A tip for learning the fretboard and an online course recommendation

Good morning, Guitaristas!

I have come up with what I believe is an ingenious way to learn the fretboard.

FLASHCARDS!

I made two sets: set #1 has the five string names E-A-D-G-B (don't need two for the E string since the notes are the same on both)

Set #2 - each card has a number 1-14 since I have a 14 fret guitar

Turn them face down, mix up the two piles. Grab one card from each pile, name that note.

Repeat until fretboard is memorized.

This idea was inspired by an online class I signed up for. Teacher is Sean Daniel.
https://www.udemy.com/course/take-yo...-intermediate/

He is very good a explaining the basics of music theory without making it too complicated or boring. He focuses a lot on repeatable shapes and patterns, which makes everything much easier to learn. I find his lessons are really packed with a lot of information in shorter videos, but I prefer having to rewind over having to fast forward. A lot of the online classes I've previewed just have way too much "filler" for me. This one does not.

Sean Daniel also has a YouTube channel with a lot of free tutorials.
https://www.youtube.com/c/seandaniel23/videos

There is non-guitar content on his YT channel, too, so you have to sort and search but what's there is good.

If anyone else has taken this class, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Other ideas on learning the fretboard would also be appreciated.

[Howard Emerson]

Janine,
How is knowing all the notes on the fretboard helpful?

Regards,
Howard Emerson

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Janine,
How is knowing all the notes on the fretboard helpful?

Regards,
Howard Emerson

It's helpful when you want to find a note to know where it's located on the fretboard.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Janine,
How is knowing all the notes on the fretboard helpful?

Regards,
Howard Emerson

That is a good question! I have never needed to know the names of the notes I'm playing, so haven't bothered to learn. If someone asks me what key I'm in then I can work that out pretty easily. And I can tell them the chord progression Nashville style. And that's pretty much all I get asked.

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Janine,
How is knowing all the notes on the fretboard helpful?

Regards,
Howard Emerson

Good morning, Howard,

In short, more creative freedom.

I believe it will help me for improvisation, being able to fill between chords with interesting licks and solos, so I don't just go from chord to chord with nothing in the middle. And then there's always that pesky part in the middle of the song where you have to do something besides just strum to keep it interesting for whoever is listening. Also, it's a really great exercise for the brain to keep sharp.

Knowing all the notes on the fretboard and how to put them together and move easily between them is like knowing all the colors in your paintbox and what will happen when you mix them. Red and blue make purple, yes. But a cool red and a warm blue or vice versa make different shades. And an opaque color vs a transparent color behave differently. Or a granulating pigment vs a non-granulating one will give you very different effects. Just like playing a "E" as the open string, vs. at the 12th fret give you different sounds and effects.

Knowing the freboard is something I don't want to take a shortcut on. It's an investment of time now, that I believe will really pay off in the future. YMMV. Etc. Etc.

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

That is a good question! I have never needed to know the names of the notes I'm playing, so haven't bothered to learn. If someone asks me what key I'm in then I can work that out pretty easily. And I can tell them the chord progression Nashville style. And that's pretty much all I get asked.

I don't think it's a matter of getting quizzed on the topic. As long as you can get around easily and know what you're playing, and it sounds good, that's all that matters. But I am not there yet. I believe learning the fretboard will help me get there. That's why I'm doing it. It doesn't really take that long. It's not as much work as memorizing the multiplication tables, which we probably all did in grade school.

[tbeltrans]

My reason for knowing the notes on the fretboard is that since I know how to "spell" chords and scales of various types (which is where chords come from), I can form any chord or scale anywhere on the fretboard. Being able to "custom voice" chords as needed instead of just grabbing standard "grips" really helps to make music my own so I don't have to sound like everybody else.

It is similar to speaking. We can easily recognize a person by his or her unique speech patterns, yet many around the world speak English as a first, second, or third language. Having the same words to choose from, we put them together in our own unique manner.

Also, knowing where all the notes are on the fretboard facilitates reading standard notation.

In addition, I can echo what Janine said.

To be clear, I am not saying everybody should learn the notes on the fretboard or learn to read standard notation, but instead that this is what I did and why. We each find our own approaches to making music and it is all good.

Tony

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Janine,
How is knowing all the notes on the fretboard helpful?

Regards,
Howard Emerson

Is this an inquisitive or a rhetorical question ?

If rhetorical, then ---yes certainly something not necessarily needed BUT

If inquisitive, it can for example help inform where one could start or end a pentatonic phrase based on one of the other the chords in the progression, as opposed to only on the Key note .

[Al Acuff]

You can be a farmer without studying agriculture but perhaps not a very good one. If you don't know what you are playing then you are simply grabbing shapes and probably only using parts of the neck. When you know the finger board you will be free to move about and explore creative possibilities.

I studied music theory with Ted Greene and Ted had a simple and effective way to learn the notes on the finger board. Put the guitar in your lap so you are looking down at the frets. Now pick a note and find every instance of that note on the fingerboard. Do this for 5 minutes every day for a week then pick a different note.

Learn one note a week so you can go directly to every instance of it without counting up or down to it. After 12 weeks you'll know every note on the guitar. Then the fun begins!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Al Acuff

You can be a farmer without studying agriculture but perhaps not a very good one. If you don't know what you are playing then you are simply grabbing shapes and probably only using parts of the neck. When you know the finger board you will be free to move about and explore creative possibilities.

I studied music theory with Ted Greene and Ted had a simple and effective way to learn the notes on the finger board. Put the guitar in your lap so you are looking down at the frets. Now pick a note and find every instance of that note on the fingerboard. Do this for 5 minutes every day for a week then pick a different note.

Learn one note a week so you can go directly to every instance of it without counting up or down to it. After 12 weeks you'll know every note on the guitar. Then the fun begins!

Ha this sounds like my style of learning (Very simple an repetitive )

[spock]

https://www.learnguitarmalta.com/10-...tar-fretboard/

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

That is a good question! I have never needed to know the names of the notes I'm playing, so haven't bothered to learn. If someone asks me what key I'm in then I can work that out pretty easily. And I can tell them the chord progression Nashville style. And that's pretty much all I get asked.

Exactly.

If I need to 'find a note', it's the sound I'm looking for, not the name of the note.

I've used the Nashville notation method since the early 1970's. It's perfect for when I was doing a lot of sessions where artists would ask for layered parts in various open tunings.

All you need to know is the actual key the song is in, and the Nashville 'chart' works in any possible situation. It's up to the player to know where a II minor chord is in any given tuning/capo location.

One can be a "pretty good farmer even not having gone to agricultural school", or in my case I actually dropped out of Berklee School of Music after 2 months. It was solely for avoiding a trip to Viet Nam.

If you need to know the names of the notes, then by all means learn them.

The sound they make is more my speed, and even more important is what they are in relationship to the notes adjacent & close by.

Regards,
Howard Emerson

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Al Acuff

You can be a farmer without studying agriculture but perhaps not a very good one. If you don't know what you are playing then you are simply grabbing shapes and probably only using parts of the neck. When you know the finger board you will be free to move about and explore creative possibilities.

I studied music theory with Ted Greene and Ted had a simple and effective way to learn the notes on the finger board. Put the guitar in your lap so you are looking down at the frets. Now pick a note and find every instance of that note on the fingerboard. Do this for 5 minutes every day for a week then pick a different note.

Learn one note a week so you can go directly to every instance of it without counting up or down to it. After 12 weeks you'll know every note on the guitar. Then the fun begins!

This is the method I used, and I got it from Ted Greene's "Chord Chemistry". I have posted this approach here in the past, and debated doing so now. Thanks for posting it and I hope somebody gets something worthwhile from Al's post.

Tony

[CarolD]

I have been doing the exercises I learned about in this video from MusicTheoryfor Guitar. I'm just starting out and I spend about 2 weeks on each note, so I'm up to D. I really, really like this method.

https://youtu.be/PJddQ6Q0UDo

[Andyrondack]

I learned the names of the notes and the 'intervals' which I guess is what some of you call the Nashville Numbering System all at the same time, the two systems work together in my mind because to be honest that was how someone told me to go about learning and I just did what I was told something for which I am very grateful today.

Everyone knows the note names of the open strings because even if you have never used an electronic tuner it's written on the envelopes, change strings 3 times and the open strings are memorised.
From there you just need to know some basic information to find out what the names of the fretted notes are, really there are only 7 of them and they go in alphabetical order so it's not hard to learn.
By knowing the pattern in tones and semi tones which all major scales follow you can easily work out the note names together with the interval numbers relative to the tonic note by starting from an open string and counting up the frets .