Complete Fretboard Knowledge, How well do you know your frets? Options

[Brandon Earman]

Hey GMC, I'm wondering how many of you instructors and/or expert players out there know your fretboard up and down note wise. For instance, you can put your finger on any fret on the guitar and within 1 second know which note that is. It seems like if you knew this, improv and any style would become so much easier.

If you do have this down, please share your advice for memorizing the notes.

Thanks in advance.

-Brandon

[David Wallimann]

Hey GMC, I'm wondering how many of you instructors and/or expert players out there know your fretboard up and down note wise. For instance, you can put your finger on any fret on the guitar and within 1 second know which note that is. It seems like if you knew this, improv and any style would become so much easier.

If you do have this down, please share your advice for memorizing the notes.

Thanks in advance.

-Brandon

I don't... I should.. I will!
:-)

[skennington]

I don't... I should.. I will!
:-)

WHAT! Man I got a long ways to go....

[Muris Varajic]

I can name you any note on the fretboard in one sec as you asked
BUT that doesn't have much to do with improvising after all.
It's good for navigation ofc like when you jump from one position to another
but after that we pretty much use familiar fingerings
we learned by playing scales over and over and over,
simple cause we can't process name of each note in real time as we play, play a bit faster.

My advice would be just to think of the notes you play every once in a while,
stop at one point and ask yourself which note is that you're playing.
Dots are also good and very useful, use them.

edit: and learn scales in theory if you can, learn notes for every scale,
knowing name for each degree in every scale will surely help as well.

This post has been edited by Muris Varajic: Oct 15 2009, 01:09 AM

[Ramiro Delforte]

Regarding this topic I've made a few lessons that I think they'll help you to achieve this goal

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/recogn...ons_101_part_1/

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/ls/recogn...ons_101_part_2/

I hope you find them useful!

[-Zion-]

I can name you any note on the fretboard in one sec as you asked
BUT that doesn't have much to do with improvising after all.
It's good for navigation ofc like when you jump from one position to another
but after that we pretty much use familiar fingerings
we learned by playing scales over and over and over,
simple cause we can't process name of each note in real time as we play, play a bit faster.

My advice would be just to think of the notes you play every once in a while,
stop at one point and ask yourself which note is that you're playing.
Dots are also good and very useful, use them.

edit: and learn scales in theory if you can, learn notes for every scale,
knowing name for each degree in every scale will surely help as well.

wow.. thats really interesting actually..
i always thought that knowing the notes by heart, would make me a much more awesome guitar player and improviser, but now you are telling me that this aint truly the case.. it will make it easier to "jump around", but you rely on scale shapes..

really interesting.. thanks..
guess i will have to do some scale practice then..

btw.. at what point should you start to learn a new scale? i have more or less been playing the pentatonic major/minor scales for the past year, and while i am definately improving on it and finding it easier and easier to locate a starting point for playing, i still dont think i am utilizing the scale good enough yet..

I had begun practicing the major scale, and i actually know the positions, but i am actually finding it a bit difficult to incorporate those last two notes in my playing..somehow i don't think it sounds thats good..

so i guess my question is, do i begin practicing a new scale as soon as i know the patterns and can play them so-so, or should i wait until i can play the scale by heart and can make it sound musical?!

This post has been edited by -Zion-: Oct 15 2009, 08:49 AM

[Matt23]

I can, and yes it is very useful. I used a program called Fretpro to learn all the notes.

[Emir Hot]

I think I would know every note if you tell me the fret and the string. I agree with Muris, I don't think of that when I improvise. I think of the shape not the full/half steps or note names. I just know which shape to use and it works for me

[Ivan Milenkovic]

I can probably tell each note in more or less of a second if you point me there, but as Muris and Emir said already, it's more about relations between the notes, scales and chords regarding improvising.
You have to know the scale patterns (and arpeggio patterns over them) inside out - that is the beginning.
After a while you should develop relative ear in such manner so you tie the intervals to notes if that makes sense. For every note you play, you should be able to anticipate the next one you come up with and know where the finger will go (you don't have to know the note name, but how that note sounds).
Same goes for sequences, if you want to play sequence, like a run for example, you should anticipate the pattern and where it ends. This sounds a bit hard to do, but actually through lot of hard work (constant playing of scales, patterns, arpeggios etc) it slowly becomes second nature in a very straightforward, easy and natural way.

This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Oct 15 2009, 12:53 PM

[Matt23]

Even if you don't think knowing the notes doesn't help improvising much, it does help a lot of other things.

[Emir Hot]

Even if you don't think knowing the notes doesn't help improvising much, it does help a lot of other things.

Of course. The more you know, the better

[Muris Varajic]

Even if you don't think knowing the notes doesn't help improvising much, it does help a lot of other things.

Nobody said that not knowing notes is a plus,
thing is that we are not able to process name of every note when we play in realtime,
we either need faster CPU or more RAM, not sure.

[Matt23]

Nobody said that not knowing notes is a plus,
thing is that we are not able to process name of every note when we play in realtime,
we either need faster CPU or more RAM, not sure.

. Seriously though if I'm not playing fast, I'm just playing reasonably slow and melodically, I use my knowledge of notes to help me improvise, so I think if you're not shredding knowing your notes can help improvising.

[Muris Varajic]

. Seriously though if I'm not playing fast, I'm just playing reasonably slow and melodically, I use my knowledge of notes to help me improvise, so I think if you're not shredding knowing your notes can help improvising.

You still talking about knowing names of every note in realtime
or knowing degrees and how they sound?
Cause that's not the same.

[Matt23]

You still talking about knowing names of every note in realtime
or knowing degrees and how they sound?
Cause that's not the same.

Well I do use my knowledge of intervals as well when I improvise, but yeh I'm still talking about knowing note names in real time.

[Muris Varajic]

Well I do use my knowledge of intervals as well when I improvise, but yeh I'm still talking about knowing note names in real time.

Well that might work for some slower lines etc.
I'm not saying that it's pointless to know names
but it's really impossible to tell every name to yourself when
doing anything a bit faster.
Also it's hard to analyze that, we would need some software
installed in our brains to tells us how really we are aware of every single note name
in realtime as well play.
My guess is still that we are no able to process every single one at high speeds.

[Matt23]

Well that might work for some slower lines etc.
I'm not saying that it's pointless to know names
but it's really impossible to tell every name to yourself when
doing anything a bit faster.
Also it's hard to analyze that, we would need some software
installed in our brains to tells us how really we are aware of every single note name
in realtime as well play.
My guess is still that we are no able to process every single one at high speeds.

Yeh at higher speeds I use patterns, licks and intervals, but at lower speeds, knowing notes is very useful, especially when you're soloing with chord tones.

[Muris Varajic]

BTW, I'm entering chat right now so we can discuss this topic there.

[sted]

Yeah, my old instructor was a machine when it came to notes, scales, intervals etc he could sight read classical pieces almost immediately BUT....he was trained since the age of about 7 or 8 and instantly knew the relationships between all the notes, which I am sure is where the secret lies to better playing.

[Muris Varajic]

Yeah, my old instructor was a machine when it came to notes, scales, intervals etc he could sight read classical pieces almost immediately BUT....he was trained since the age of about 7 or 8 and instantly knew the relationships between all the notes, which I am sure is where the secret lies to better playing.

I don't believe you MUST start at that age to master fretboard eventually,
it's never late, it's work, work and work.