions.

And always practice with a rhythm track playing. That way you'll be playing music, not just scale exercises. All of soloing is just bending and twisting whats going on in the backing track anyway, so it doesn't make much sense to practice without one.

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Posted

While drills and scales and such are good help, what really works is visualization. Stop, close your eyes, and imagine the fretboard in front of you. Plot out every single note... imagine yourself playing, imagine the notes on the staff, see the letters. There's no specific routine because every brain is different, but you have to visualize the board everyday and really put intense focus into it if you expect to have it in your working memory.

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