Table of Contents Preface Games Aren’t Enough A Successful Approach Memorization Techniques Exercise 1 Exercise 2 Exercise 3 Exercise 4 Exercise 5 Exercise 6 Exercise 7 Exercise 8 Exercise 9 Exercise 10 Exercise 11 Exercise 12 Exercise 13 Exercise 14 Exercise 15 Exercise 16 Conclusion
The Ultimate Guide to Memorizing the Guitar Fretboard By Erik Buljan
v1.0 Copyright 2013 by Erik Buljan San Leandro, California
This guide is dedicated to all who are on the journey to become the best guitar player they can be
Preface All musicians that are serious about playing guitar have the fretboard memorized. Memorize: to commit to memory: learn by heart If you’re a beginner, or a musician who plays another instrument, there is nothing interesting or controversial about this statement. This guide is for you. But if you’ve been playing for any length of time it can be very easy to fool yourself to believe this isn’t true. After all, you might know how to play some songs without knowing where the notes are. You probably know how to play a dozen or more chords and scale forms, essential parts of music to be sure, and don’t have all of the notes on the fretboard memorized. You might even be adept at techniques that great guitarists know: hammers, pulls, slides, trills, scrapes, and taps. But you can still be missing a crucial piece of information - what notes you’re playing. Maybe your fingers have wandered too far away from your favorite box shape and you’re lost. Maybe a bandmate asks you what notes are in the chord that you’re playing and you don’t know. Or maybe you feel like your brain is not keeping up with your fingers. The thing you’re missing is the difference between knowing how to figure out where a note is on the fretboard and having it committed to memory. This guide is for you too. The guitar has twelve notes, some duplicated, spread across six strings, commonly up to almost two octaves on each string. That’s about one hundred forty-four pieces of information. The journey all guitarists start, and will continue on throughout their musical lives, is to give context to this information. Every book, video, and guitar teacher’s job is to show you how to categorize these one hundred forty-four notes in a way that will result in music. The first thing most guitarists learn are the names of the strings, and how to determine what the notes are on the rest of the neck. This cursory introduction to the fretboard does not last long before they begin learning chord fingerings and dividing the neck into box shapes. Unfortunately the introduction to fretboard notes is much more important that that, and the chords and box shapes will not mean much without the context of the notes. Musicians do not think in chord fingerings, and they do not communicate with other musicians in box shapes. They think and communicate in sounds - textures, melodies, and harmonies. Music. And the language of music begins with the note. The notes are what you have been missing.
Games Aren’t Enough You may know of games on the internet or for your phone or tablet that will repeatedly test you on the notes of the fretboard. They display a note location, and give you points every time you figure out the correct note. They seem like they should help you memorize the notes, but they do not. You only improve at playing the game. Why? They do not work because games only test your knowledge of the fretboard. And thorough fretboard memorization can only happen with the context of having the guitar in your hands. A few minutes of blindly guessing notes on a phone is not the same as repeatedly studying a fretboard exercise. Games will not help you do the work of memorizing.
A Successful Approach If memorizing the notes on the fretboard is so important, why doesn’t everyone do it? There are only two steps: learning how to figure out where the notes are, and doing the work to commit them to memory. The first step takes minutes to learn. The second takes hours of concentration. Every guitarist does the first step; most don’t do the second. There are four essential elements you will need to succeed: Repetition You have to do the exercises in this guide over and over until you know them like the back of your hand. It is a very straightforward function: the more often you repeat the exercises, the deeper the note positions will be memorized. Time For the repetition you do to be effective, you have to spread it out over time. Two straight hours of working through the exercises in this guide will not be as effective as spreading them out over four thirty-minute memorization sessions. You will learn best in shorter bursts. If you are really enthusiastic and or dedicated, try to take ten-minute breaks between stretches. Go Slow Speed is the enemy of memorization. Take your time playing the exercises in this book. You will get faster as the material sinks in whether you want to or not. If you have been playing guitar for any significant amount of time, you will inadvertently gravitate towards playing the exercises faster than you probably should. Resist that urge and play them slowly. A rule of thumb that will limit your speed is: do not not play the notes in the exercises any faster than you can say them out loud. Concentrate You cannot commit something to memory and do something else at the same time. The exercises in this guide are not muscle memory drills, which can be done while watching TV. Find a quiet place free from distraction and concentrate on your fretboard.
Memorization Techniques - Memorize with a guitar in your hand. Context is a powerful tool when memorizing anything. It is easier to remember something where you learned it. The where in this case is your fretboard. - Say the notes out loud as you go. It will improve your ability to remember them later. Psychologists have named this discovery “the production effect”. - Do not worry about fingering. Choose your index or middle finger on your fretting hand and stick with it throughout the exercises. You are working on memorization, not technique. - When an exercise gets too easy, move on to the next one. - Every time you walk by or pick up a guitar for any reason, do at least one of the exercises in this guide right away. Try to do the one that is the most challenging to you, typically the one you have spent the least amount of time on.
Exercise 1
The first exercise works on the open strings. Play them in this order, starting from the low E string: E A D G B e B G D A (repeat) The small “e” indicates the high E string, also known as the first string. Say each note out loud as you play them. Do not play them faster than necessary. Do not skip this exercise even if you are relatively experienced playing guitarist. When you can do the exercise comfortably, play these notes in this order, which alternates strings, starting from the low E string: E D B A G e G A B D (repeat) After you are at ease playing the alternating string variation, play the notes in a completely random order for at least five minutes. Pay special attention that the note you say out loud matches the string that you are playing. Do not proceed to the next exercise until you are comfortable with all of the variations of this one. However - and this is important - do not get hung up on this exercise! If you’ve played the initial, alternate string, and random variations a hundred times each, go on to the next exercise even if you feel that they are not 100% memorized.
Exercise 2
This exercise works the notes on the twelfth fret. This fret is important because the notes on it are one octave above the open strings. Just like Exercise 1, play them in this order, starting from the low E string: E A D G B e B G D A (repeat) When you can do the exercise comfortably, play these notes in this order, starting from the low E string: E D B A G e G A B D (repeat) And then play the notes in a random order for at least five minutes. At this point you have laid the foundation for memorizing the fretboard. Do you feel that you have mastered these notes? Your mastery of these twelve positions is dependent on how many repetitions you performed, and how much concentration you have given each repetition. Do not proceed with the other exercises in this book if you have only read exercises 1 and 2 without actually doing them. Your ability to memorize the rest of the fretboard is dependent on the studying skills you are establishing in these two exercises. Do not proceed if you do not have the note positions in these exercises memorized 100%.
Exercise 3 Exercise 3 is broken up into six sections, one section for each string. Unlike the other exercises, these do not need to be repeated, but they should be done at least twice per day once as a mental warm-up before the beginning of your first memorization session of the day, and once as a full-fretboard overview at the end of your of your last session. The first few times you do this exercise, it will seem to take a long time. But your speed will increase quickly in only a few days.
Exercise 3a
Play the notes in this order: E F G A B C D C B A G F (repeat)
Exercise 3b
Play the notes in this order: A B C D E F G F E D C B (repeat)
Exercise 3c
Play the notes in this order: D E F G A B C B A G F E (repeat)
Exercise 3d
Play the notes in this order: G A B C D E F E D C B A (repeat)
Exercise 3e
Play the notes in this order: B C D E F G A G F E D C (repeat)
Exercise 3f
Play the notes in this order: E F G A B C D C B A G F (repeat) Pay attention to the relationship of the notes on the first and sixth strings. They are the same in each position.
Exercise 4 Exercises 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 work together to form a matrix of the note positions on the first five frets, including the open strings. This block of exercises can take several days or more to achieve complete memorization, depending on how many times they are repeated. This is the first exercise that will go across all six strings vertically.
Play them in this order, starting from the low E string: G B E A D g D A E B (repeat) The small “g” indicates the note on the first string. Once you are comfortable with the initial variation of this exercise, here is the order using alternating strings: G E D B A g A B D E (repeat) And finally, when you can play the alternating string variation, switch to playing them in a completely random order for at least five minutes. Do your best to memorize these note positions, but do not get hung up on this exercise if you do not have them memorized 100%.
Exercise 5
Play them in this order, starting from the low E string: A D G B E a E B G D (repeat) Alternating string order: A G E D B a B D E G (repeat) And finally, random order for a minimum of five minutes each session. Again, do your best to memorize these note positions, but do not get hung up on this exercise if you do not have them memorized 100%.
Exercise 6 Exercise 6 is broken up into six sections, one section for each string. The note positions overlap the territory covered in exercises 4 and 5. As you play these notes, make an effort to visualize those previous exercises.
Exercise 6a
Play the notes in this order: E F G A G F (repeat)
Exercise 6b
Play the notes in this order: A B C D C B (repeat)
Exercise 6c
Play the notes in this order: D E F G F E (repeat)
Exercise 6d
Play the notes in this order: G A B C B A (repeat)
Exercise 6e
Play the notes in this order: B C D E D C (repeat)
Exercise 6f
Play the notes in this order: E F G A G F (repeat) Do your best to memorize these note positions, but do not get hung up on this exercise if you do not have them memorized 100%.
Exercise 7
At this point you may have noticed that the vertical exercises include notes C and F, which are absent from the horizontal exercises. It won’t take you long to fill those in. Play the notes in this order: G B C E F A D g D A F E C B (repeat) Alternating string order: G E F D B C A g A C B D F E (repeat) And random order
Exercise 8
Play the notes in this order: A D G B C E F A F E C B G D (repeat) Alternating string order: A G E F D B C a (repeat) And random order
Exercise 9
Exercise 9 is to randomly play all of the notes from the open strings to the fifth fret. This exercise does two things: Reinforces all of the natural notes you have learned so far, and integrates the accidentals (sharps and flats). Feel free to use either the sharp or flat version of each note (C# = Db, D# = Eb, F# = Gb, G# = Ab) but realize that Bb is always Bb - it is never called A#. If this exercise feels like too much work, it’s time to revisit exercises 4 through 8. Repeat them over and over again, in any order, including the alternating string and random variations. If you can do this for twenty minutes without much effort, congratulate yourself! You have succeeded where many have not even tried to go! Believe it or not, in terms of effort, you’re more than halfway there.
Exercise 10 Exercises 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 work together to form a matrix of the note positions from the seventh through twelfth frets. Like the exercises that worked the first section of the fretboard, you can freely continue from one to the next without achieving 100% memorization first.
Play the notes in this order: B E A D G b G D A E (repeat) Alternating string order: B A G E D b D E G A (repeat) And random order
Exercise 11
Play the notes in this order: D G B E A d A E B G (repeat) Alternating string order: D B A G E d E G A B (repeat) And random order
Exercise 12 Exercise 12 is broken up into six sections, one section for each string. The note positions overlap the territory covered in exercises 10 and 11. As you play these notes, make an effort to visualize those previous exercises.
Exercise 12a
Play the notes in this order: B C D E D C (repeat)
Exercise 12b
Play the notes in this order: E F G A G F (repeat)
Exercise 12c
Play the notes in this order: A B C D C B (repeat)
Exercise 12d
Play the notes in this order: D E F G F E (repeat)
Exercise 12e
Play the notes in this order: F G A B A G (repeat)
Exercise 12f
Play the notes in this order: B C D E D C (repeat)
Exercise 13 Exercises 13 and 14 complete the memorization of all of the natural notes up to the twelfth fret by filling in the remaining C’s and F’s.
Play the notes in this order: B C E F A D G b c b G D A F E C (repeat) Alternating string order: B C A G E F D b c b D F E G A C (repeat) And random order
Exercise 14
Play the notes in this order: D G B C E F A d A F E C B G (repeat) Alternating string order: D B C A G E F d F E G A C B (repeat) And random order
Exercise 15
Exercise 15 is to randomly play all of the notes from the seventh fret to the twelfth fret. Like exercise 9 it reinforces all of the natural notes in this area, and integrates the accidentals.
Exercise 16 At this point you have a firm grasp of the notes on the fretboard from the nut to the twelfth fret. And since the names of the notes above the twelfth fret are identical to the notes below, the entire fretboard is covered. The final exercise is to tie the whole fretboard together, across the border of the twelfth fret: Choose a natural note at random, and locate every instance of it on the neck one string at a time. For example, if you choose C, play both C’s on the sixth string. Then play both C’s on the fifth string. Continue all the way to the first string. Don’t forget the open strings. Then choose another note and keep going. Depending on how many frets are on your guitar, you may not have more than one particular note per string. For example, there is only one A on the second string if your guitar has 21 frets. If you feel that a random note generator will help you to do this exercise, try using a site like RandomNaturalNotes.com on your phone or computer.
Conclusion I hope these exercises have helped you in your quest to become a better musician. If you have any questions or feedback please contact me at
[email protected]. My podcast and other guitar-related material can be found on my website at DarkForebodingStew.com.
