Originally Posted by: maggiorAdditionally, he suggests writing things down on paper as further reinforment.

(working through the same book) I did this with the pentatonic scale. At some point, I just got fed up with not being 100% certain on all five patterns. I knew them back to back, when practicing them, but not so well individually. I followed his steps, wrote them out until I could write them out with needing to figure out anything... I simply knew the pattern. Sure enough, it made it so I knew the patterns by heart on the fretboard. I can also write out all the patterns of the major scale by memory too, but still need to refresh every now and then. The writing out thing really helps.

Coincidentally, I found a game on-line called "Fretboard Master"... I played it until it gave me the highest score possible. Don't know why, but it didn't translate to the guitar. I could play the game really well, but still struggled with naming the notes on the actual fretboard.

When I'm improvising, I tend to use the patterns more as a guide. I find with time you develop an intuitive sense as to what notes will sound like before you hit them... i still make mistakes, but most of the time I can hear the interval before I move to the new note. It does free up your creativity a lot.

I like the idea of naming the notes across each fret... but I think Sebast is on to something suggesting that a person get naming up and down the strings first.