https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:25:40 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/paged/2/#post-233770 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:53:29 +0000

I can see with most things it may come down to a matter of preference or opinion. Reminds me of one of my professors. Whenever there was a big exam, or any exam for that matter, there were always people who would ask what is going to be on the test. I guess after being asked so many times he would impart his wisdom about learning--it went something like this (paraphrase):

Its never a question of what you need to know but how much can know.

I think his point here was that never ask how much you need to know because obviously you need to know as much as you can possibly retain in order to be prepared for any situation and to be all around "knowledgeable" about the given subject, not to just be able to pass some exam. I had this professor several times in my studies and have never forgotten his words. It has never failed me in practice either.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Kaizer Szozé https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/paged/2/#post-233770 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/paged/2/#post-233755 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:29:15 +0000
Different guy.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Chris C https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/paged/2/#post-233755 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/paged/2/#post-233749 Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:53:30 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion clockworked https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/paged/2/#post-233749 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233666 Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:34:00 +0000
http://www.musictheory.net/]]> Guitar Players Discussion ldavis04 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233666 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233611 Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:17:29 +0000 name of all the positions instantly.

Maybe others differ, but if I want to find a bunch of notes quickly - and when I'm improvising I need to know how to find a hell of a lot of notes very quickly indeed - I don't mentally start reeling off note names and comparing them with a mental map of the whole fretboard. (Perhaps others do?)

Instead I use a different type of 'mental map'. This one tells me where notes are in relation to each other and relative to my starting point. If I start on any note I know what lies to the left and right, and above and below, musically speaking that is. I don't really even care all that much what they're called by that stage of the game, so long as I know where to find the important notes in my musical scheme.

Before I even started to learn to play the guitar I spent a fair bit of time staring at a map of the fretboard and highlighting various aspects and arrangements of notes - trying to understand why a guitar was laid out and tuned that way. What I learned gave me an understanding that I now find a lot more useful than just being able to point to a position and say 'that's an F#' or whatever.

Perhaps it's easy to dismiss that as fanciful, or missing the point, but I've since discovered that there's at least one respected musician who makes his living selling exactly the same insights that I worked out back then (I confirmed it by writing to him and explaining how I saw it). So I'm happy that it works and that - at least for me - it's the most useful way of 'seeing' the fretboard. :)

I guess that's one of the great things about music - we all have our own way of seeing it, and our own style of playing. :wink:

Cheers,

Chris]]> Guitar Players Discussion Chris C https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233611 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233601 Mon, 12 Mar 2007 15:48:02 +0000
I learned the guitar ten years ago and the following site (one of the pioneers in the internet related of the guitar) has been really helpful to me in order to learn the fretboard. And yes, you have to know all the notes after all!!

Enjoy!

http://www.essentialguitar.com/]]> Guitar Players Discussion Rgalvez https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233601 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233595 Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:20:32 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion Ignar Hillström https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233595 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233568 Mon, 12 Mar 2007 04:11:22 +0000
The neck pattern repeats exactly from the 12th fret (with the two dots) so the 12th is obviously also E,A,D,G,B,E. And because of the way the guitar is tuned, it doesn't take much work to spot that the notes at the 5th fret are A,D,G,C,E, A.

So if you know those (and most players pretty much know most of that already) then you're never more than 1, 2 or at the most 3 frets from the answer to any other position. Just count either up or back down a string from the ones you know.

But, as I said, knowing all the names in 'line order' is of fairly limited value. What you really want to know is how they relate to each other musically. And the best way to learn that is in the context of some real music - working out songs, chords, scale patterns for solos, or whatever it is you're really trying to get the hang of.

As jason brann said, after a while it just seems to fall into place naturally through usage.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Chris C https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233568 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233508 Sun, 11 Mar 2007 21:03:09 +0000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_IL8zzDXwE WOw, I just watched a bucnh of his videos. Amazing.]]> Guitar Players Discussion Kevin72790 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233508 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233496 Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:30:20 +0000 Guitar Players Discussion Anonymous https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/learning-the-fret-board/#post-233496