Concerning knowing the notes on the fretboard

anthon_74

Hey there folks,

In gonzalos how I learned (volume 2 I think) he talks about how - many guitar players memorize the notes on the 6th and 5th string, but not really the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd (especially from the 5th fret on)... He goes on to say that if you memorize those, it will go a long way to preventing you from getting "lost".

So I have been trying, with limited success, to memorize the notes on the 4th -2nd string, from the 5th fret on.

The only way I personally have come up with is to look at the chord shapes, and use them as reference... but even still I have to think about it when I look at these areas.

I'm wondering what ways you all have used to memorize the aforementioned zones ?

Cheers!
anthony

andmer

I cheat and mentally look up the octave on 5/6

Archtop Eddy

Hi Anthony. You might check here. These seem like some good and simple ideas. AE

http://www.guitarguitar.net/fretboard-notes-memorization.shtml

Jim Kaznosky

Sure.

Arpeggios on the 1st through 4th strings...just major and minor. Figure out where the root is for each inversion. Run through the entire cycle of 4ths.

anthon_74

Hey eddie !

good one, yes I checked out the page and will use it.

Jazzaferi, your idea is what I have been doing... It's helping, and i'm looking for a few more ways to implement so I can expedite the process a little (DIJ is around the corner after all)...

Cheers, and thanks for the ideas !

Anthony

Passacaglia

Great topic, Anthony. My first real forays into lead playing, and this is fertile earth for me as well, thanks for raising it.

Gonzalo's observation is keen, I'd say - it is interesting how there does seem to be a "dead zone" on the fretboard, without more attention, didn't know if this was fairly universal, or peculiar to this old plonker. I'm back to Stephane W's book in earnest, and already really keyed to find a bit more freedom over the entire board. Thanks Jim, and Eddy!

lezard

One sure way to speed up the process is to never allow yourself to play a note that you can't name first.
And playing tunes from standard notation in as may positions as possible helps too.

mikegnik

Good suggestions peeps.

I would add the value of playing melodies and arpeggios on a single string to reinforce the logic of that string's note layout.

Knowing intervals really well also helps. E.g. A 5th is actually 7 frets.

This may be redundant, but be sure to use landmarks such as the 5th and 4th fret tuning notes, 12th fret octave notes (from open strings), and octave shapes to the high E as low E and A strings already mentioned. If we know the notes on the low E than the high E is a freebie.

lezard

mikegnik wrote:

I would add the value of playing melodies and arpeggios on a single string to reinforce the logic of that string's note layout.

one hundred times this^

Jazzaferri

An exercise that has helped me is to learn is to quickly play all of one note I can find on the neck.

The only rule is to not play the same string twice in a row.

AmundLauritzen

I learned all the notes on the entire neck through learning drop 2 and drop 3 voicings, all string groups.
This was done in my bebop studies, but it carries over well into GJ. Helps me locate chord tones.

Tip: When you learn a new chord, learn it in all inversions and on all possible string sets!