Tips from Mark Hanson

[stevemc]

Mark has started a monthly "Tips from Mark" e-mail newsletter with guitar playing tips and information. Mark has some great instruction books out on fingerstyle. I just got the first "Tips from Mark" newsletter that is titled "Understanding the Guitar Neck". Looks like they're going to be real interesting whether you play fingerstyle or not. If you want to subscribe you can sign up at www.accentonmusic.com/newsletter.html. It's free!
SM

[joe white]

I tried the link, but it wouldn't go.

[Acoustics4ed]

Ditto

wont work for me either.........

[swiss cheese]

It works if you suppress the point at the end of the URL !

[stevemc]

Thanks swiss cheese!
Sorry guys, I had an extra period on the end as swiss cheese pointed out. Try www.accentonmusic.com/newsletter.html
SM

[swiss cheese]

your welcome stevemc

I've signed up. I am waiting for the first tips

[Bill_K]

I am going to try to copy his tip into this message. Hope it works.

UNDERSTANDING THE GUITAR NECK -- THE CASE FOR "WHITE
NOTES" ON THE GUITAR

By Mark Hanson


Do you know the names of the notes on the first and
sixth strings of your guitar? Knowing them is a great
and easy way to begin understanding the entire guitar
neck.


C-Major Scale - The "White" Notes

Likely you know that the white notes on a piano make
up a C-major scale. (There are seven white notes and
five black notes in an octave on the piano.) Because
of their color, the C-major notes on the piano are
easy to see. Unfortunately, they are NOT so easy to
see on the guitar.

However, you can quite easily learn to see the "white"
notes on the two outside strings (first and sixth) of
a guitar in standard tuning by recognizing most of the
dots on the guitar neck as notes of a C-major scale.



Dots on the Guitar Neck

Most steel-string guitar necks have dots at the
odd-numbered frets: third, fifth, seventh, and ninth.
The 12th-fret double dot indicates an octave above the
open-string note. Many jazz guitars have a dot at the
first fret as well. Imagine that your guitar has a dot
at the first fret, even if it doesn't.

To see the "white" notes on the first and sixth
strings in standard tuning, start at the nut. The open
string is E. The odd-numbered dotted frets, 1 - 3 - 5
- 7, are the ensuing "white" notes of the C-major
scale. At the 0 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 frets, you have E - F
- G - A - B notes. If you don't know that already,
memorize it. Memorizing it should be easy since you
already know G (third fret on the outside strings)
from a basic G chord; and the fifth-fret note on the
bass string equals the open fifth string, an A note.

To find the other two notes of a C-major scale -- C
and D -- on the outside strings, imagine a dot on each
side of the ninth fret. "C" is the eighth-fret note,
and "D" is the 10th-fret note on those two strings. So
the full-octave C-major scale on the first and sixth
strings uses these frets: 0 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 10 -
12.

To find the five "black" notes -- the sharps and flats
-- on the outside strings, simply move up one fret for
a sharp, and down one fret for a flat. For instance,
G# is located at the fourth fret, one fret above G;
B-flat is located at the sixth fret, one fret below B.

Here's a chart of the notes on the various frets of
the first and sixth strings, in standard tuning:

0 - E
1 - F
2 - F# or G-flat
3 - G
4 - G# or A-flat
5 - A
6 - A# or B-flat
7 - B
8 - C
9 - C# or D-flat
10 - D
11 - D# or E-flat
12 - E


The Ninth-Fret Dot

If I were a guitar maker, I would erase the dot at the
ninth fret and replace it with two dots: one at the
eighth fret and another at the tenth. With dots at the
1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 10 - 12 frets, a guitarist could
easily see all the "white" notes on the first and
sixth strings, just as a pianist sees them on a piano.

In January 2002, I had a humorous discussion on this
subject with guitar maker James Goodall from Hawaii at
the Anaheim NAMM show. He thought my dot-placement
proposition made perfect sense, but HE wasn't going to
change it on HIS guitars -- too much tradition to
overcome.

So it seems until I start my own guitar company (in my
next life, perhaps!), for you to use my "white notes"
visualization method you will have to IMAGINE dots at
the eighth and tenth frets on your guitar in order to
see the "C" and "D" notes on the two outside strings.
(I don't recommend "white out" correction fluid for
this purpose! Perhaps a bit of tape at the eighth and
tenth frets would suffice, if need be.)


Exercises

A good exercise for memorizing the note names on the
outside strings is to play six-string barre chords
with an "E" fingering in front of the barre. With this
fingering, the "root" note of the chord (the name of
the chord) is on the first and sixth strings. For
instance, a barre at the fifth fret with an E
fingering in front of the barre is an A chord, because
the fifth-fret note on the bass and treble strings is
an A. The same fingering at the eighth fret is a C
chord, because the eighth-fret note on the outside
strings is C.

Playing songs using mostly barre chords may make your
fretting hand ache (Don't hurt yourself!). But you
will learn to "see" the notes on the bass and treble
strings, which will help you considerably in your
subsequent efforts to learn more complex fingerings
"up the neck."

Have fun!

Mark Hanson


P.S. Knowing the "white notes" on the two outside
strings is the basis for a book I am writing about
chord construction and recognition, due out in the
summer of 2002.

P.S.S. If you find these "Tips from Mark" of interest,
please feel free to pass them along to your
guitar-playing friends. If your friends would enjoy
being on our e-mail list, have them sign up at
<A
HREF="http://www.accentonmusic.com/newsletter.html">http://www.accentonmusic.
com/newsletter.html</A>

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[PaulLePine]

Gosh, this is my first exposure to Mark Hanson, and with all the good press he's gotten, I don't want to make a sweeping judgement.

But I think he's made a simple topic into a very confusing lesson here.

I already know the notes on the two E strings, which is the goal here. But his explanations and diversions just confused me.

Is it just me?

[mapletrees]

Pepe Le Pew.....

darn it....I forgot what I was going to say.....

[rls]

Don't know if it's just you or not, but for me it sure was a helpful explanation. (Maybe since you already know your way around the frett board - ?)

I know the piano keyboard and have always had to visualize it when trying to grasp music theory concepts, etc. I'm just learning guitar. For me it was right on target. Now I don't have to "count up" to find the right spot for a barre chord.

I really like his other instructional materials too. Suits my needs to a tee.

[Camalex]

Why are these silly dots on the fret board. And now I know its because of tradition.. not anything that relates to notes or music. Well what a fine tradition to keep up. I think Mark has actually identified a flaw in guitar construction that some brave sole (like Taylor) should correct. Once you can see the white notes of the E string vis-a-vis the fret marker, I'd have to assume the other strings will fall right into place. Or maybe not. But its' an interesting post in any case.

[kevin]

Originally posted by Camalex
Once you can see the white notes of the E string vis-a-vis the fret marker, I'd have to assume the other strings will fall right into place. Or maybe not. But its' an interesting post in any case.

If you're in standard tuning, they wouldn't. Only the first and sixth strings would work, since only a string tuned to open E has that particular sequence of "white" notes. (To use technical terminology, the suggested markings would represent the Phrygian mode.) The second string would have dots at the C (1), D (3), E(5), F# (7), G (8), A (10), and B (12). The third string would have dots at the Ab (1), Bb (3), C (5), D (7), Eb (8), F (10), and G (12). The fourth string would have dots at two accidentals and the fifth would have one dot at an accidental.

And if you capo'd the guitar, you may end up confused if you rely on the dots too much.

The dots at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 12th frets make sense (to me) because they cover the fretboard pretty well. No matter what position your hand is in, you're guaranteed to have at least one, probably two, fret markers to refer to. But it's probably just a question of what you're used to.

In my opinion, the whole "white/black key" distinction is a confusing artifact of piano keyboards... when I was learning some jazz piano, a big part was "unlearning" the distinction between black and white keys, to facilitate playing in "weird" keys like Eb and Ab.

On the other hand, fret dot markers are seen by some as crutches. (Check out the classical guitar section of your local guitar store and look at the necks... if it has dot markers, it's not a "real" classical. ) I'm not opposed to them, but I occasionally try to play some pieces with my eyes closed, to improve my sense of "feeling" the fingerboard. I find that once I've learned a piece well, I can play it blind, even when it has rapid, large (5+ fret) position jumps.

-k