For many guitarists, the layout of the guitar fretboard can be confusing, frustrating, and even overwhelming. To make matters worse, the majority of guitar teachers and instructional books all explain the fretboard in one of two ways:
- Starting from the first position notes, and eventually moving on to the higher frets after countless lessons in other areas. Although knowledge of the notes of the first position is essential, 99% of the lessons dealing with this topic present the fretboard as if the guitar consisted of 6 open strings plus 3 frets!
- Presenting full-fretboard scale diagrams, covering all six (or seven) strings at once, in either one position, or all positions.
Obviously, situation #1 leaves the aspiring guitarist trapped in the first position, and often additionally intimidated to move on to the uncharted territory of their upper fretboard, while situation #2 instantly overwhelms all but those guitarists who already know their fretboard (and music theory) inside and out.
So you might be wondering -- "Is there a better way to learn to know my way around the fretboard?" I assure you, there is!
- The absolute first step is to memorize the fret numbers of the dotted frets on your guitar.
- This will save you a lot of time, by not having to count up from the first fret, one fret at a time.
- Fortunately, most guitars have single dots on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th frets (and the octaves of these frets: 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st), with two dots on the 12th fret (and the 24th fret, if your guitar has one), which is specially marked this way to indicate the octave of the open string.
- However, if your guitar has dots on different frets, it is most important to memorize the dotted fret numbers on your guitar, since this is the guitar you will actually be playing.
I have developed a special way that you can use NOW to begin learning your way around the fretboard right away. Here are the steps:
- Memorize the note names of your strings, in ascending order (this is also how various tunings are most often written): E A D G B E. Repeat it out loud, over and over again, both with your guitar as well as away from it, until you can easily and quickly say "E A D G B E" without having to think carefully about it.
- Practice playing just the natural notes on each individual string (See Fig. 1-6 below), ascending, and then descending, and try to memorize the fret numbers where each note occurs on each string. Just do this with one string at a time. (Eg., for the 5th string, play: Open A, B, C, D, E, F, G, 12th fret A, G, F, E, D, C, B, Open A; then repeat several times. See Fig. 6 below.).
- By learning where the natural notes are,
you will automatically learn where the sharps and flats are as well, as these
are the frets you will have skipped over in the whole-step intervals
between the natural notes. - Take note that the only two half-step intervals are from B to C, and from E to F -- all other notes are separated by a whole step. Keep this in mind from one string to the next as you reach these notes. (This is because the interval pattern of the Major Scale is W-W-H-W-W-W-H; the two "H"'s are the half steps between B/C and E/F, in the key of C Major.)
- Challenge yourself to find all of the instances of one note across the fretboard, on each string, between the open string and the 12th fret. Feel free to go over the same note a few times and to come back to it repeatedly, but aim to do this with all of the natural notes, and try to memorize each note's location on each string: every string has at least ONE of every note, if not TWO.
- For example, if you choose "G", there would be one "G" on each string, except for the 3rd string:
- 1st string: 3rd fret
- 2nd string: 8th fret
- 3rd string: Open, & 12th fret
- 4th string: 5th fret
- 5th string: 10th fret
- 6th string: 3rd fret
Figure 1: Natural Notes on All 6 Strings
Figure 2: Natural Notes on the 1st & 6th Strings
Figure 3: Natural Notes on the 2nd String
Figure 4: Natural Notes on the 3rd String
Figure 5: Natural Notes on the 4th String
Figure 6: Natural Notes on the 5th String (Note: this pattern is the minor scale)
