# Understanding the Fretboard



## jeremy_green (Nov 10, 2010)

Hey all,

I just did a blog entry on understanding the layout of the fretboard. I thought it may help some cats here so give er a read if you are so inclined.

Here's the link:
http://sixstringobsession.blogspot.com/2011/10/understanding-fretboard.html


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

Nice entry. I'm finally learning to read music and am also playing scales. The patterns become more easily recognizable as I practice them, and the fingerings are also becoming much more automatic. My next goal is to memorize the notes on the fretboard - got any tips for that?


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## jeremy_green (Nov 10, 2010)

Thanks!

Learning the notes on the fretboard is fairly easy... but it takes a bit of dedication for a bit. The first thing you need to know is - all notes have 2 fret distance between them EXCEPT FOR E > F and B > C - they only have one. Internalize this well because it is critical.

Start with your low E string.... once you know that, you know the High E string too... So now you are down to 5 strings.
Learn your open strings.... in doing so you know know your tuning locations at the 5th fret.
The 7th fret of the string below is the same note as the open string above.... so without much work at all you know those.
The neck repeats at the 12th fret... so the 13th fret on the E string is the same as the first fret on the E string (F) etc. SO the neck just got a lot smaller.
Learn your "octave" chords - like a power chord but skip a string... in doing so you now know that note as well.
Lastly and probably mot importantly learn many different chord fingerings up and down the neck. That will really help

Each of these steps helps you get oriented pretty quickly. Combined with knowing the distance between - you should never be more than a fret or 2 away from one of these sign posts a.k.a. - a note you know


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

Good advice from Jeremy here.

I'd like to add that the more parts of your brain you have engaged in the process, the more thoroughly you learn the information, and maybe faster too. To that end I suggest singing the note names as you play them. It doesn't hurt to visualize the note positions on the sheet music or actually read them and play them in as many fretboard positions as possible. I think I came by this knowing lots of people who sight sing well and don't play instruments.

For what it's worth, freaks like me think it's fun to sing and name chord intervals too.

Peace, Mooh.


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## jeremy_green (Nov 10, 2010)

Thanks Mooh! Yes I agree with your position on singing as well. Signing really helps you nail the tones into your ears... I was shocked (as an aside to this) that when I learned to sing better (I still suck, but have been working on it) suddenly I made some large strides with my ears as well... Transcribing parts became easier. General intonation got stronger. Whatever it is that does it, there is a STRONG link between your ears and your voice. Anything you can do to improve one helps the other.


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## milner_7 (Feb 28, 2012)

This info is great but a newb like me is struggling to understand these diagrams. HELP!


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## Toogy (Apr 16, 2009)

Here is a cool little web app you can practice your knowledge of the fretboard and hopefully get better! There is also an iphone version of it I play around on when I'm bored.

http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretboardwarrior/


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## fredyfreeloader (Dec 11, 2010)

Toogy said:


> Here is a cool little web app you can practice your knowledge of the fretboard and hopefully get better! There is also an iphone version of it I play around on when I'm bored.
> 
> http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretboardwarrior/


Very interesting entertaining and I might add a useful tool to sharpen ones fretboard expertise. Good Post. Works great on my iMac and damn I've gotten slow.


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## SaviArt (Mar 1, 2012)

Thanks for starting the fretboard thread. If you don't know the notes on fretboard then how can you play the guitar? Notes repeat, you just need to know where and what is the fingering. This makes playing much easier. I started with the notes too a while ago and found a site which helped me learning notes as well http://guitar-guide-easy.com/lessons/guitar-basics/item/20-notes-on-the-guitar-fretboard. I like how it's explained simply here with the images and how notes are placed


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

jeremy_green said:


> Learn your open strings.... in doing so you know know your tuning locations at the 5th fret.
> The 7th fret of the string below is the same note as the open string above.... so without much work at all you know those.


not entirely true... I actually did not know this tip, which is very helpful actually, but it is only 80% true. the B string's 7th fret is not the same as the open string above it (G), it's one fret over (8th) and then back to the 7th fret for the high E string to match the B.

same tip, but wherever you're fretted, let's say 9th fret on the low E, if you go back 5 frets on the string below, you have the same note, so:
9th on the E string = 4th fret on the A string
9th on the A string = 4th fret of the D string
etc
same thing happens on the B string though. you have to compensate by 1 fret.


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## jeremy_green (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, of course yes. My wording there is misleading for sure, nice catch.


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## StringNavigator (May 15, 2021)

In olden times... some people would pick up a guitar at the pawn shop and then try to learn to play it to some basic level. Usually the campfire level. They may have bought one of the few little books that existed or they got a teacher - for as long as they could afford it. Home on the Range and Go Tell Aunt Rhody. But for the most part, they had to do it all on their own with hardly any resources. And that was the whole point of the exercise. It was a pastime. Then came Clapton and Hendrix and all the copycats. Then the word Jazz became so watered down that anything was considered to be Jazz. Fusion is not Jazz. Fusion is Fusion. Herb Ellis and Joe Pass are Jazz. Jazz radio stations play everything but Jazz. Jazz is a moneymaker. Even airlines use the name. And now, we have the Internetz to seek others to give away free knowledge.

However, no one can take a beginner from the basement to the seventh floor unless they do the necessary work.
You have to EARN it. This was done by wearing out records until you learned a song. That would probably take a year. Leaning corny chords (A7 on Strings 4321) from a slim pamphlet by some smiley face with lots of photos of his hands forming chords. A beginning guitar player probably had to work a tiring job and could only manage a few hours a month on guitar. Mostly it was for amusing friends and trying to be popular at parties and meet girls, as the pamphlet promised... Guaranteed, they would say.

Today there is a funny expectation on the part of beginners. Guitar chat boards abound with people expecting someone to reveal all the mysteries of the guitar. And there is no shortage of laid-off grocery boys talking a mile a minute on YouTube about what you will learn only from them if you give them your money, click Like and Subscribe. And there are multitudes of well meaning guitar players, barely better than beginners themselves, who are so eager to show you the way... to help you...

Do a reality check. Only you can learn guitar. It takes time, effort, motivation. It takes intelligence, too. If you ain't too bright, stay way from piano or guitar or most musical instruments. Try welding or football. Talent is a fallacy. It's all about work and what motivates you. Expecting to sit there and be taught to play and then make a career from playing the guitar is a fallacy. It's a booksellers' scam. They get paid by the word. Was Chuck Berry taught? How about John Lennon? CCR? Are those opportunities even still existent, today?

You have to do it by yourself. You have to walk that lonesome valley... The beauty of any instrument is the time and effort you spend, the journey, the satisfaction of knowing that you did it. If someone else does it all for you, by giving you hours of explanation, you will never learn or truly appreciate the guitar. That's why so many people crowd the Internetz looking for a guitar guru to snap their fingers and instantly bestow upon them the gift of musicianship when that's just an impossible expectation.

Buy the guitar, try it out. If you can't figure it out, sell it and find a wife and have kids. Guitar is detrimental to family men, anyway. Like reading books. Or drag racing. No wonder the world is full of divorced women and disenfranchised children. Just play it as a stress buster or pastime. Forget the fake dream... Women don't chase after poor boys who play guitar. And groupies just like the money...

I'm an old retired man. I have lots of time for guitar, now. Yes, music is a wonderful gift that you give yourself. But if you spend too much time on it as a young man, you will never be secure or wealthy enough to enjoy it as an old man. Learn, earn, save, invest, retire... And it is an old man's sport. Take it up as a thing you can do when you have absolutely nothing else to do or you're on vacation. And don't beg people to give away for free what they had to pay through the nose for in time. money and effort. Take pride in your own personal journey. Do It Yourself!

...


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## StringNavigator (May 15, 2021)

mrmatt1972 said:


> My next goal is to memorize the notes on the fretboard - got any tips for that?


Yep. Memorise 'em.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## StringNavigator (May 15, 2021)

Watch the commotion after his red-neck brother-in-law drops in when he's not there and switches two rows...


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## StringNavigator (May 15, 2021)

Gittahr playin' *IS* rocket science...


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

StringNavigator said:


> In olden times... some people would pick up a guitar at the pawn shop and then try to learn to play it to some basic level. Usually the campfire level. They may have bought one of the few little books that existed or they got a teacher - for as long as they could afford it. Home on the Range and Go Tell Aunt Rhody. But for the most part, they had to do it all on their own with hardly any resources. And that was the whole point of the exercise. It was a pastime. Then came Clapton and Hendrix and all the copycats. Then the word Jazz became so watered down that anything was considered to be Jazz. Fusion is not Jazz. Fusion is Fusion. Herb Ellis and Joe Pass are Jazz. Jazz radio stations play everything but Jazz. Jazz is a moneymaker. Even airlines use the name. And now, we have the Internetz to seek others to give away free knowledge.
> 
> However, no one can take a beginner from the basement to the seventh floor unless they do the necessary work.
> You have to EARN it. This was done by wearing out records until you learned a song. That would probably take a year. Leaning corny chords (A7 on Strings 4321) from a slim pamphlet by some smiley face with lots of photos of his hands forming chords. A beginning guitar player probably had to work a tiring job and could only manage a few hours a month on guitar. Mostly it was for amusing friends and trying to be popular at parties and meet girls, as the pamphlet promised... Guaranteed, they would say.
> ...


I agree that you have to put in the effort and that it's a personal journey. The rest of this, not so much. But I still enjoyed reading it.

The fact that people are appreciative of what the OP has done to help them means that they _are _putting in the effort. People are always looking for answers, whether it's through a dusty old pamphlet or an online video.

One of my favourite guitarists said in an interview that "in your struggle is your sound". That can mean a number of things, but really, it's your own unique situation in life that shapes your identity as a musician. It's less about waiting until you have lots of time to play and more about just playing, wherever you are in life.


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## StringNavigator (May 15, 2021)

Grab n Go said:


> I agree that you have to put in the effort and that it's a personal journey. The rest of this, not so much. But I still enjoyed reading it. The fact that people are appreciative of what the OP has done to help them means that they _are _putting in the effort. People are always looking for answers, whether it's through a dusty old pamphlet or an online video.


Of course. I'm a firm believer in everyone doing what they want to in their life, short of hurting others. What I write is merely an expression of one man's opinion and not a cry for censorship. There's enough of that on the Internetz, already.

Although I'm completely self-taught, I certainly gleaned all my information from the tradition through records and texts. No man is a vacuum. I've hired contractors to re-sod my lawn, but I've never asked a neighbour to cut my grass. My point was the old saw of someone sitting there and expecting others to show them everything and then suddenly play like Wes Montgomery. Then, when it doesn't work for them they return for more advice. And then there's those who excel in responding by over-eagerly typing reams of 'help'. It's not like checkers, where someone shows you the rules and then you win games.

In my own life, I simply object to the weakness of seeking to be spoon-fed skills that really take a lifetime of self-effort to earn. Reading music can require a teacher because of the early coaching required. Children need a teacher to show them how to hold and play the instrument. Children must be taught to read and write and count. But grown men who impatiently want it all handed to them on a plate should feel a tinge of embarrassment. We come from a cold country where self-reliance and foresight are essential life skills.

Although I'm not interested in raging on individuals who exhibit the baby tendency, I feel that it's something that should be said and not left out of the discussion. Discussing a point is not the same thing as depending on others. Yes I'm hard nosed, but it's kinder in the long run to know the truth. The only way to learn anything is to do it, and do it on your own.

...


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

StringNavigator said:


> Of course. I'm a firm believer in everyone doing what they want to in their life, short of hurting others. What I write is merely an expression of one man's opinion and not a cry for censorship. There's enough of that on the Internetz, already.
> 
> Although I'm completely self-taught, I certainly gleaned all my information from the tradition through records and texts. No man is a vacuum. I've hired contractors to re-sod my lawn, but I've never asked a neighbour to cut my grass. My point was the old saw of someone sitting there and expecting others to show them everything and then suddenly play like Wes Montgomery. Then, when it doesn't work for them they return for more advice. And then there's those who excel in responding by over-eagerly typing reams of 'help'. It's not like checkers, where someone shows you the rules and then you win games.
> 
> ...


I hear what you're saying and appreciate the sentiment. I'm self-taught in many things, but I'm also okay with getting help if needed.

At the end of the day, someone still has to practice what they've learned in order to acquire a skill. Where they learn it from shouldn't matter. I think it's naive to expect instant gratification after a lesson (online, in person, or from a book) but I doubt that the majority of students are expecting that. Any music lesson will take some time to unpack and absorb. Maybe even a lifetime, as you say.

But I still don't see how seeking help or advice on music is a sign of weakness. Putting the effort into practicing, persevering and internalizing what you've learned and making it your own, the ability to see it through-- that takes grit.

An athlete isn't less of an athlete because they sought coaching. They're probably all the better for it.


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## StringNavigator (May 15, 2021)

Grab n Go said:


> But I still don't see how seeking help or advice on music is a sign of weakness. An athlete isn't less of an athlete because they sought coaching. They're probably all the better for it.


But the coach doesn't run the race for them...

Here. I'll sugar-coat it.
'I guess it depends on one's ratio for I Did That! / Dad Did It For Me'
A Low Ratio should be avoided.

Thanks GG!


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