February 2011 \ Gigging & Recording \ Hey, You Can't Do That \ Hey, You Can't Do That: Know Thy Fretboard

Hey, You Can't Do That: Know Thy Fretboard

Steve Ouimette

How many guitarists here can proudly raise their hand and say they can call out every single note on the fretboard instantly?
Premier Guitar February 2011
Guitarists are an interesting bunch. We slave over the juicy details of every nuance of the instrument and its vast varieties. Guitars, amps, pedals, pedalboards, cables, strings, picks, nitro versus lacquer, fretwire, bridges, everything. Modeling, tubes, power scaling, attenuators, boutique, custom wiring, pickups, and on and on and on. We go to jams, hang with friends, join bands, record ourselves, have amp fests, and spend our coffee hours (work anyone?) online reading PG, The Gear Page, and vintage amp forums, and love every minute of it. No doubt we are a varied group and the levels go from fascinated collector to industry professional and every possible type in between. But one thing I know is that many of us are…illiterate! That’s right. How many guitarists here can proudly raise their hand and say they can call out every single note on the fretboard instantly? If you raised your hand, pass Go and collect $200, you’re in the big leagues! If not, let’s just take a little look at what we can do to bring up our level of musicianship and make communication easier as a guitarist...and a whole lot more interesting.

In a way, knowing the fretboard is a little like knowing the alphabet, right? If you don’t know it, you can’t spell, you can’t read, and you probably have a harder time understanding what’s going on in the language. Sure you can figure things out by using familiar sign posts, landmarks, etc., but it’s not the same as knowing. I recall being in my pre-reading years as a child and pretending to read a book or the newspaper, knowing damn well I didn’t know what I was saying but hoping to fool my folks. Didn’t work and they got a kick out of my trying. That’s not really the way you want to live as a musician though, is it?

When it comes down to it, the fretboard really isn’t that complex and it repeats itself after you count to 12! Some of us play a 24-fret neck (nice and easy math there), others have less and therefore don’t have as many notes to learn. With 24 frets, that’s a total of 144 notes, or just 72 if you look at it as the fretboard split 12/12. The other nice thing about the way the fretboard is designed (in standard tuning, that is) is that you get two strings for the price of one! The 6th and the 1st are the same, so that even narrows things down farther for easier recall. In standard tuning we get the benefit of patterns that form and help connect notes, but in the end it should just be a matter of looking at the fretboard and knowing the names of the notes. It’s not that hard and there are many ways to learn the notes with a little study. Let’s take a look at a few ways available to us.

Books!
Fretboard Logic (billedwards.com) is an excellent, if not slightly insane, book series on the way the fretboard works on guitar and the specific patterns, chords, and scale shapes that define it. I have the SE version of this book, which combines volumes 1 and 2 and have found it to be a fascinating study on the way the fretboard is logically laid out. It’s very in-depth and gives you so many ways to see the notes and their interconnected relationship that with some study and time you could become a master. In my opinion this is the deepest resource for understanding more that than just the notes but the “logic” behind them.

DIY
Hunt and peck. Play a note, call it out! This is a time-tested way of learning. We did it with typing, we can do it with the fretboard. Take a little time and drop in now and then and give yourself the challenge. Name a few notes and find them on the fretboard. In no time you’ll find the notes appear in letter form when you look at the fret and string.

Flash cards. 4th string, 8th fret (Bb?). If you’re feeling like a little project you can make flash cards on paper or recipe cards. It might be overkill, but being able to shuffle the deck and make the order unpredictable can be an inspiring way to mix things up.

Friends
Hanging with friends is a great way to keep you honest and even bring on some friendly competition. Think of it as having a study partner. The best part of this method is it now opens up the whole point of understanding the fretboard…musical collaboration! It’s a language and if you’re both speaking it you are communicating on another level, and it makes getting your ideas across easier.

There are many ways to go about this and it’s just one step to becoming a more knowledgeable player. It may inspire you to learn more about theory, sight reading, and other noble quests. Heck, keep it up and you might be on your way to becoming the next great session player. We all can dream!

     

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Comments

 (13 comments) display by
UsernameComment
lee
on 02/12/2011 		fender duo-sonics are wonderful guitars..
lee
on 02/12/2011 		check out this bill edwards hack he raves about in the article. simply horrid.
Mano
on 02/12/2011 		I got cut off writing here but I'll finish by saying that I moved back to Maui with two 1964 "Vibroverbs" and a "Duo-Sonic" electric guitar.
NightTrain
on 02/11/2011 		I think for me the easiest way; I found is to learn the strings one at a time - vertically. Starting with the open E(6th string - no sharp or flats) then Fret F then G etc. While your doing this say the note as you play it. This will reinforce the sound and the name of the note. I've also found that looking at the fret board there are couple words to remember. The word BEAD - looking hoizontally at fret 7 (string/note - 6/B 5/E 4/A 3/D). Fret 2-(5/B 4/E 3/A). Looking at Fret 10 (3/F 2/A 1/D). Fret 9 4/B 3/E. Octaves work Well,too. I use this as a Blues lick. Pick any note on the the 6th string. I'll use A ( 6/A then 4/A pause then 1/A quickly back to 4/A pause then stacatto 8/A then 4/A hold and add vibrato. Try this on all the 6th string notes. BB King likes to hit a staccato note say 1/A then slide into and vibrato to 2/A. He uses this idea to travel the fingerboard. Modes work well,too. They help to learn the board horizontal. Again say the note as you play the mode. Start out with the C mode / no sharps or flats. I'm finding learning the fretboard has really helped my ear.
Paul
on 02/11/2011 		Another helpful thing for knowing the fret board is to study the guitar with the Guitar Wheel http://www.guitarwheel.com I find this tool has been extremely helpful to me for knowing the names of the notes and given me paths to explore for writing music. It's double sided, and on the back I've got a quick reference to the piano keys and music staff!
Mike
on 02/11/2011 		72 "note" locations is incomplete for six strings and 12 frets. The complete and correct answer is 126. This is because there are 21 "notes" for the 12 sounds in one octave (12 frets): 7 natural, 7 flat and 7 sharp letters. Multiply this by six strings and you get 126 locations. I found the best way to learn to raise your hand is to get a deck of Guitar Fretboard Flashcards from 12 tone music publishing... the only complete deck of guitar flash cards in the world!
Ken K
on 02/11/2011 		An effective and relatively easy way to learn the notes is to master the octaves - start by knowing the natural notes and their fret locations on the E and A strings (E - F1, G3, A5, B7, C8, D10, E12) and (A - B2, C3, D5, E7, F8, G10, A12). Once you have those, the octaves for the D and G strings are two strings and two frets apart (play a power chord and move the ring finger one string down). So the 5th fret D string is the same as the 3rd fret E string (G), and the 7th fret G string is the same as the 5th fret A string (D). The process for finding the octave on the B string is similar, except that it is relative to the A string and is two frets lower (3rd fret B string is the same as 5th fret A string, or D). Learning the natural notes is required, but the accidentals (sharps and flats) can easily be determined from the natural notes and don't require memorizing. It probably sounds more complicated than it actually is. Also there are a few iPhone apps out there that help with learning the fretboard - I use Fret Surfer ($2.99) and like it very much (not affiliated with them). Hope this helps.
Terry
on 02/11/2011 		I've been a "player" for over 35 years, but just recently decided to begin lessons from a pro. You'd think after all that time I would know the notes. Wrong. The FIRST thing my instructor had me do was learn the notes from the fifth fret down. Simple, eh? Wrong again. It was NOT fun ...at least until I found that I actually was learning them. He had me do it by rote - that is, playing the note and actually speaking the name of the note. It took maybe two months before I suddenly realized that I KNEW the notes. Believe it or not, the rest of the neck comes much easier. Now, I see everything start to come together in a way that I never before saw. Theory starts to make MUCH more sense, and I am empowered as never before. Bite the bullet - learn the notes. It matters - a LOT - and you will never regret it.
Albert
on 02/11/2011 		Great advice. I'm trying, but it's harder than it sounds even though I, too, know all the notes on a piano.
Bill
on 02/11/2011 		I've never checked-out "Fretboard Logic," but I have heard good things about it. In my experience, the best (as in fun AND efficient!) way to really learn the fretboard is to take a page out of the amazing Mick Goodrick book: "The Advancing Guitarist" in which Goodrick (in his own brilliant - albeit "twisted and witty" way,) encourages playing/improvising/soloing on ONE-STRING AT A TIME over modal-vamps (He calls it: "The Science Of The Unitar!") I simplified this for my own (and later students') study by just playing over the Ionian/Major-Key: [I - vim - iim - V] in the key of "C" to learn ALL the "natural-notes" (C,D,E,F,G,A,B) first. The trick is to force yourself to verbally call-out each note as you play them. Start-out by playing step-wise/linearly, and then progress to bigger intervallic-leaps to really test your skill! You can even bend from one diatonic-note to the next, which is a great way to improve string-bending intonation! Have fun, and LEARN THAT FRETBOARD!



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