A guitar fretboard is very logically laid out once you know what the patterns are.  For some reason, my teachers never showed me this.  But once they popped out, it was very obvious to me how to find any note I needed on the fretboard quickly.

First, you won’t be doing a lot of memorizing.  Our brains aren’t very good at that.  Those big charts that label every fret?  Nothing but a headache.  Having a system is better.  The more times your brain goes through the system, the faster it goes until it LOOKS like you have in memorized.

First off, you need to get to know the bottom two strings.  Do so using this pattern of half steps and whole steps on a C major scale.  C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C  – everything is a whole step (two frets movement) except between E/F and B/C.  Those are half steps (one fret movement).

Apply that pattern starting from E on the 6th string and A on the 5th string to learn the natural notes on the bottom two strings.  Once you can do that fairly easily it’s time to add in the chromatic (sharp and flat) notes.  A sharp note is a half step (one fret) above the natural.  So, on string 6, G is at the 3rd fret.  G# is at the 4th fret.  A flat note is a half step below the natural.

Now, we could apply those same patterns to the other strings, but it’s a little tedious.  Instead we can apply some simple patterns.  We know the bottom two strings, plus the top string since it’s the same as the bottom.

Start with a note on your 6th string.  Now, go up two strings and up two frets.  That takes you to the same pitch an octave higher on your 4th string.  So sixth string G at the 3rd fret leads to fourth string G at the 5th fret.

The same pattern works from the 5th string to the 3rd string.  Up two strings, up two frets.

That leaves us with just the second string.  We have to take an extra step here.  First start with a note on your 6th string.  Now do the up two, up two pattern to get to the same note on the 4th string.  Now go up two strings, up THREE frets and that will take you to the octave higher pitch on the 2nd string.

To practice this, give yourself random notes and find them on the fretboard.  Be sure to go through all 12.  And do it in two ways: First find the notes going every other string: 6-4-2, then 5-3-1, following the patterns.  Once you can do it that way, then do the strings in order.  That will force your brain to quickly switch patterns and give the patterns a more real world usefulness.

And don’t forget to get your free Get Hot On Electric Guitar Report at http://www.GetHotOnElectricGuitar.com

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.