Week 2: Learning the notes on the fretboard.

It is a frequently asked question whether knowing all the notes on the fretboard is necessary. Difficult to comment whether it is necessary, but it can be a life saver for sure in difficult situations. Say for instance in the middle of a guitar solo, the cord comes off the plug or a string breaks. The flow of the solo is disturbed and if u are accustomed to pulling out note-perfect solos u may find yourself in a soup. The only way out is to improvise ie to follow the chord progression and the selection of notes has to be done runtime! This is where knowledge of the notes helps. Moreover it also makes composing riffs (that don’t sound the same!) a lot easier because u know what u are playing and hence avoid repeating the same pattern.

So this week’s lesson is about learning the notes. But before that it is important to understand the right approach that needs to be followed. Please note that no one is going to ask u the question, ‘What note is 14^th fret on the d string?’, and expect a answer from u in seconds. All that matters is how well ur mind and fingers can recognize notes while playing. So the best way to do this is to learn while playing.

Follow the following exercise regime and see how it works wonders for u in no time..

First take a piece of blank paper and draw a rough sketch of the fretboard and name all the notes on it. This is your reference sheet which will come in handy while starting out.

Once this is done, start with any note on ur guitar ie play the note… say E. Now with the help of the fretboard image that u have drawn, spot (as in play) the note E in all the positions. While playing watch out for how the note E repeats over the fretboard. Do this for all the notes. Soon u will see a pattern developing.

Once this basic exercise is done, try gaining speed. Set a time frame within which u need to spot (play) a particular note in all possible positions on the fretboard.

Start with 20 secs ie give urself 20 secs to play all E notes on the fretboard. Gradually reduce upto 5 secs. Do this for all the notes.

So, in effectively 1 min (12 notes * 5 secs) u should be able to play all the notes on the fretboard. Incorporate this 1 minute exercise in your daily practice and find for yourself the difference in your improvisation skills the next time you goof up on stage!