Sunday, November 25, 2018

Learning the Guitar Fretboard - Why Knowing How to Read is Helpful

In a previous post I suggested what is hopefully an efficient way to learn the guitar fretboard. The steps I outlined there were:
  1. Find a strategy that simplifies the task of learning the fretboard, and stick with it.
  2. Learn as many of the most important notes as you can
  3. Learn how the "mathematics of the fretboard" results in some easy-to-remember patterns.
  4. Use it or lose it! Practice! You don't even need a guitar to do this. You can just visualize the keyboard even when you're lying in bed at night. Just keep working on it.
Now, in the next series of posts I want to expand on these points and add a few techniques I've found helpful. But before I do I want to emphasize that it is useful to learn how to read traditional music

I know, I know. Guitar players usually think playing from formal music is totally impractical. And in many cases I completely agree! But the truth is, learning the positions of, say, C, at various places on the neck is of limited value if you can't relate it to formal music notation.

And from the learning-the-fretboard perspective knowing "how to read" opens up practice and learning possibilities that you just won't have if you can't read music.

For instance, let's say you want to use some simple melodies as exercises to help you learn note positions. There area number of these simple melodies right here.

Take the melody of Ode to Joy for example. You can play the exact same tune at different places on the neck. This is absolutely the best way to learn note positions on the fretboard.

If you are a complete newbie when it comes to reading music, and if you are interested in learning, here are some blog posts that will help you learn music reading.

So much for that! 

In the next few posts I will touch on the learning-the-fretboard strategy points I've outlined above, starting with: Learning the Most Important Notes.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

A Practical Approach to Learning the Guitar Fretboard

There are lots of guitar gurus who will tell you they have the secret formula for learning the notes on the guitar fretboard. Don't believe them. There is no simple formula. If you know the notes of the guitar fretboard you have probably spent years playing and studying the instrument.

However, having said that, there are effective strategies and not-so-effective strategies. And there is no guarantee that the strategy that works for one person will work for another.

Here are some things about learning the guitar fretboard we can say with some certainty:

  1. The fretboard has a lot of notes. Learning them all at once is very difficult for most of us. You need a strategy that simplifies the task.
  2. Some notes will be used over and over again. Learning the most important notes is an easy and effective place to start.
  3. Because of the way the guitar is tuned there are simple-to-learn, repeatable patterns. Learning these patterns will help a lot in understanding the fretboard.
  4. You have to play all over the fretboard in order to really learn the notes and lock in their locations. Use it or lose it!
There you have an outline of an effective strategy.
  1. Learn the most important notes. See some suggestions here...
  2. Learn the most important patterns. See some descriptions here...
  3. Find some exercises that target note locations up and down the neck...
  4. Play songs and melodies, scales and arpeggios at different locations up and down the neck...