Originally Posted by: axe2Learning all notes on fretboard would be a good starting point.

This approach will most likely not work. Everybody is different, but I only remember things well when I understand them in some sort of context. By learning and understanding scales, you'll have this context and learn all of the notes on the fretboard.

Something else that helps is noticing patterns. Our brains try to put everything into patterns, so accepting this and leveraging this will make things easier.

For instance, you learn the notes on the bass E string. Then you notice a pattern where if you skip a string and move up 2 frets, you have the same note up an octave. So, an open E string is E. Move over to the D string and up 2 frets, you have an E again. So you get 2 for one by memorizing the notes on the 6th string.

So, you learn the E and A shape barre chords. In doing this, you learn the notes up and down the E and A strings. Then you have the pattern I mentioned above, and now you know the D and G strings. You only have 2 strings left :-).

Now because of the way the guitar is tuned, you have an exception around the G string.

Oh, and one other thing...you only need to learn up to the 12th fret because everything repeats from there to the top of the fretboard.