Chord Theory

I couldn't disagree more, I think of everything in relative terms. There is no need to tediously study every note name on the fretboard unless you're reading music (but I would suggest learning it for low E to get your bearings strait). I have come to know most of them just from playing and thinking about what im doing and any you don't know can be figured out in a second if you know how to move around the fretboard.

Intervals are much more valuable to a guitarist. And if you learn the major scale notes and intervals then you DO learn all the notes on the fretboard but in much more practical terms. (the notes not in the major scale are all just a # or b away)

And really solidly learning the relative pitches of the strings (i.e. if I move up 2 frets on this string where would that same note be on the other strings) would be more helpful.

On a piano it makes more sense to learn note names, but on a guitar you can't just "see" the notes the way you can on a piano. Its a trade off and the only thing that makes it worth it is a guitar is modular, you don't need to learn all the note names, just what key your in and what scale your using.

I think it depends on the level you're playing at... and I don't think knowing the note names hurts any guitarist.

For example, if you know that F# is the 6th note in A, and you know where the F# notes are... whenever you see A13 in a chord chart, you can just add an F# to an A7 voicing.

Another example: if you're working at learning modes, and you know that Bb is the fourth note in F, knowing the note names lets you play F Lydian by just playing 'F' notes and using B instead of Bb.

Too much knowledge can only become a bad thing if it takes away the fun.

Never had learning something about the guitar not turn out to be fun. In fact, the more I learn, the more fun I have.

Peace

Too much knowledge can only become a bad thing if it takes away the fun.
Part of the fun is in gaining the knowledge, learning new things. Having a certain level of knowledge allows you to spend more time having fun and less time working out the notes to play to have fun.

If you had to think about which pedal to press every time you drove a car, it would become tedious very quickly. The guitar is more complicated, but the same rule applies.

I wasn't trying to say that nexion, knowledge can ONLY help. I don't understand the idea that a lot of people have about theory, that it would somehow limit creativity, when really it does just the opposite.

I didn't mean you should forget about notes cause of course in music notes are somewhat of a big deal. I was just saying rather than tediously studying every note up and down each string (something I had planned one awhile back), you can achieve the same effect by learning the major scale patterns up and down the neck. You could then root your major scale at say C (it could be any scale you knew the note names of) and if you know your intervals and the notes of the c major scale then you could name any note on the fretboard. Same end result, but this way you learn it in a practical way instead of wasting time chromatically learning each note name.

"For example, if you know that F# is the 6th note in A, and you know where the F# notes are... whenever you see A13 in a chord chart, you can just add an F# to an A7 voicing."

In F# if you knew where the 6th interval was you could achieve the same thing without knowing the note names off hand, I still don't see what is gained. Nothing is lost either, it seems to be more of a personal decision on how to organize your thoughts than one being better than the other.

I could see it being VERY useful if you had perfect pitch. Speaking of which side question, could someone with a good memory acheive perfect pitch by really remembering how each note sounded or is it just that your born with it or your not?

I think everyone's post on the second page was misunderstood.

But that is similar to what I meant to say, I was going to study the scales and memorizing the notes and intervals (because right now all I know is the math).

P.S. When I said the thing about too much knowledge being not fun, I meant the process of learning, not the knowledge itself.

I think it depends on the level you're playing at... and I don't think knowing the note names hurts any guitarist.

I agree. When I did the guitar workshop with G. E. Smith this summer, he kept emphasizing to the class how important it was to know the names of the notes on the fretboard. And it was clear from the work we did with him that it really helped you understand better how to build solos and riffs if you were aware of dynamic tensions in intervals and how to resolve them (at least that's the best way I can think of to express what he was showing us.) I can't think of a good reason not to learn them anyway. But I figure if someone as accomplished as G. E. says learn them, we can't go wrong by following his advice!