NOTES and Strings... learning the fretboard...

The better you know your fretboard... the better you'll play...period. Learning the notes on the fretboard is essential to really learning how to solo... and really how to play well in gerneral... so in this article--I'm going to show you how to learn ALL the notes on the guitar... ready?

HERE'S HOW WE'RE GOING TO DO THIS...
I'm going to walk you down the neck on the "Low E String"--pointing out what the notes are along the way. Then, based on that you can teach yourself the notes on the other strings. Note: You can do this because the notes ALWAYS go in the same order-from "A" to "G" and then start over... so all you need to know is the note of the string when played "open" and you can figure out all the other notes! Be sure to read the *special notes* below. They apply to every string!

THE "LOW" E STRING...
Fret #----Note
Open-----E
1 ----- F *Special Note* There is no such thing as an "E sharp"... on fret above "E" will always be an "F" note

2 ----- F#/Gb "#" is a "sharp sign... and "b" is a flat sign.

3 ----- G

4 ----- G#/Ab

5 ----- A

6 ----- A#/Bb

7 ----- B

8 ----- C *Special Note* Just like there is no E#, there is no B#...
ever... on fret above "B" is always "C".

9 ----- C#/Db

10 ----- D

11 ----- D#/Eb

12 ----- E *Special Note* every 12 frets is what's called an "octave". You'll find octaves all over the fretboard. To become famiure with this concept--try playing any string open... and then at the 12th fret... you notice that the note is the same... only higher. This is an octave.

Note: Once you get to the 12th fret the notes start over... you can continue to familurize yourself with the "octave" concept by playing the notes above the 12th fret and finding the corresponding octave below the 12th fret!


PRACTICE NOTE: TAKE 10 minutes every day this week to work on learning the notes on each string. DON'T GET FRUSTRATED IF THIS DOESN'T SEEM TO BE EASY FOR YOU... I've been playing over 25+ years and I don't know where EVERY NOTE IS! But I do know where a lot of them are and I can pretty quickly figure out what note any fret/string is... Concentrate on the notes below the 12th fret... remember... it all just starts over past there.

Good tips Brad! The way I am able to play a melody line over any key is doing what you are suggesting here. I don't know every note cold on all the strings BUT do know where the notes are COLD on the E, A and having a 7 String the low B. Thinking in patterns I can then string those patterns together across the fret board by interconnecting the scales. This REALLY opened up my ability to improvise on the fly.
One thing I do a little differently than most players is that I play a major scale using the mode and starting on the third of the relative minor to the third as the octave. That way it still has the sadder melodic feel and flow of the minor scale even though I am actually playing in the major key. I also use the full 8 note minor scale most of the time instead of a 5 note pentatonic. Using this tecnique I can come in cold and cover the fretboard playing in any key on the fly if I know what the root key I am playing in is allmost all of the time.

Yep... good stuff bro...

I'm a blues/pentatonic guy... with a hodge-podge of 80s metal licks I picked up/developed via listening to a TON of records!!!!

But like you said...if I know the key... I can pretty much string some nice things together... I do a lot of patterns--connected with runs... i have no idea exactly what scales/modes they are... i can tell the difference between Maj and Min just by what I hear... but really I play by ear and I just go for what sounds good to me...