memorizing the fretboard notes

[elegend]

is it worth it to memorize all the notes on the fretboard? and if i do so will it help me to solo better? and how?

[Austinrocks]

Would not recommend memorizing the notes on the fretboard, I would suggest that you know the notes, and know how they are used in music, memorization is something you do for a test and forget after the test is over. Knowing the notes and how they relate to music is much more powerful.

Suggestions:

1) Write down all the notes on the fretboard on a piece of paper, all the notes open to the 22 or 24 fret, throw away the paper, and do this a few times you should know the notes in your head automatically not have a peice of paper that you can refer to, takes me a couple of minutes to do this. Should be the same for you after you have done is couple times.

2) learn the notes in the chords, and know their relationships, root, 3rd, 5th, and learn the extended chords as well, you really should know all notes in the chords that you play. Flash cards are good for this, knowing the note in the chords will help you know whicn notes you can use, which will help your solos by having more notes you can play, this will also help you understand how songs are constructed, certain chords work with other chords, knowing the notes in the chords will help you understand that, you should know the notes automatically, without having to think about it, G chord G D B, Am chord A C E, flash cards are good for this.

3) know keys, this is how songs are created, they use a certain key, flash cards are good for this as well, at least know the keys of C G D A E, F Bb Eb these are the most common keys, and know that the keys have relative minors, Key of C is also the Key of A Minor, Key of G is Key of E Minor, its the same relationship as the Major and Minor Pentatonics, the A minor Pentatonic has the same notes as the C major Pentatonic, the A minor scale has the same notes as the C Major Scale. Understanding keys will open up the fretboard for you, you have all the frets available to play in, and you can experiment with different approaches to your solos.

hope this helps.

[rosscoep]

There are only 12. Don't let it overwhelm you. Knowledge=power. The notes have different timbres in different positions; the third fret C on the A string sounds nothing like the 8th fret C on the E string but it is the same note. Have fun.

[brad347]

absolutely.

Anything that can be learned is 'worth it.'

In this particular case, depending on what you're trying to do, it can be invaluable.

google a fun game called "fretboard warrior;" it's freeware.

You'll have them learned in no time! Have fun.

[mike80]

I wouldn't say you have to know every note on the fretboard, but it's good to know where you are at any given point. If you're soloing out of an E, you'll want to know where the E is on the B string, and so forth.

[violetlove]

Backing up what Austinrocks said, I am learning the notes by learning their relationships to the chords I am playing, trying to kill 2 birds wiht one stone
eg

0
0
0
0
5
3 is a G5 power chord, telling me that teh G is teh root, and the D is the 5th, and as you know, this pattern repeats everywhere on teh fretboard.
So, this note
0
0
0
0
2
0 , a B on the A string, is the third note in the scale, and likewise, this pattern repeats. Once you have that down, then you can easily find the rest of the notes in a scale by their proximity to the root, 3rd and 5th.
The other trick I use to find notes, is the octaves.
So, if you know the roots for all your power chords on the 5th and 6th strings, which you probably do, then the 1st string is the same as the 6th, use your octaves for the 3rd and fourth strings, which only leaves the second string to actually work on a bit.
The repetition exercises of "writing lines" and flash cards are great. I sure learnt a lot of trigonometry and neuroanatomy writing stuff out. I hadn't thought of flash cards, I'm gonna make some.

[Austinrocks]

working off the octaves is good, I also have reference notes that I play off of as well, which help me find the key easily,

I know were the all the E notes are automatically and work of those, they are close to the F and F# which I can use for a key of C or G song, G notes and A notes are automatic as well, I work of the A to get the B or Bb for a Key of C or key of F song. Really suprises me how many songs are in the key of F

The chords are really good for determining the key, chords only work in a limited number of keys

G chord G B D works in key of C G D

Am chord A C E works in key of C G F

D chord D F# A works in key of C G D

and so on and so forth really makes it easy to solo in any song, with out resorting to patterns.



My teacher suggested flash cards, and he suggested writing the notes down, however at the time I showed him that it was totally unnecessary since I already knew the notes, and chords and keys, from playing piano, though I am totally self taught there.

[cram]

I'd term it like this -

learn the shapes and patterns of scales and learn how they relate to a given key sig..

Just as if you're learning how to move a barchord up the neck or moving any chord around, you can realize the patterns of this within the modes of the major scale or even how they relate to the simple penatonic scale.

some may say that learning patterns puts you in a box, but I think learning patterns and relations will put you at the doorstep of many possibilities as you will hear them with practice.

a key spot in my experience or atleast an "AHAH" moment was in learning the reason why the full chords of a major scale are 1maj7, 2min7,3min7, 4maj7, 5dom7, 6min7,7min7b5.

This just by knowing all the positions and patterns of a scale throughout the neck point to these and when I overlayed the chord patterns I could see clearly why it all lined up.

this is part of the reason why I love music. it seems to be infinite when you put all the possibilities together even in theory.

[Daniel B.]

I tend to think of music in terms of numerical steps rather than letters. I can move more quickly when navigating the fretboard. Instead of G A B C, it's 1234. Just need to remember where the half steps are. If you're playing chords just know which chords correspond with each step.

[shihanderek]

I agree with Brad. Knowing the notes on the fretboard can be very valuable. However, if you don't mix that with knowing the notes (# & b's) in each key, not sure how useful it is.

Brad is also right about fretboardwarrior.com Decent game for getting the board down. Good luck.

[rotren]

I say YES! Knowledge is power indeed. Why guess when you can know.

I find that it's even more valuable to be able to determine what interval you are playing, relative to the chord being played, at all times. That's how I think when I play.

[jzucker]

spend your time doing musical exercises instead. Transcribe and learn to analyze the solos. If you're serious, take a theory class which will give you a broader perspective on the note choices and how they relate to the chord progressions. And most of all, don't listen to advice from internet chat forums. ;)

[Redhouse-Blues]

I learned all the notes by playing an exercise my guitar teacher taught me, each day I would pick one note and find it on each string, then do a note relay with the metronome, after a few days I had them down.

[Austinrocks]

I learned all the notes by playing an exercise my guitar teacher taught me, each day I would pick one note and find it on each string, then do a note relay with the metronome, after a few days I had them down.

Very cool you taught me something new,

thanks :banana

[High Voltage]

If you have any intention of becoming a good sight reader you have to know the whole neck up and down cold.

[bmetelits]

I learned all the notes by playing an exercise my guitar teacher taught me, each day I would pick one note and find it on each string, then do a note relay with the metronome, after a few days I had them down.


What is a note relay?

[violetlove]

I learned all the notes by playing an exercise my guitar teacher taught me, each day I would pick one note and find it on each string, then do a note relay with the metronome, after a few days I had them down.

I'm gonna try that.

[Redhouse-Blues]

What is a note relay?

You pick a note, let's say an "A" and you bounce around from A to A in time with the metronome. So, your going A 5th fret 6th string, A 12th fret 5th string, A 7th fret 4th string, A 2nd fret 3rd string, A 10 fret 2nd string and A 5th fret 1st string and you hit a note on each beat. You can skip strings and bounce around, do a new note each day.

[elgalad]

You pick a note, let's say an "A" and you bounce around from A to A in time with the metronome. So, your going A 5th fret 6th string, A 12th fret 5th string, A 7th fret 4th string, A 2nd fret 3rd string, A 10 fret 2nd string and A 5th fret 1st string and you hit a note on each beat. You can skip strings and bounce around, do a new note each day.

I like this idea a lot. I imagine it would really help with your scale knowledge as well - being able to say "I want to play in A minor" then knowing the location of every root note would make it easier to think about in terms of intervals.

That's something I need to work on - so note relays it is!

[Redhouse-Blues]

I like this idea a lot. I imagine it would really help with your scale knowledge as well - being able to say "I want to play in A minor" then knowing the location of every root note would make it easier to think about in terms of intervals.

That's something I need to work on - so note relays it is!

Along the same lines, this helped me in learning where to resolve my licks.

[dkaplowitz]

You pick a note, let's say an "A" and you bounce around from A to A in time with the metronome. So, your going A 5th fret 6th string, A 12th fret 5th string, A 7th fret 4th string, A 2nd fret 3rd string, A 10 fret 2nd string and A 5th fret 1st string and you hit a note on each beat. You can skip strings and bounce around, do a new note each day.
Ahhh the old manual delay/octave arpeggiator. ;) Nice exercise.

And most of all, don't listen to advice from internet chat forums. ;)
Here here! :D

[Clifford-D]

Learn the C major scale


|----------------------|
|---1-3-5-6-8-10-12-13-|
|----------------------|
|----------------------|
|----------------------|
|----------------------|


Next, learn the location of just the C note on all 6 strings

8
1
5
10
3
8

memorize that sequence 8, 1, 5, 10, 3, 8 hi to lo

Next, play the C maj scale starting on each string,
up and down each string with no string switching.

next, memorize the neighbors to the C note, the D and B notes.

Up one whole step to D
10
3
7
12/0
5
10

Down 1/2 step to B
7
0/12
4
9
2
7

C D and B cover a bit of territory and is an excellent start.
Combining fretboard mechanics and scale theory.
The rest quickly follows.

Best to bring up mechanics and scale info together
don't leave one in the dust.

[Glide]

I picked up a good picture chord book named The Gig Bag Book of Picture Chords for All Guitarists by Len Vogler.

Link: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=0825614864&pdf=y

http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/20150000/20152070.JPG

When you look inside the book it breaks down all the chords according to the notes they are made up of like this:

http://www.prsregistry.com/d13.jpg

As you can see, D13 is made up of C, F#, B, and D.

So I created a little fretboard chart in Excel with every single note on the fretboard displayed. Here it is below. Just so you don't have to thumb through the chord book, on the left are the major chords and on the right the sharps. The row across the top are the 6 strings and the row from top to bottom on the left are the frets. So if anyone asks you what the note on the 5th string 8th fret is you can see it is F.

http://www.prsregistry.com/fretboardchart.jpg

So whenever you are writing and you are trying to construct a lead you can look at the notes that make up the chord using the chord book and then simply find those same notes on this fretboard chart above and it will sound great. For my songwriting, it was just a different way to look at, and construct things rather than using scales in a certain key. It gets you down to the lowest common denominator and you can build from there.

So for the chord above (D13) you could use C, F#, B and D notes on the fretboard chart.

Hope this helps.

[Jon]

Ahhh the old manual delay/octave arpeggiator. ;) Nice exercise.


Here here! :D

I was taught the same exercise years ago. I saw Larry Carlton a few years ago and he played a lick ending on a particular note, then after a pause he played the same note on another string, then after another pause he played the same note all over the fretboard in different octaves at lightening speed. The audience whooped & hollered & he grinned at us & said "nah.. I just got lucky then". Cool.

[Fourth Feline]

absolutely.

Anything that can be learned is 'worth it.'

In this particular case, depending on what you're trying to do, it can be invaluable.

google a fun game called "fretboard warrior;" it's freeware.

You'll have them learned in no time! Have fun.

Thanks for the 'Fretboard Warrior' link Brad, very good indeed ! :AOK