notes on the fretboard

[capnkid]

How long does it take to learn the notes on the fretboard? How long should I have practiced before I can close my eyes and randomly pick a string and fret and them open my eyes and say that's an F#?
And after this is accomplished what should be my next step?

 

[jkokura]

It comes naturally, but it also requires your guitar to be in tune all the time. Are you talking about hearing a note and knowing it's name (perfect pitch) or are you talking about knowing your fretboard well enough to simply know which fret your fingers on? If it's the former - that takes a lot of work or natural ability;if it's the latter than it just takes time and practice. There's no definate amount of time.

Jacob

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Not that long, really. Maybe a couple months if you focus on it.

I did this when I was in high school. To tell you the truth I was so bored most of the day, and so fanatically focused on getting better at guitar, that I drew maps of the nexk over and over and over and over. I was "taking notes."

I wrote out scales and modes, wrote out interval exercises, and note names up the whole neck. It wasn't long at all before I could see those maps superimposed over the guitar when I was playing it.

I'm not sure what the next step would be/ Maybe practice improvising and never play more than 2 bars in any one position on the neck? Pick a key, record a basic backing track and loop it- then improvise away.

Maybe start creating your own chord inversions up the neck? Instead of playing Bminor down on the second fret figure out a way to play it up at the 5th fret? Eventually you get to the point where you can build stuff on the fly and play anything you need right about where you are- or jump to the place you WANT to play it.

Just some ideas.

-Chris

 

[ez_willis]

I drew maps of the nexk over and over and over and over. I was "taking notes."
Just some ideas.

-Chris

That's a really good idea. Here's a pic if you want to print a bunch out and try it.

 

[hixmix]

How long does it take to learn the notes on the fretboard? How long should I have practiced before I can close my eyes and randomly pick a string and fret and them open my eyes and say that's an F#?
And after this is accomplished what should be my next step?

Check out Fretboard Warrior to learn where the notes are. It's a free little downloadable app.

Pitch recognition is something else. People are born with perfect pitch. If you don't have it, it's no big deal. Pitch recognition can be learned. It's very helpful, though not necessarily necessary to be a good musician.

 

[ez_willis]

Pitch recognition can be learned. It's very helpful, though not necessarily necessary to be a good musician.

..so say's the Bob Dylan fan.

 

[Sirnothingness]

I see chords on the fretboard and use that to see the notes. Then again, I also see little purple men flying around my bedroom at night.

 

[Ben Logan]

I did this when I was in high school. To tell you the truth I was so bored most of the day, and so fanatically focused on getting better at guitar, that I drew maps of the nexk over and over and over and over. I was "taking notes."

I wrote out scales and modes, wrote out interval exercises, and note names up the whole neck. It wasn't long at all before I could see those maps superimposed over the guitar when I was playing it.

-Chris

Ha! I do the same thing as a high school teacher!

 

[onlyfingers]

Here are some places that might help

There are really two things to learn:
First, given a postion on the fret board, name the note. Go to www.wholenote.com, and on the home page, find the "Name that Note" game in the Learning Tracks box. (While you are there, look up Lesson 458, Learning the Notes Across the Frets. The lesson suggests making flashcards to carry with you so you can grill yourself about notes, strings, and frets.)

Also, go to the "Trainers" section of Ricci Adam's Music Theory site, MusicTheory.net. An exercise on that page highlights a string and fret, and you have to name the note. (There is also a note trainer.)

Second: given a note name, locate the places on the fretboard where that note can be played. I haven't run across web trainers for this function, since the computer doesn't know what note you have played in response (at least, my computer doesn't). In a way, this second thing falls out of reading music, since written music gives you the notes to play. If you want to learn to read music at the same time as you are learning the fretboard, go to www.familygames.com and dowload the free NoteCard program. The program presents a note on the staff, and you have to click the fretboard on the string and fret where the note is to be played.

Most people learn the top two strings (and the frets near the nut on the top two strings) first, since the root notes on the chords we play, and since they are reinfoced as we play chords. Those things you cram into your head that are not reinforced melt away, and have to be re-learned. Since I play mostly rhythm and don't practice sight reading at all, I have that kind of "top-string" knowledge of the fretboard. Even though I can map out the notes as desrcibed by other posters, the way it becomes useful is to apply it, as Chris Shaeffer described in his post.

(I play rhythm mostly, but have learned a few scale patterns. They are moveable, and work in my mind in relation to a starting note. So if I know where to start a scale, I can jam, playing the whole scale without knowing which notes I am playing. So, when you get tired of memorizing the fretboard and want to actually make music, if you know some scale patterns you can jam. What I am saying is that naming the notes is not the same thing as making music, but obviously they are both related.)