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How to Memorize the Fretboard - My Top 6 Tips!
🕑 Added 2018-01-19 21:17:34 +0000 UTC Hello friends,Earlier this week my patrons at the Contributor and Premium levels received my Weekly Challenge to begin learning the names of the notes on the fretboard. Folks, this is the #1 thing you can do to quickly improve your guitar playing! Learning the names of the notes on the fretboard will allow you to understand wide range of concepts including the connections between scales and chord harmonies, how lead lines fit over progressions, and how to read musical notation. Let's take a look at my top 5 tips for learning the fretboard:
1) Memorize the Musical Alphabet - The strings on your guitar are tuned to a specific note in the musical alphabet, E, A, D, G, B, E - From there, each ascending fret produces the remaining notes in the musical alphabet until you reach the octave on the 12th fret, this is where the entire sequence starts over.
2) Memorize the Notes on E & A Strings - I recommend learning these strings first so that you can quickly recognize what key a scale is in, or the names of power chord, or barred shapes.
3) Learn Your Octaves - Once you have learned your E and A strings, you can use them to quickly identify the notes on the D and G strings.
Example: The 5th fret of the E string produces the note A. If you look to the D string and move up one whole step to fret 7, you will find another A note. This trick can be applied all over the fretboard!
Additionally, you can also use the A string to determine the notes on the B string. Example, the 3rd fret A string and 1st fret B string will both produce the note C.
4) Memorize the First Three Frets, All Six Strings - This is a small but very important area to map out because it's where all your open position chords are performed. Take a look at the diagram provided in tip #1 and see if you can spot the notes in basic chords like Amaj or Emin.
5) Drill in 5 Fret Batches - The mind can only memorize so much at one time, this is why I suggest you choose five frets on a given string and play each note in a random order, giving yourself a moment to identify them. As this becomes easier, I suggest you attempt to identify a series of two or three notes. Apply this learning technique up the neck until each string is fully memorized.
6) Apply Your Fretboard Study to All Areas of Practice - The fastest and best way to memorize the fretboard is to apply your knowledge and curiosity every time you learn something new on the guitar. This means that the next time you learn a scale or lead line, ask yourself what notes are in it, and recite them as you play. Even better, I suggest singing the notes as you move through each technique.
Comments
This is a superb lesson. Those tips about how to find notes on the D and B string are eye-openers!
Hi yes indeed l pratice this at least 2 or 3 times a week for the last month and I can see the improvement I am making and it make me feel much confortable in trying in different keys. It is very very important to follow your tips Rob since I feel my guitar playing improving so quickly and much more better every week. Thanks so much for all these good tips and keeo up the good work.
Gladly Richard, but I'm going to make a video on it too. The short answer is because of musical notation. If you were to write Emaj7 on the staff, and you only had flats to work with, you would end up with two notes written on the same line. This is because the notes in an Emaj7 chord are E, G#, B, and D#. Basically, if you working within a specific key, you don't want to have two notes with the same letter name, otherwise musicians would get confused and the staff would have two notes on a single line.
That's wild, I do the exact same thing! It really shuts down the mind after a hectic day. I also run through the major scales, and relative chords - Emaj = C#m, A = F#m, G = Em, C = Am, etc. I figure it can't hurt, and studies have shown support for this type of mental practice.
If I have trouble sleeping, instead of counting sheep, I visualize the area of the fret board I'm memorizing and name each note. I don't know how effective this is, but I always fall asleep!
Hey Rob, can you tell me why the musical alphabet uses a mixture of sharps and flats and not all one or the other? Why is it Bb and not A#?
Excellent Luisa! have you mastered the E string yet? Remember, set small goals, five frets at a time!
Hey Nelson, absolutely, take your time and learn this bit by bit. Just learning the notes on the E and A strings can reveal the notes on the others, so that's a powerful first step!
Hey Leif, so glad my lessons are encouraging you to keep your practice going. Keep me posted on your progress and have fun! -Rob
leif
Many thanks for your positive way of showing how to progress. You have been giving me a lot of energy to keep on practise
This is what I was looking for. I needed an approach. Breaking it up into small five note chunks and learning the E and A first is a great suggestion. I'll try. I'm 50 so the hard drive is full. Learning new stuff takes a while.
Hi! After all these years playing guitar, I never had the courage or patience to tackle the fretboard this way... even though my husband suggested it many times but never listened. I listen to yo Mr.Swift... your lessons encourage me to do better. Thank you!
Hey my pleasure Abram, keep me posted on your progress and let me know if any concepts have become clearer with you're newly acquired knowledge of the fretboard. Be well. -Rob
This is my first year in learning how to play guitar. I just so happened to be finally around to learning the fretboard notes. Thanks for these tips! πππ
