notes on the fretboardHow well do you know the fretboard?Chess masters can play chess in their mind without having chess board at sight, but how many guitar players have a clear picture of all the notes on the guitar fretboard? Too say the least many have no idea what notes are there on the fretboard even when they are looking at it. Visualizing fretboard is a great exercise that can be done literally at any time and any place. It is not easy at first, so take your time. Start with a single string on just one fret (remember open positions!) and build your fretboard step by step going from fret to fret and from string to string. Practice visualizing scale patterns, chords, arpeggios, riffs, solos, anything you can think of. When you feel comfortable with naming the notes, try to learn degrees of the scale (interval from the root) as well. That will come in handy for many things like building chords. Learning Guitar Notes on the Fretboard: Satriani ExerciseHere 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. » |
