The Guitar Fretboard And How To Remember The Notes

Everybody who picks up a guitar and dreams of learning how to play it must wonder what it would be like to have total command over the guitar fretboard. The flexibility of being able to play the guitar as well as you can hum or whistle. You may never actually achieve that aim but it is a worthwhile pursuit and will yield results.

Unless you have knowledge of the notes on the guitar fretboard it will be very difficult for you to learn how to improvise. A guitarist needs to know where he is putting his fingers and why he is doing it. When you start to learn a new piece you can immediately begin to put your stamp on it. Also you will find that you can transpose any riff or song to any key to suit other musicians you find yourself working with.

In reality many guitarists are totally at sea as far as memorizing the guitar fretboard. Many learn the notes in the first position and go no further. The reason for this is that learning the notes seems to be difficult. But is it true? Well, it is true if you are learning the piano once you know the notes in one octave you know them all. If you learn a tune in one position, you can transpose it to another. Can we find repetitive patterns on the guitar fretboard?

We can impose patterns on the fretboard by choosing a scale and finding the notes in all positions. A slightly simpler way to begin is to just choose one note, for instance C. If you find the note C wherever it occurs on the sixth string, then go ahead and locate it on the other strings. You do not need to attempt to commit the notes to memory, just find them and play them. Do it for a few minutes during your guitar practice, and after a few days you will find your memory of where the notes are located is gradually improving.

Further improvement in your familiarity with the guitar fretboard will depend on your ability to think up new challenges for yourself. For instance you could take the E major chord, learn the names of the notes that make up the chord, and without referring to a chord chart, find where you can play the notes together further up the neck.

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