Any tricks to learn fretboard?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by MC5C

A friend of mine was doing a masters degree in music, and did a thesis on learning the fretboard, which I participated in. We got a specific published method of fretboard learning to work on each week (CAGED. Segovia, scales in all positions, etc), around 12 in all, and each week the test was to play two random notes on each string, 12 different notes in all, timed to see how long it took to play all 12 notes. A couple of quite unexpected results came out of it. First was that not one of the many methods actually had an effect on knowing where the notes are on the fretboard from the point of view of being able to play them fluidly. None of the participants showed significant improvement from any one method. Second was that many of the methods are purely chord pattern based (CAGED) or scale based (hammer out C major scales everywhere), but had no relation to note names or positions on the fretboard. None of the methods helped, or even tried to help, with learning intervals (what is the flat 5 of A major, instinctively and intuitively - I still have to count.) So it boils down to rote memorization, time on the instrument, and most importantly, in my opinion, a deep understanding of why each note is important in the key/chord/harmony you are playing. Interestingly also, professional jazz players were at least twice as fast at the test as the best student (including university level students) players in the test.

Interesting. Fluidity in playing comes from playing music, not scales, Imo.

It might be a good exercise to develop a melody that travels up the C scale, for example, then learn to play it at different octaves up the neck while memorizing the notes.

Jazz players are shredders in slow motion, lol, no surprise there.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by MC5C

A friend of mine was doing a masters degree in music, and did a thesis on learning the fretboard, which I participated in. We got a specific published method of fretboard learning to work on each week (CAGED. Segovia, scales in all positions, etc), around 12 in all, and each week the test was to play two random notes on each string, 12 different notes in all, timed to see how long it took to play all 12 notes. A couple of quite unexpected results came out of it. First was that not one of the many methods actually had an effect on knowing where the notes are on the fretboard from the point of view of being able to play them fluidly. None of the participants showed significant improvement from any one method. Second was that many of the methods are purely chord pattern based (CAGED) or scale based (hammer out C major scales everywhere), but had no relation to note names or positions on the fretboard. None of the methods helped, or even tried to help, with learning intervals (what is the flat 5 of A major, instinctively and intuitively - I still have to count.) So it boils down to rote memorization, time on the instrument, and most importantly, in my opinion, a deep understanding of why each note is important in the key/chord/harmony you are playing. Interestingly also, professional jazz players were at least twice as fast at the test as the best student (including university level students) players in the test.

Interesting, though I was a lot slower than a week. It took me about 2 months of really concentrated effort to feel like I "know" the fretboard. I didn’t find any of the published methods particularly useful, though.

To the OP, I started by learning landmarks, I had open strings and the length of the 6 and 5 strings before I really started to focus on the rest. Then, I memorized the 5th fret and the 10th because all the frets have natural notes so I could use those as landmarks. Octaves were an easy next step. It's obvious that going down strings 6 to 1 on one fret will move in 4ths except for the B string, so knowing the order of 4ths is really useful because that same order is repeated all over the fretboard, too, just starting at different points. I didn't learn note names for these, though, because it seemed to me the last thing I really needed to know was the names of individual notes randomly played. I felt I needed to focus on intervals.

I already knew how intervals form chords, i.e. a major triad is 135, a major 3rd and perfect 5th, or a major third with a minor 3rd stacked on top of it. What I wanted to know was how those intervals are formed on the fretboard in standard tuning so that I could form a major chord on the fly starting anywhere in any key. Instead of memorizing note names, I focused on seeing how playable interval shapes are formed on the fretboard and, of course, they are formed the same way all over it - one way on the strings tuned a 4th apart just adjusted one fret when moving to the B string.

So, to do this, and here's where it gets weird, I ignored note names and used solfege syllables because they are the same in any key. For me, it was much easier to remember that do-mi is a major 3rd and mi-so is a minor 3rd, so do-mi-so is the major I chord in any key anywhere on the fretboard. These "notes" have the same relationships to mi-so-ti, or so-ti-re, or whatever, no matter where I choose to play it. It was also easier to think of the order of 4ths as ti-mi-la-re-so-do-fa repeated anywhere than to remember particular note names and, at the same time, I could relate those syllables back to the scale or the chord or whatever. The way I see it, learning D F# A will tell you one spelling of one major chord, but knowing do-mi-so and how to play it anywhere will give you the I chord in any major key and let you know where you are in that key so that you can also play the ii, iii, IV, V....

When I was first learning this, I did learn the solfege syllables actually lined up on the fretboard correctly (treating it like a fixed do system), so that, for example, the 5th fret 6th string is “la” (A in Cmajor), for example. That way all the memorizing of the solfege syllables did double duty. I was learning a way of seeing the fretboard that was much more useful for me, but I could also "translate" that knowledge into note names if I wanted to.