Barre chords are only useful if you know where to play them. Knowing the notes on the fretboard especially the low E and A strings will let you play any barre chord anywhere you want. What do you do? If you have memorized the notes on the fretboard, all you need to know is the notes to that scale. A lot of guitarists can only play some basic open chords and barre chords because they never learned the notes on the fretboard.
If the only place you can play Em is in the open position, that limits what you can play. If you know the chord formula or the notes in a chord, you can build the chord anywhere you want on the neck. Here are a few examples of the different ways you can play an E minor chord across the neck:. You might recognize a couple of the chord shapes especially the first two , but all of them are E minor chords.
Try playing some of the above chords. Different chord shapes can be used in different songs and open up so many doors for your playing. Instead of being stuck with one or two chord shapes, you can unlock all the chord shapes across the entire fretboard. Most guitarists learn by memorizing a few Pentatonic box shapes. A lot of guitarists eventually get stuck in a rut. When you learn the notes on the fretboard, you can start targeting specific notes that work over the backing chords. Instead of playing random notes in scale shapes, you can choose the perfect notes at the perfect time.
Possibly the most important reason to learn the notes on the fretboard is that it improves your understanding of music. Learning the notes on the fretboard opens you up to a new level of understanding music.
It will help you build a better understanding of the songs you play as well as anything you write. At first, memorizing the notes on the fretboard seems overwhelming. Just look at the below diagram:. Ever wondered why there are normally two dot markers on the 12th fret and the 24th fret if your guitar has 24 frets? There are 12 notes in music, so everything repeats if you move up 12 frets.
The 12th fret is where the open string notes repeat and the 24th fret is where they repeat again. This means you only need to memorize half of the fretboard because the other half repeats. If you memorize the notes up to the 12th fret, the exact same notes repeat above the 12th fret.
How can you play music without knowing the note names? And yes I could still play all my favorite tunes and improvise over chord progressions. Huge limitations! Once I started learning the notes on the strings and figuring out what the notes of chords, scales and licks were, things started to change. One discovery let to another and a lot of things suddenly made sense and became clearer. My knowledge expanded and my playing improved. I learned all this in small steps. Do it in small baby steps.
First start learning the notes on the fretboard and take your time with it. This will already change everything as you will learn to recognize the notes you play. Play the notes of a particular chord one by one, speak the note names out loud and try to memorize them.
The next time you do that with the notes of a scale. It will come in time and it will work for you in many different ways. Knowing the notes and understanding the fretboard is not an overnight thing. It takes time and effort, but it will going to serve your playing every step of the way. Over the months and years it will benefit you in every aspect, no matter what style you are playing. It will all come to you! Some notes can only be played at 1 location while others can be played in up to 5 locations.
Ascending Descending Exercises These are simple exercises, but you want to try several things as you play them. Hide the tablature as you play. Find the fewest hand shifts possible. These are a semitone apart. I used half notes when the interval is a whole step 2 semitones. This should reinforce the different intervals. Say the notes as your play them to associate the name with the note. Watch your fretting hand as you say and play the notes. Listen to the notes. Try to memorize their sound along with the feeling of fretting in that position.
Try listening with your eyes shut and with your eyes on the frets. Notice how the dots on your fretboard correspond to each note. Use a metronome at 60bpm 1 second per beat. Increase the speed by intervals of 20bpm each time you go through it.
See how fast you can play it cleanly. For example, replace EMaj with Em. Although diatonic harmony is a topic of its own, I am defining it for these exercises as the chords that use the notes of the major scale.
In this case the C major scale. Because chords are constructed on thirds major and minor third intervals , try playing in thirds every other note on a string so you know the notes of a chord along a string. This works for all diatonic chords in a key. If you want Em, skip the last note. I love this exercise. It teaches so many nuances of music at once. More Exercises Here are just a few additional exercises that you can use.
Play a note then play its octave on the same string 12 frets up. Repeat this for all the notes. Play a note then play the same note on an adjacent string. A on the 5th string, open; A on the 6th string, 5th fret. Play a note then play its octave on an adjacent string. Example E on the 6th string, open; E on the 5th string, 7th fret. Play a note then play its octave two strings away. Example: E on the 6th string, open; E on the 4th string, 2nd fret.
Notice how these octaves are used in the chord forms that you know. Play a chord and identify the root notes in that chord. Final Thoughts I hope you enjoyed this lesson on Learning the fretboard. Beginner Fretboard Theory. About Patrick MacFarlane Articles. I've been teaching guitar online for 25 years. My site has been featured in Rolling Stone and Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Contact: Website Facebook Twitter. There are two exceptions to this rule: the note pairs B-C and E-F are just a half step apart, so there is no sharp or flat between them. The only thing that may change is your starting pitch, as the chromatic scale can start on any note. Notice how the notes at the 12th fret are the same pitch as the open strings on which you started? At this point, the scale recycles itself up the rest of the neck for example, the 13th fret has the same note names as the first.
When committing the note names to memory, be sure to use the markers on your fretboard as landmarks, assigning specific note names to particular areas of the neck.
The only thing that differs between the two scales on each line is the starting point. For example. Now that you know the note names in each scale, try to find them on the neck one string at a time. Here the open high E string functions as pedal tone in between the other scale tones. Try to find the notes in each key listed, string by string, until you get acquainted with their locations on the fretboard.
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