Learn Guitar Fretboard and Go Deeper With Your Playing
To do list... learn guitar fretboard. Do you know the names of the bar chords you've been playing? With this simple and effective method you'll quickly be able to identify what chord you're on.
Not only that, but you'll be laying the foundation to step up to more advanced levels of playing. Why? Because by knowing the names of the chords you're on you'll start to make connections all over the fretboard. This lesson is an intermediate guitar lesson but it works for hungry beginners too :-)
You can find diagrams of guitar fretboards with the note names all over the Internet. You'll also find many teachers encouraging you to read music. Although both those approaches are valid, they aren't necessarily the most effective for our purpose. Remember? We want to know what guitar bar chord we're on.
This is a unique and original method to learn guitar fretboard fundamentals. I learned it from one of my mentors, Peter Harris at Humber Jazz in Toronto. He was one of Canada's top jazz guitar educators for many years. He has since passed on... but he inspired many fine guitarists during his tenure at Humber. Peter showed this exercise to me back when I was trying to make the connection between Van Halen and Lenny Breau ;-)
Here's how to do it...
You have 4 fingers for guitar playing.
There are 12 frets on the guitar fretboard.
That makes 3 areas of the fretboard. We'll call these areas "positions" for this drill.
1st finger lines up with 1st fret in Position 1.
1st finger lines up with 5th fret in Position 2.
1st finger lines up with 9th fret in Position 3.
Note: We're working along the low E string right now. This will enable you to know what guitar bar chord you are on when the root is on string 6.
Great! Now you know where the 3 "positions" are along the string. There are some simple instructions coming up that will help you learn your guitar fretboard very quickly. If you practice this technique for 5 to 10 minutes daily for 2 weeks, you will know your low E string "cold."
There is also the guitar lesson video above where I demonstrate everything. But go through these written instructions first. Then come back to the video. You'll really be learning the information that way.
In order to learn guitar fretboard fundamentals it's really useful to have a basic overview of the piano keyboard. You can see in the graphic above that there are no black keys between B and C or E and F.
If you're going higher in pitch ( to the right on a keyboard ), the black keys are named as "sharp". For example the black key right beside the G is named G sharp.The musical symbol for G sharp is G#.
If you're going lower in pitch ( to the left on a keyboard ), the black keys are named as "flat". For example the black key to the left of the G is named G flat. The musical symbol for G flat is Gb.
You may be thinking that Gb is the same key as F#. Correct! For our purposes, when we are going to higher frets we will name it as "sharp". Coming back down toward the headstock of the guitar we'll name the notes "flat".
Confused? Don't worry. Finish reading. Watch the video. Do the drill and I promise you in 2 weeks you'll know the string like the back of your hand. It's actually incredibly simple :-)
And if you already know this info about piano, good stuff! You're off to a great start. But read on, because now you're gonna make it all pay off and start learning your guitar fretboard.
Play your low open E and say E out loud. Yes, out loud. I can't hear you ;-)
Play the 1st fret and say... F.
Next one? F#. Now you've got it. Continue to fret 12.
Coming down now. Fret 12. Say E.
Fret 11? Yes. Eb.
Continue back down to open E. Great!
Do this for 3 or 4 days and you'll be prepared for the next exercise. This one is more demanding. I like to think it's healthy for the brain :-)
The complete "learn guitar fretboard" exercise...
Take any sheet of paper.
Draw a line down the middle making it into 2 columns.
Name the column on the left , "finger."
Name the column on the right, "position."
Randomly write numbers 1 through 4 on the "finger" column.
Randomly write numbers 1 through 3 on the "position" column.
Work your way down the list. Put the appropriate finger in the appropriate position and say the name of that note out loud.
Rinse and repeat daily for 1 to 2 weeks :-)
Here's an example of how I would write this exercise out for one of my private students.
Good work! See the guitar video lesson for more details and insight. I'm really happy to have been able to share this valuable exercise with you. The time you take to learn guitar fretboard basics now, even just on the low E string, will pay off big time.
In truth, this is just the beginning of learning guitar fretboard skills. To truly grasp the entire guitar fretboard is a lifetime's accomplishment. But if you can take this exercise and perhaps apply it again sometime to your A string, you'll really be in great shape. You'll know both E strings and your A string! 3 out of 6 strings with very little time invested.
Repeat after me: To do...learn guitar fretboard ;-) I hope this helped inspire you to keep dusting off your guitar :-)
