90 days to fretboard freedom

[islandguitar]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

I'm following. Behind a bit due to lack of time (and, tbh, lack of practice discipline) but definintely following. Keep up the good work.

Yep, me too..........have been working up to recording one of my own tunes and that's taken a bit off the schedule for me.

[Arthur Blake]

Running into the same roadblocks I seem to hit every other time I tried this kind of fretboard memorization. Starting to feel like a blinking idiot.

Getting really good drawing a diagram with all notes frets 1-12, but not at all sure it's helping remember - which is disappointing because I thought it would help to learn by writing them.

Those notes are scattered all over the place. I am getting a lot quicker moving up each string and knowing/seeing notes, but not really recalling where they are in any sort of cohesive way.

Maybe I just need patience.

It was a 90 day plan after all, and I'm only about a week in. Will make a point of sticking with it.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by Arthur Blake

Running into the same roadblocks I seem to hit every other time I tried this kind of fretboard memorization. Starting to feel like a blinking idiot.

Getting really good drawing a diagram with all notes frets 1-12, but not at all sure it's helping remember - which is disappointing because I thought it would help to learn by writing them.

Those notes are scattered all over the place. I am getting a lot quicker moving up each string and knowing/seeing notes, but not really recalling where they are in any sort of cohesive way.

Maybe I just need patience.

It was a 90 day plan after all, and I'm only about a week in. Will make a point of sticking with it.

I'm hoping that when I introduce the octave shapes that it will help things click.

If you're really struggling, focus on the 5th and 6th string for now...try to get that down cold...

[godfreydaniel]

I’m still following. I like the idea of breaking the fretboard into three groups of four frets.

[dingrr]

Still working on it. Sometimes it seems to flow, then at other times I feel like it’s my first try. Coming along though.

[mr. beaumont]

Motivational humpday quote...

"Sometimes I pick up the guitar and it seems to say, 'no, you can't play today.' I keep at it anyway, though."

Jim Hall

[adaw2821]

I think a good alternative to this is to practice only writing down notes in a given key. I think that could actually be even more useful.

[Edgar Poe]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

There was some interest, so let's do this. If you're in, comment below...

If you think knowledge will somehow hurt your creativity...please join us!

Assignment one: pick one tuning to work with. I think standard is best, but if you prefer something else, go for it.

Part 1. Write out your fretboard diagram...every note, every fret (at least 1 thru 12) every string, every day this week. Actually physically write it out. No need to be anywhere near a guitar.

Part 2: spider fingers...on each string, play open, 1st fret, 2nd 3rd 4th, open index middle ring pinky...say the names of your notes as you play them. Then backwards, pinky ring middle index open...At least 3 times a day. Morning, after work, before bed...or whatever. But at least 3 times.

Part 3: keep playing songs and having fun and doing your normal stuff. This stuff is a supplement to making music, not a replacement.

I posted a color coded complete note for note diagram ready to print of the entire fret board to use as a visual to learn the notes on the fret board. Did anyone even look at the diagrams ? I made this diagram myself about 5 years ago. When you see the layout, you realize you only have to learn a small portion of the Fret board then it repeats itself.

Ed

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by adaw2821

I think a good alternative to this is to practice only writing down notes in a given key. I think that could actually be even more useful.

Unless you made sure to do it in ALL keys, no this wouldn't be useful.

[SunnyDee]

Originally Posted by adaw2821

I think a good alternative to this is to practice only writing down notes in a given key. I think that could actually be even more useful.

I would agree with this if it leads to recognizing the patterns on the fretboard, because each key has the same pattern in any given scale.

When I learned the fretboard, I focused on the major scale using solfege and lined that scale up with the notes on the fretboard for Cmajor. (It sounds more complicated than it is. Lefty example: http://www.dee.email/OPEN/layoutfretboard.pdf )
It was extremely efficient because as I learned the patterns with "do" on C (as the fixed "do" system does), I was learning the notes as well, but much more importantly, it meant I was learning the patterns on the fretboard that would apply to the minor scale as well AND, since I could, then, move those patterns (just as moveable "do" does), they would also apply to both of those scales in any key AND be easily adapted to a number of other scales.

Since I had no background in music before guitar, this was a much more useful understanding for me than simply memorizing note names would have been, and since I'm not very good at memorizing, it was actually a lot easier for me. The important thing for me to learn was the patterns on the fretboard as they related to patterns in scales, not the note names, but the note names came along incidentally.

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by Arthur Blake

Maybe I just need patience.

It was a 90 day plan after all, and I'm only about a week in. Will make a point of sticking with it.

It's so tempting to evaluate progress one or two steps in to a routine. It rarely reflects reality.

There are no true shortcuts here. Repetition is your friend. And, even after 90 days, what you will have (if you are diligent) is a foundation, NOT mastery. That's OK. Mastery develops much more quickly with a solid foundation.

[saullacoursiere]

Originally Posted by Edgar Poe

I posted a color coded complete note for note diagram ready to print of the entire fret board to use as a visual to learn the notes on the fret board. Did anyone even look at the diagrams? ...

Ed

Ed,

Neither pictures nor dropbox link showed up for me. Not sure what others are seeing.

Saul

[jdto]

Originally Posted by Edgar Poe

I posted a color coded complete note for note diagram ready to print of the entire fret board to use as a visual to learn the notes on the fret board. Did anyone even look at the diagrams ? I made this diagram myself about 5 years ago. When you see the layout, you realize you only have to learn a small portion of the Fret board then it repeats itself.

Ed

Hi Ed. It was very nice of you to do that, thanks! Unfortunately, I couldn't access the files and it appears they aren't available now.

[mr. beaumont]

Hang in there folks, we are 10 or so days in to 90 days.

And for some people its gonna take more than 90 days. That's fine. It took me years, because I'm lazy.

Hopefully everybody is seeing there's no short cuts. None.

And those looking for scales and stuff, its coming... but it's not step 1. We might not even be at step one yet...this is pre-step one. Bellyscootin.'

And if you print somebody else's filled in chart, you're cheating. Do the work. It's a nice offer, but it's a sure fire way to fail this program.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Motivational humpday quote...

"Sometimes I pick up the guitar and it seems to say, 'no, you can't play today.' I keep at it anyway, though."

Jim Hall

I love that! It does fascinate me how some days the fingers just don't seem to work. I play for an hour or more almost every day, some mornings nothing seems to work, other days it's completely effortless.

I've tried hard to see if there's a pattern. None as far as I can tell. On days when I've partied late the night before, yeah, it makes sense, but the 'no, you can't play today' seems to happen as well at completely random intervals.