Learning Guitar Notes on the Fretboard: Satriani Exercise

June 22, 2009 | Fretboard Knowledge No comments yet

Here is a great exercise for testing how well you know the guitar notes on the fretboard. It comes from Joe Satriani (aka Satch)’s Guitar Secrets book, which is a treasure chest for any guitar player.

The essense of the Satriani Exercise, or Satch Exercise if you please, is very simple: find the notes one by one all over fretboard.

Here is how it works:

• Set the metronome to 50-60 bpm
• Choose any note (lets do F for illustration)
• Start with 6th string. With every tic of the metronome locate the F on the given string. First one will be on the 1st fret, second on 13th fret. Next move to the 5th string. F will be on the 5th string 3rd fret, next one will be on the 5th string [fill in the lank] fret and so on. You can start from the 1st string and work your way up. The idea is to find all the possible locations for the chosen note. Do not forget about open strings.
• Lower the tempo if you cannot find the notes in time, and raise it if you feel bored…

If you are not very familiar with the notes on the fretboard, it is good idea to learn 1-2 notes so that you know them well, and then add notes one by one. C and G are good ones to start with. Good time to do such Satch Exercise is during the break from more intensive workout, like working on alternate picking or legato. Give your hands some rest and get the brain to work!